F1 Esports set for second season, Ferrari opts out

Every Formula 1 team except Ferrari will be represented in the second season of the F1 ESports Series which has a reshaped season format for 2018.

Aiming to build upon the success from the inaugural F1 Esports Series in 2017 which saw Brendon Leigh crowned champion, nine F1 teams will be represented by carefully selected drivers who will go through a qualifying and ‘Pro-series’.

Every F1 team has signed up to be part of the series in 2018 apart from Ferrari.

In the first part of the season online competitors will be offered an chance to earn a place on the official esports driver line-up for one of the nine teams competing, with the first qualifying event taking place on April 13.

In July an NFL-style 'Pro Draft' will take place in London, which is expected to coincide with the British Grand Prix (July 6-8), when each team will pick at least one driver for the remainder of the year.

Starting in September, the second half of the Esports season will see three live events take place to determine the 2018 F1 teams’ and drivers' world champions with a prize fund of $200,000 up for grabs.

“The reception from the teams has been phenomenal, Julian Tan, Head of digit growth and F1 Esports, said. “It's hugely important for us to work with the teams, whether that is from an authenticity point of view as mentioned previously or from an amplification point of view. By having the teams involved you can reach out to so many more fans and potential fans.

“There are three main stages. There is a qualifying stage, then the Pro Draft, and the final stage is the drivers racing for the teams in a championship style competition.

“The qualifying stage is made up of four rounds. These are online and start with a specific challenge for drivers to attempt. You race against the computer online and then you log your time. This will be followed by a race for the fastest drivers from the challenge and that will determine nine drivers who will advance per round.

“By the time the qualifying rounds are done we will have 36 drivers, 9 drivers per round and 4 qualifying rounds, who will go to the Pro Draft. We're then going to give an opportunity to the top three from last year to automatically advance to the Pro Draft, and finally we will have a minimum of one wild card to make up 40 drivers.”

The F1 Esports series is planning to broadcast the semi-final and finals both online using the Twitch streaming service plus on TV with selected broadcasters.

“We're finalising out broadcast plans for this year but we will look to leverage to certain degrees the different streams we tested last year, pulling more on those that worked well,” Tan added. “We're talking to broadcasters as well to see how we can best optimise the content.”