6) Johnny Cecotto Jr
Johnny Cecotto Jr stepped up his game during the 2014 GP2 Series Season after a mediocre 2013 with Arden International, and became a race winner again for Trident Racing for the first time since 2012 with victory in Spain, and took another victory in Austria.
In what was his fifth full season in GP2, Cecotto seemed to show far more maturity behind the wheel in 2014, and was rewarded with his best finish in the championship of fifth, having taken three additional podiums on top of his two victories.
He used an alternative tyre strategy to move to the front of the field for his first win at the Circuit de Catalunya, passing Jolyon Palmer for the win and then controlling the race until the chequered flag. He finished sixth in the reverse grid Sprint race, and took two fourth place finishes in Monaco, including in the Sprint race where, on extremely used tyres, he held off a train of seventeen cars covered by just over ten seconds at the flag, a brilliant display of defensive driving.
He took pole position for the Feature race in Austria, but was unable to maintain his position at the front and dropped to sixth at the flag, but turned it all around on Sunday to take his second victory of the year, holding off the challenge of the two Racing Engineering machines of Stefano Coletti and Raffaele Marciello after jumping into the lead heading into the first corner.
He finished on the podium in both races at Spa-Francorchamps, and finished inside the top six in both Abu Dhabi races at the end of the year to clinch fifth place in the championship standings ahead of Coletti, but his plans for 2015 are unknown. He is already one of the most experienced drivers in GP2 Series history, and a sixth full-season is unlikely. With extensive Venezuelan backing he should end up somewhere, but his F1 dreams are dwindling with every year that goes by.
