Another star-studded driver line-up has been released for the third edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual, the final round of the 2022-23 Le Mans Virtual Series season.
The event will take place this weekend on January 14th and 15th 2023 and will be held virtually, with the 180 drivers on simulators located all around the world.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual sim racing event has once again drawn a mix of top drivers from the physical track and the sim racing world.
The line-up of drivers includes two-time F1 World Champion Max Verstappen, former F1 and current Indycar star Romain Grosjean, FIA F2 Champion Felipe Drugovich and FIA F3 Champion Victor Martins.
Among the entries are British three-time World Touring Car champion Andy Priaulx who will be racing with his son Seb – himself a Porsche Carrera Cup North America Champion – in the Le Mans Virtual Cup guest car. They will be competing with Indycar’s Felix Rosenqvist, a noted race winner in both the real and virtual worlds, and British racing driver Luke Browning, GB3 Champion and Aston Marin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year, together with more well-known names.
In addition to real-world racing stars (listed as ‘Pro’ on the entry list), top esports stars and former 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual winners such as Jeffrey Rietveld, Joshua Rogers and Nikodem Wisniewski are on the entry list, to name but a few. Also competing will be British racer James Baldwin, recently awarded the Autosport Award for Esports Driver of the Year.
The roster of sim racers will be combining with physical track drivers to provide twice-round-the-clock racing.
In total, 180 drivers representing more than 40 different nations will be taking on the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe for the first event in the Automobile Club de l’Ouest’s (ACO) centenary year.
Manufacturers officially represented include Alpine, AMG Mercedes, BMW, Ferrari, Peugeot, and Porsche, with renowned drivers such as David Brabham, Romain Grosjean and Olivier Panis also fielding teams.
You can check out the full driver entry list for the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual here, and see more info at lemansvirtual.com.
How the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual works, including prize pool and rounds
The Le Mans Virtual Series is a global esports series made up of five rounds which bring together endurance racing and sim racing’ top teams to compete on some of the world’s most famous race tracks.
International FIA-licensed real-world drivers are teamed up with esports squads to take on endurance classics for a total prize fund of $250,000, culminating in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual.
Le Mans Virtual Series is a joint venture between racing game developer, publisher and esports ecosystem provider of official motorsport racing series, Motorsport Games, and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) – the creator and organiser of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and promoter of the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC).
The rounds for the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual 2022-23 are as follows:
- Round 1: 8 Hours of Bahrain, Bahrain – September 17, 2022
- Round 2: 4 Hours of Monza, Italy – October 8, 2022
- Round 3: 6 Hours of Spa, Belgium – November 5, 2022
- Round 4: 500 Miles of Sebring, USA – December 3, 2022
- Round 5: 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual – January 14/15, 2023
Who won 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual 2023 and what was the controversy?
The final round of the Le Mans Virtual Series, the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual, came to an electrifying end as #2 Team Redline and Felipe Drugovich, Felix Rosenqvist, Luke Bennett, and Chris Lulham triumphed after 24 hours of hard virtual racing at the legendary 13.6km / 8.5 mile Circuit de la Sarthe track. It was Drugovich’s second consecutive win at the virtual 24-hour event.
The GTE category was won by the #888 Ferrari 488 GTE of Romain Grosjean’s R8G Esports (Alexander Smolyar, Scott Andrews, Timotej Andonovski and Erhan Jajovski), while BMW Team Redline’s #71 of Rudy van Buren, Lorenzo Colombo, Kevin Siggy and Enzo Bonito took GTE championship honours.
What were the controversies?
Organisational and server issues affected the event, which Max Verstappen spoke out against:
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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.
