The 2015 GP3 Series was the sixth season of the third-tier of Formula One feeder championship and also sixth season under the moniker of GP3 Series, a motor racing feeder series that was run in support of the 2015 FIA Formula One World Championship and sister series GP2. Thirty-one drivers represented eight teams over the course of the season's nine rounds, starting in Spain on 9 May and ending in Abu Dhabi on 29 November. It was the final season for the Dallara GP3/13-AER P57 V6 chassis and engine package that debuted in 2013. A new Dallara-built chassis was introduced for 2016 along with a Mecachrome normally-aspirated V6 engine.
French driver Esteban Ocon (ART Grand Prix) finished the campaign as the drivers' champion after a season-long battle with Trident driver Luca Ghiotto. Despite winning only one race in 2015 – the first race in Barcelona – Ocon took fourteen podium finishes, including a run of nine successive runner-up placings over the mid-course of the season.[1] Ocon ultimately finished eight points clear of Ghiotto, who won a season-high five races. Another five-time winner, Marvin Kirchhöfer, completed the championship top three, some fifty-three points behind team-mate Ocon. The performances of Ocon and Kirchhöfer were more than enough for ART Grand Prix to regain the teams' championship title they had missed out on for the first time in 2014. Five other drivers took race victories during the 2015 season; Arden International pairing Emil Bernstorff and Kevin Ceccon each took two victories, while Jimmy Eriksson, Álex Palou and Óscar Tunjo each took sprint race victories, which were held with partially-reversed grids – an inversion of the top eight finishers in the previous day's feature race.
Teams and drivers
The following teams competed in the 2015 season:[2]
Following the bankruptcy of the Marussia F1 team, Marussia Manor Racing decided to leave the GP3 Series.[41] With no replacement team found, the number of teams competing in the 2015 season was reduced to eight.
The series was scheduled to run in support of the German Grand Prix, at a venue that, at the time of the calendar's publication, had not yet been decided. With the cancellation of the German Grand Prix, the planned GP2 meeting was rescheduled to Bahrain International Circuit in the 2015 6 Hours of Bahrain weekend.[43]
Points were awarded to the top 10 classified finishers in the race 1, and to the top 8 classified finishers in the race 2. The pole-sitter in the race 1 also received four points, and two points were given to the driver who set the fastest lap inside the top ten in both the race 1 and race 2. No extra points were awarded to the pole-sitter in the race 2.
Race 1 points
Position
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th
Pole
FL
Points
25
18
15
12
10
8
6
4
2
1
4
2
Race 2 points
Points were awarded to the top 8 classified finishers.
^Costa, Massimo (9 January 2015). "Ghiotto e Trident trovano l'accordo" [Agreement between Ghiotto and Trident]. ItaliaRacing.net (in Italian). Inpagina. Retrieved 9 January 2015.