GP2: Riding Shotgun with the Champ

The Monza paddock is cold this Sunday morning, much chillier than in the days before - even Friday, when a biblical storm hit and flooded the place out.

Today's sprint is the last GP2 race of the race of the year, and we're going behind the scenes at Racing Engineering for a privileged view of Giorgio Pantano's last-ever start (hopefully!) in the category.

It's the end of a long road for the new champion, crowned just yesterday. His GP2 journey started in 2005 with Super Nova, which rescued him from obscurity after a disastrous Formula 1 campaign with Jordan. Then he went through stints with FMS International and Campos Grand Prix, before his successful title run with Racing Engineering.

Sadly, though, F1 doesn't seem to want him back. That's F1's loss: as well as being blindingly quick in the car, he's also very funny and likeable out of it. Perhaps the IndyCar Series (in which he contested a couple of races in '05) could become his spiritual home. He'd be a good fit, and would add yet more credibility to the category. Lots of good-looking girls too - he'd like that.

But that's the future, so back to Monza. The early morning rain has stopped; the track is still damp but drying fast. The voices on the radio are those of Pantano, race engineer Stuart Robertson (the only voice Pantano is able to hear), race engineer Andrew Ferguson (semi-unemployed, as Pantano's teammate Javier Villa has been banned for this race), sporting director Thomas Couyotopoulo (who can speak to the engineers on one channel and talks to the mechanics on another) and team principal Alfonso de Orleans.

Andrew Ferguson: "I am in the pitlane, I've looked at the conditions on the start/finish straight and I'd say it's going to be dry in three or four laps... can you try and get Giorgio into the car?"

Stuart Robertson: "We are going out on slicks, so no tyre change when we get to the pitlane."

Giorgio Pantano [now in the car]: "How long before we go?"

Stuart Robertson: "Soon, Giorgio. Try the corners on the out-laps and see what you think of the slicks."

The cars are pushed out of the assembly area and onto the back straight, where they will be fired up and driven to the pitlane.

Pantano: "Where I am it's raining quite 'ard. I don't think slicks is a good idea."

Robertson: "Okay, we'll make that decision in the pitlane."

Pantano: "Go with wets. I don't wanna take the risk."

Before you know it, Pantano arrives on pitlane. It is now raining quite 'ard here too! Not much debating to be done as to tyre choice...

Robertson: "Slicks or wets, Giorgio?"

Pantano: "Go out on wets, no risks. Slicks, and I think there is risk. I want to go out on wets."

The request is acknowledged; the order is given to Couyotopoulo, and the mechanics - who have been poised with their wheelguns for the past minute - quickly do a four-tyre change onto wets. And off Giorgio goes onto his installation laps.

Pantano [on track]: "The circuit is still wet. No reason we go to slicks, unless you'd like me to... No, it's too wet for slicks."

There's something surreal about hearing a driver speak on the radio when he's driving. It's like the audio you get on in-car cameras, but the engine note somehow sounds much more urgent; the gearchanges more vicious. You can hear the vibration of the 4-litre Mecachrome, pounding away just inches from his back, making his voice tremble slightly. Pantano drives through the pits twice, and is on his final lap to the grid.

Pantano: "The car is oversteery at the rear. The car is worse than yesterday."

Robertson: "The car is the same as yesterday; it's the conditions that are different."

Pantano weaves his way through to his 10th-place grid spot (courtesy of his white-line blunder a day previously), and it's time for a brief, private confab between him and Robertson. He is interviewed on live Italian TV, then he sprints off the grid for a pre-race wee. After that, it's the final crucial instructions.

Ferguson: "I've walked the grid, all on wets."

Robertson: "We will stay on wets. Check tyre pressures and front-wing change as discussed."

Again, the well-drilled mechanics carry out the instruction in a matter of seconds. I also notice a front-suspension change, obviously the subject of the chat I wasn't privy to, but all standard practice when changing a car from dry to wet settings.

With five minutes to go, Pantano is back and - as usual - is the last driver on the grid to get into his car. The rain is abating once more as the cars roar away on their final warm-up lap.

Robertson: "Okay, it's a standing start, no safety car like yesterday. Remember the rev limit is 9000 in first gear. We think it will stay wet, so no tyre change, but the track may dry out, so remember to adjust your brake bias accordingly."

I take my position on the pitwall, sitting just to the left of Robertson. Villa arrives, with a mixture of surprise and delight across his face to find me sitting here.

