The series was officially announced during the weekend of the 2007 Monaco GP2 Series round by GP2 organiser Bruno Michel, who emphasised the importance of maintaining a "strong and viable link to Formula One" through inclusion as support races on Asian Formula One Grands Prix programmes. The inaugural season ran from January to April 2008, with five two-race meetings. It ran alongside the Speedcar Series, and rounds in Malaysia and Bahrain doubled as Formula One support events.
A notable feature of the series was a driver diversity requirement: each team was encouraged to field at least one driver whose passport was not from Western Europe or the Americas, with Turkey and Russia explicitly excluded from the "European" category for this purpose. In practice, the rule was imperfect — in the 2008 season four of the thirteen teams opted to run two non-Asian drivers under a "ghost driver" arrangement, with the second non-qualifying driver receiving no prize money.
In July 2011 Bruno Michel announced that the GP2 Asia Series would be folded back into the European GP2 Series following the conclusion of the 2011 season.
The format across all seasons was structured around a two-race weekend. On Friday teams held a 30-minute free practice session followed by a 30-minute qualifying session, the result of which set the grid for Saturday's 180-kilometre feature race. Every driver was required to make a pit stop in the feature race during which at least two tyres had to be changed. Sunday's sprint race covered 80 kilometres, with the grid determined by the Saturday result with the top eight positions reversed — the driver who had finished eighth on Saturday started from pole position and the Saturday winner started eighth.
The pole-sitter for Saturday's race was awarded two additional points. A single bonus point was available in each race for the driver recording the fastest lap, subject to the driver having completed at least 90% of the race distance, having started from his allocated grid position and having finished in the top ten. Under this system the maximum points available from a single round was 20, achieved by claiming pole position and winning both races with the fastest lap in each.
From 2008 through 2010 the championship used the GP2/05 chassis produced by Italian manufacturer Dallara, switching in 2011 to the GP2/11. Both chassis were identical to those used in the European GP2 Series and were constructed in carbon fibre. Power came from the Mecachrome V8108, a 4.0-litre V8 engine of French manufacture producing 620 horsepower, paired with a six-speed manual Hewland gearbox. Bridgestone supplied tyres from 2008 to 2010; Pirelli took over for the 2011 season.