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It’s race day here in Stockholm, Sweden! We’re back and the virtual tracks are about to see some racing as the lights go green, today for Rounds 2 and 3! We see three days of action packed racing where we will see the top F1® Sim Racers take on Jeddah, Spielberg, Silverstone, Spa, Zandvoort and Austin! Set those reminders for 12:00pm CEST(UTC+2) for the Qualifying Show. Set those extra reminders for 5:00pm CEST (UTC+2) as the Main Show goes LIVE on air from the studio in Sweden, where all the on-track action is live.
Ariana Bravo will be presenting the show with Claire Cottingham reporting as the pit lane reporter, George Morgan and Haydon Gullis are our commentators for Event 2.
Today, we’ll see the following drivers for the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the F1® Sim Racing World Championship:
| Team | Drivers |
| AlphaTauri | Joni Tormala (Round 2 & Round 3) Jed Norgrove (Round 2 & Round 3) |
| Alpine | Rubeno Pedreno (Round 2 & Round 3) Filip Presnajder (Round 2 & Round 3) |
| Aston Martin | Fabrizio Donoso (Round 2) John Evans (Round 3) Simon Weigang (Round 2 and Round 3) |
| Ferrari | Bari Broudmand (Round 2 and Round 3) Nicolas Longuet (Round 2 and Round 3) |
| Haas | Alfie Butcher (Round 2 and Round 3) Ulas Ozyildirim (Round 2 and Round 3) |
| KICK F1 | Brendon Leigh (Round 2 and Round 3) Thomas Ronhaar (Round 2 and Round 3) |
| McLaren | Wilson Hughes (Round 2 and Round 3) Lucas Blakeley (Round 2 and Round 3) |
| Mercedes | Jake Benham (Round 2 and Round 3) Jarno Opmeer (Round 2 and Round 3) |
| Red Bull | Josh Idowu (Round 2 and Round 3) Frede Rasmussen (Round 2 and Round 3) |
| Williams | Alvaro Carreton (Round 2 and Round 3) Ismael Fahssi (Round 2 and Round 3) |
Here in Sweden, we’ve been getting the stage all ready and getting the teams and drivers all ready for the racing days ahead. The drivers have had their practice sessions today and they’ve setup their monitors, they’re itching to get in the Fanatec rigs, which have been setup to their specifications; and let their racing do the talking.
Let’s digest one some quick F1® Sim Racing facts to get us started!
• J. Opmeer (Mercedes) is on a two-race winning streak at Austin, USA, having won at the circuit in
2021 and 2022.
• B. Leigh (Alfa Romeo) has finished on the podium in 3 out of 4 races at the Circuit of the Americas.
• No driver has won at Austin, USA in the F1® Sim Racing World Championship from further back on the grid than 4th place, with 2 of the previous 4 winners starting from pole position.
• Lap 16 of the US Grand Prix at Austin will be the 1,250th lap in the F1® Sim Racing World Championship.
• This year will be the first time that the F1® Sim Racing World Championship has raced at the Las Vegas
Street Circuit.
• The Las Vegas Street Circuit is one of the longest tracks on the F1® Sim Racing World Championship
calendar at 6.12km, second only to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
• The Las Vegas Street Circuit is the first street circuit to feature in the F1® Sim Racing World Championship since Montreal, Canada, in 2020.
• T. Ronhaar’s (Alfa Romeo) win in Round 1 at Sakhir, Bahrain was Alfa Romeo’s 10th victory in the F1® Sim Racing World Championship – a win average of 17%. The team currently sit 3rd in the all-time rankings for race wins, behind Red Bull (13) and Mercedes (15).
• J. Norgrove (AlphaTauri), I. Fahssi (Williams) and A. Butcher’s (Haas) points scoring finishes at Sakhir, Bahrain was the first time that 3 rookie drivers have finished in the points in the opening Round of the F1® Sim Racing World Championship.
• L. Blakeley (McLaren) has made it through to Q3 in every Round of the World Championship since
the beginning of the 2021 season – a record-breaking run of 25 consecutive Rounds.
• T. Ronhaar is on a streak of 12 consecutive points scoring finishes. A run stretching back to the 2nd round of the 2022 season. The opening race of the same season is the only non-points scoring finish in Ronhaar’s career to date.
• J. Opmeer and D. Bereznay (Mercedes) are both 1 race away from reaching 50 race starts. So far, only 5 drivers have reached the milestone in the history of F1® Sim Racing.
