I thought I might bump this thread, because the GP2 series grid for this year is starting to take shape, and it's actually looking really good. It's probably the strongest it's been in years.
First of all, there have been a few team changes. iSport International has left because they couldn't find fully-funded drivers, and without them, there was a genuine prospect that they would go bankrupt. Their place has been taken by Russian Time (it's a weird name for a team and its meaning hasn't been explained, but the best we can reason out is that it is supposed to mean "Russia's time is now"), which is being run by a Ukrainian venture captialist and the Motopark Academy team that runs Formula 3 cars (so they do actually seem to be pretty serious).
Secondly, Ocean Racing Technology is out, once again for financial problems (Ocean also killed off their GP3 Series team). Their place has been taken by Hilmer Motorsport, a German team run by Franz Hilmer, who runs Formtech GmbH, a "supplier" to several Formula 1 teams, though the exact nature of their business remains unknown. They acquired Super Aguri's assets when the team went bust in 2008, and attempted to enter Formula 1 in 2010 under the Brabham name.
Finally, Scuderia Coloni is out. We've known about this one for some time, but no further details of the circumstances surrounding their exit have been revealed. All we know is that they had some kind of falling-out or disagreement with the organisers (and possibly the other teams) and ended up forefeiting all of their points in 2012. Their place has been taken by Dutch team MP Motorsport.
Onto the grid (so far).
DAMS has taken Marcus Ericsson from iSport and Stephane Richelmi from Trident.
ART Grand Prix have dropped the "Lotus GP" tag. They are keeping James Calado and have taken Daniel Abt from their GP3 Series team.
Arden have recruited Johnny Cecotto Jnr. from Addax, and promoted Mitch Evans from their GP3 Series team.
Racing Engineering are keeping Fabio Leimer, partnering him with Julian Leal from Trident.
Carlin have taken Felipe Nasr and Jolyon Palmer to replace Max Chilton and Rio Haryanto. They've also lost their Marussia backing.
Russian Time have taken Tom Dillmann, who did half a season with Rapax last year before he ran into sponsor troubles. Their second seat remains vacant, but they have been testing Robin Frijns, Luciano Bacheta and Christopher Zanella in the past week.
Caterham GP2 were expected to take Alexander Rossi and Pal Varhaug, but they have instead signed Ma Qinghua and announced that Rossi will be driving for their Formula 1 team during free practice sessions at European races, which will prevent him from racig in GP2. Sergio Canamasas has been testing for them.
Barwa Addax picked up Rio Haryanto (who struggled horrbily in the wet in Barcelona), and kept Jake Rosenzweig, who drove for them in the last few races. Team owner Alejandro Agag is busy with Formula E at the moment, possibly explaining why the team isn't too concerned about getting ultra-talented drivers in the way they once did.
Rapax will keep Stefano Coletti, who drove for them in the last few races of 2012, pairing him up with Simon Trummer, who was very disappointing in 2012 with Arden, but might have made the step up to GP2 too soon.
Trident have not settled on a driver line-up yet. They have variously tested Robin Frijns, Rodolfo Gonzalez and Nathanael Berthon in Barcelona.
Hilmer Motorsport has not settled on a driver line-up, either. They were testing with Tom Dillmann, but his move to Russian Time will be a blow to them. Pal Varhaug has also been testing for them, as has Robin Frijns.
Lazarus is keeping Rene Binder for 2012. Kevin Giovesi has been tipped for the second seat.
MP Motorsport have signed up AutoGP champion Adrian Quaife-Hobbs and Daniel de Jong, who has driven for them in several junior series (including AutoGP and Formula Renault 2.0).
