Who will win the 2021 F1 Esports title? | FOS Future Lab

F1’s official Esports championship is now at its halfway point, with two rounds from four completed, and is as finely poised as the real thing. Defending champion Jarno Opmeer, now driving for Mercedes, leads the way by just 14 points from Aston Martin’s Lucas Blakeley after the six races so far. However neither could manage a win in the most recent round of races as the Red Bull drivers Frede Rasmussen and Marcel Kiefer dominated at Silverstone, Monza, and Spa.

The constructor championship is locked in a tie at the top of the table, with Mercedes and Red Bull on 140 points apiece, split only by Red Bull’s three wins to Mercedes’ two.

We’ll next see the F1 Esports Pro racers on track in three weeks, and in the meantime you have a chance to qualify for next season yourself. All you need to do is head into the F1 2021 game – on PC, PlayStation, or Xbox – and set the best score you can in the special F1 Esports challenge, by denying Esteban Ocon his famous Hungarian Grand Prix victory!

Three of the six titles up for grabs in this season’s GT World Challenge season are already decided, with the other three all coming to their conclusion this month.

The first of those will be the Sprint title in Europe, which will see a final showdown race at Circuit Spa-Francorchamps. This tenth race of the season will decide whether it’s McLaren’s James Baldwin or Ferrari’s David Tonizza who’ll take the crown, with the two separated by just two points.

It’s been quite the season of two halves, with Tonizza winning three of the first four races, and Baldwin winning three of the last five. Last time out at Barcelona it was almost impossible to separate them all race long, with Baldwin just running out the winner, making this week’s race quite difficult to call. We’ll find out which of the two will join Dayne Warren (Asia) and Michael Kundakcioglu (Americas) as regional Sprint champion on 12^th November.

Europe’s Endurance champion has already been decided, with the Ferrari Driver Academy team of Tonizza and Giovanni de Salvo taking the title, but both the Asia and Americas trophies are yet to find a home.

With two of the three rounds in the Americas series having taken place, it’s the SideMax x Black Hawk Racing McLaren of Chris Severt and Tinko van der Velde leading the championship by six points courtesy of two strong podium finishes. However should any of the next three cars – the #93 HPD JAS Pro America NSX, the Kings of Asphalt Aston Martin, or the PPR Esports Purple Mercedes – take the win on 20^th November at Laguna Seca, they’ll also take the championship. Both the HPD and Kings of Asphalt teams have won already this season, and the PPR Purple squad has been in the mix but suffered in a bizarre incident at Bathurst, so it’s likely to be a close contest.

Meanwhile the Asia Endurance series still has two rounds to go, with the Bathurst race this coming week and the delayed Suzuka event two weeks after that. With only one race completed, it’s Full Pace Racing that leads the way, from JMX Phantom in second, and Legion of Racers in third.

It was a close race between the three, with the next car nearly a minute further back, and it seems likely the title will eventually go to one of these squads – the Legion of Racers car being a pre-season favourite, thanks to a driver pairing of Dillan Tan and sprint runner-up Andika Rama Maulana – but it’s still too early to tell.

This coming weekend will also see the last GT Sport World Series event ahead of this year’s World Final. World Series 4 will be the last chance for the 16 qualified drivers to pick up some World Series points before the best of the online qualifiers join them for the grand final next month.

At the moment, the championship’s points leader is Olympic champion Valerio Gallo (Italy), who holds a five-point lead over Spain’s Jose Serrano and Japan’s Ryota Kokubun. Gallo has been in fine form again this season, winning two of the World Series rounds, though he did finish second behind Kokubun at the mid-season “Showdown” event.

In the Manufacturer Series meanwhile, it’s Mazda which holds a slender one-point lead over both Peugeot and Toyota, with Subaru a single point further back. The three Japanese manufacturers – represented by Kokubun, two-time champion Igor Fraga, and two-time champion Takuma Miyazono respectively – won’t be too concerned about the French brand as Peugeot hasn’t qualified for this year’s final. However Belgium’s Quinten Jehoul will again represent Peugeot and could deny vital points to the other three brands’ title ambitions. You’ll be able to watch both races from 14:00 GMT on Sunday 14^th November.

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