• I. Puki (Ferrari) celebrates his 22nd birthday on the day before Round 2 at Austin, USA.
| Date | Show & Time – CEST |
| 10th April | 12:00pm – Qualifying Show 5:00pm – Main Show |
| 11th April | 12:00pm – Qualifying Show 5:00pm – Main Show |
| 12th April | 12:00pm – Qualifying Show 5:00pm – Main Show |
As we approach the green lights at Jeddah, the drivers are ready to go. We caught up with Williams Esports long serving driver, Alvaro Carreton on what he had to say about the upcoming Event and each round.
“I’m going into this next event with a focus on bouncing back after my unlucky start to the season in Dreamhack. I was in good momentum, reaching Q3 at Bahrain and being net P5 in the race but the cars ahead had a mistake and gave me front wing damage, as a result ruining our race which definitely could of been points.
My mindset is the same as always. Stay locked in and take every opportunity we get to gain as much as possible throughout each session. I feel comfortable on this game and am confident we can achieve together as a team, overall I’m motivated and ready to race, the aim is to just put this into action on track.
Our ambition is to obviously go for our first win and chase down the championship like everyone else, but we know it will be a lot of hard work against the quality the F1 Sim Racing grid has. We’ve prepared well, and between us, know what is possible, so I’d say there’s no limits in what we can reach but at the very the least, our goal is to score regular points and be a contender in the top positions.
Post event, let’s see where we’ll be. I’m positive but don’t want to jinx anything, I prefer to take it race by race rather than looking too far ahead.”
Williams Esports are looking to bolster their points in the F1® Sim Racing 2023/24 World Championship and it’s clear to see the dedication of each of their drivers and changes to their line up to help improve their current standing in the championship.
McLaren are looking to claim back some points this round, the defending champions currently sit last place in the Team Championship with 0 points, but the drivers have been workinghard in their training camps and giving it their all at practice sessions. We caught up with the F1® Sim Racing 2022 World Champion, Lucas Blakeley to see how he’s feeling and expecting heading into Event 2.
“It’s definitely a unique challenge this event with such a compressed format, doing 6 rounds within 3 days will be very intense so I’m going into this event open minded and ready to get stuck in.
My mindset is always to fight for wins, I have no other mode or switch, all the preparation, time and effort the team and I put in is with winning as the core objective, so it’s quite simple in that regard! The aim is to be at the front as much as possible and to be there consistently, as championships are won through consistently being at the sharp end picking up good points even on your bad days, so the team ambition is the best on our A-game every time we hit the track and get the best out ourselves.
It’s been a long time coming so firstly just glad we are going racing, it will be great to see everyone together again and will be fun to make some memories for sure. The team and I have done a lot of work to try and be equally prepared across all the various tracks and conditions which is an enormous challenge, so we’re looking forward to seeing how things pay off.
It’s always hard to tell exactly what positions you’ll end up in F1 Sim Racing, the margins are so close and a lot can be won and lost in a matter of moments. I believe we’ve put in the work so I hope that we are in a good position to fight as a team consistently at the front of the field.”
The Woking based team will be looking for a complete change of position after Event 2.
Red Bull Sim Racing will be looking to bring back the Team Championship title for third time, after being runners up for two consecutive years. Frede Rasmussen, who has been in the series since 2017 and team mate Josh Idowu are looking to continue the title trend over at the Milton Keynes based team.
Josh Idowu is expecting points as a team effort:
“As always, our focus is to win the Team’s Championship — placing well in the Driver’s standings is a bonus. I didn’t get off to the best start this season, however, we’ve prepared well and I’m feeling good, despite the new challenge we face with such a packed schedule. Ultimately, looking forward to going racing now and giving the fans a good show. Thanks to everyone who has shown support to me and the Team, we hope to make you proud.”
Frede Rasmussen is excited to get back racing in Event 2:
“It’s great to be back in Sweden to compete. Looking to Event 2, our goal is to bank some good results towards the Team’s Championship. Working with a new teammate in Josh has been fun, his past results speak for themselves. I’m in a good position to fight for wins and keen to get racing now. Thanks to everyone for the support”
With all of that said, we’re looking forward to getting the lights out in Jeddah and the F1® Sim Racing World Championship 2023/24 continuing in style! You can catch all of the action from the series on the official F1® YouTube/Twitch channels, along with the official F1® Esports YouTube/Twitch channels!
It’s pedal to the metal and go, go, go, go!
