The 2022 F1 Esports Series Pro Championship presented by Aramco is back and is once again being put on by UK-based esports solutions provider Gfinity.
It features a new three day-per-event format with an increased offering of live shows, and a prize pool of $750,000 again.
This year, drivers will compete in four events that will each feature three days of racing action, with qualifying and the race of each round taking place on its own day.
Both qualifying and the race for Round 1 at the Sakhir International Circuit, will take place on Wednesday 14th September, before Round 2 (Imola) and Round 3 (Silverstone) will take place on the Thursday and Friday respectively.
Each qualifying session will be live from 3.30pm BST on the official Formula 1 YouTube, Twitch and Huya, with the race broadcast live from 7.30pm BST on the same platforms, plus Facebook. All the race streams will also be broadcast with select TV broadcasters too, including Sky Sports F1, Viaplay and ESPN.
Production will again come live from the Gfinity Arena in London, but drivers will continue to race from team esports facilities or factories, or their own homes, and will compete on the official F1 22 video game, developed by EA and Codemasters.
Last year’s F1 Esports Series broke viewer records again, with organisers saying it reached more than 23m views across all digital platforms, a rise of 103% year-on-year.
“This year’s event promises to be the biggest and best yet and we can’t wait to bring the racing live to the world from the home of F1 esports, the Gfinity Arena.”
John Clarke, Gfinity
Since last year’s Championship, there have been several high-profile moves across the grid, including Lucas Blakeley, who was third in last year’s competition, moving from Aston Martin to McLaren Shadow, Manuel Biancolilla’s return after a year out to join Aston Martin, and Filip Prešnajder’s move from Alfa Romeo to Alpine.
Reigning back-to-back champion Jarno Opmeer remains at Mercedes, whilst Brendon Leigh stays at Ferrari alongside team-mate Davide Tonizza. Red Bull have retained all their drivers, including the formidable pairing of Marcel Kiefer and Frede Rasmussen.
This new season brings plenty of new talent to the grid as Alpine sign Briton Luke Smith who finished second in the 2022 Pro Exhibition, while Aston Martin bring in Pro-Exhibition semi-finalist Josh Evans, and Haas sign the 2022 Pro Exhibition champion, Thomas Ronhaar.
There are a total of nine driver moves across the grid, and seven new drivers on this year’s driver line-up who have all been scouted through the 2022 Pro Exhibition after qualifying via one of F1 Esports Series’ qualification routes, including the DHL Time Trial.
Brandon Snow, MD of commercial at Formula 1, said: “We’re very excited about the new season of the F1 Esports Series Pro Championship and its growing success, and with so many promising big moves and intriguing driver shifts on the grid, we can’t wait to kick off the season and get racing.
“As always, we want to thank our partners Aramco, DHL and Fanatec for their continued support which enables us to bring elite sim-racing to an increasing number of fans around the world.”
Related posts:
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