The race begins, 15,000bhp clawing at the damp surface in search of traction, a cacophony of noise as the ground vibrates beneath us. But the start appears to leave Giorgio behind. He makes a terrible getaway, as the anti-stall kicks in, and has to take a cautious approach at turn one, running side-by-side with Sakon Yamamoto. P17 - not where he wants to be.

Andy Soucek rear-ends Karun Chandhok at Roggia, and the Indian spears off at Lesmo 1 seconds later with a puncture. Pantano steers around the wreckage, picking up places. He runs three-wide into Parabolica, causing a mutual intake of breath on the pitwall. I count the cars as they blast across the finish line in front of us: Giorgio is 12th.

Alfonso De Orleans: "What a race!"

He's not wrong. The opening three laps are an overtaking frenzy. Bruno Senna spins at Roggia, just missing two cars. Villa turns to me: "Lucky, eh?" No doubt he's played his own massive first-corner shunt over in his mind a hundred times since yesterday.

Pantano straightlines the Rettifilo, weaving between the polystyrene marker boards. Ferguson anxiously checks his split time, to ensure he doesn't take advantage and leave himself open to penalty. Robertson continues his religious typing of the splits into his laptop, making the odd note along the way too. Then di Grassi slams into the back of Mike Conway in the battle for fourth...

De Orleans: "If that's not a penalty, it's double standards."

Notification of di Grassi's penalty lowers Alfonso's blood pressure back to normal. All this action is helping Giorgio to make places up. Tenth on lap three (back to where he should've been), eighth on lap four, and the first of the drivers into the 1m49s bracket as the track conditions improve.

By lap seven, Pantano is all over Sebastien Buemi. The Swiss runs wide exiting Ascari, as Pantano's presence appears to spook him. A few seconds later, Buemi straightlines the Rettifilo: Pantano is through. Di Grassi takes his drive-through and Giorgio is in the points, and closing fast on Jerome d'Ambrosio.

Ferguson: "I'm pretty sure he went past there, he had a great run."

Andrew is right. A replay confirms that Pantano has passed d'Ambrosio at Rettifilo. It's a sweet outbraking move; cue smiles all round.

Robertson: "You have a clear track in front. Push, push for fastest lap."

Giorgio is 3.5sec behind Pastor Maldonado. But all is not well. He radios a message that's completely garbled by static and engine noise, prompting an exchange of furrowed looks on the pitwall and a request to repeat.

Pantano: "The car is moving around, I have a vibration."

Robertson: "Could be a flat-spot or the brakes."

De Orleans: "It can't be a mechanical problem - we don't have any of those."

Ferguson jumps down from his seat, shoves past me and takes a better perch on the pitwall. He shrugs, and the timing screens agree: Giorgio sets fastest lap, and has taken six tenths out of Maldonado.

Ferguson: "There's nothing visibly wrong."

Robertson: "Fastest lap, quicker than Maldonado. You have good pace."

Pantano continues to carve into Maldonado's advantage. In the pitlane, the mechanics - watching the race on Kangaroo TV - have a question that's relayed to 'mission control'.

Thomas Couyotopoulo: "The guys want to know if we have the real fastest lap."

Robertson: "Two laps to go, you have the fastest lap."

Pantano runs out of time to progress further and finishes fourth, 1.2sec behind Maldonado. If it wasn't for that poor start, he would have been in the thick of the fight for the podium.

Robertson: "Well done Giorgio, we believe we have the fastest legal lap - you are the world champion of 2008!"

De Orleans: "100 per cent reliability and the drivers' championship! Now let's go out and party... Er, looks like Giorgio has started to party with the marshals already!"

We hear nothing from Giorgio, because he's already out of the car, throwing his gloves into the Rettifilo crowd.

De Orleans: "Excellent!"

He gets back in and, despite Ferguson's prediction that taking the steering wheel off will have stalled the engine, Pantano coaxes it back into life for a series of steward-annoying donuts at the Roggia chicane.

Meantime, it's handshakes all round on the pitwall. Robertson apologises for the lack of radio chatter: "There was no point talking to him any more than that - you could see he was pushing hard all the time. If someone was catching him, I'd tell him."

And there was no chance of that this year. Pantano won this title by the amount of points you'd consider a good haul from a race weekend. Given that he was effectively banned from Spa, a race he should have won, he dominated the championship and can graduate with his head held high.

The big question remains as to where that will be.

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- The Autosport.com Team

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