For its second year Auto GP took over the World Touring Car Championship support slot vacated by Formula 2, and with increased television exposure attracted grids of 14-16 cars for its seven-round calendar.
It was a varied field made up of talented youngsters like Kevin Ceccon and Adrien Tambay, experienced old hands like Luca Filippi and Adam Carroll plus rich enthusiasts such as Giuseppe Cipriani. In all, 21 drivers started at least one race.
GP2 outfits DAMS and Super Nova were joined by former F1-support paddock partners Durango and Campos Racing, while the A1GP-based Lola chassis once again showed itself to be a resilient old warhorse, capable of embracing some robust wheel-banging action without hurting its performance, which was further boosted for 2011 by the addition of a few subtle aerodynamic tweaks.
The series kicked off with seven different winners in the opening seven races. That streak was finally ended by Samuele Buttarelli at Donington Park in July, but the Italian teenager was never really a factor in the championship battle.