The sim racing ESL R1 winners from the 2023 Spring Season has concluded, as the top 24 drivers of the season raced across two days at the inaugural ESL R1 Major.
The live event took place at the Rennsport Summit in Munich, Germany. Eventually, it was R8G eSports driver Marcell Csincsik (pictured, above) who took the checkered flag with 240 points, driving away with €45,000 of the €225,000 total 2023 Spring Season prize pool.
British racers Luke Bennett (winning €20,000) and James Baldwin (€12,500) finished in second and third respectively, and Irish racer Dáire McCormack finished fifth, with €5,000 in prize winnings.
Luke is also a part of Team Redline, who won the Team Championship and took home €45,000.
ESL R1 was first announced earlier this year – a €500,000 virtual racing circuit.
The 2023 Spring Season of the ESL R1 circuit commenced on February 11th-12th 2023, with its first two rounds taking place live at the IEM Expo in Katowice, Poland.
Throughout the season’s eight Rounds, Team Redline’s Luke Bennett and Porsche Coanda Esport Racing Team’s Joshua Rogers, dominated the tracks as they raced alongside 46 other drivers in their attempt to reach the pole position.
On June 3rd – Major Day One – the 24 competing drivers were split equally into two groups and were facing off against each other in eight races as competition began amongst ESL R1 winners.
The day saw many highlights, including Mercedes-AMG Petronas Esports Team’s James Baldwin winning his very first race in the 2023 Spring Season on the Nürburgring track, while also claiming the first place on the Monza track shortly after.
“Absolutely amazing feeling, I was expecting somebody else to win – not me, the underdog. 48 drivers around the world and it’s absolutely crazy that it’s me on the top. I want to thank my family, my team, just everyone, and ESL for organising this whole thing – it was really amazing. Thank you, everyone.”
Marcell Csincsik
Only the top 12 drivers advanced to Major Day Two on June 4th and the heat was on as the Hungarian driver Marcell Csincsik became the first to reach “Finalist Mode” by surpassing 160 points.
Being only one race away from securing the Champion’s title, however, James Baldwin caught up with him as the Englishman took the lead in Race 5 and also reached “Finalist Mode.” After two more intense races, Joshua Rogers, Luke Bennett and Dáire McCormack also got in line for the title among the ESL R1 winners.
“Absolutely amazing feeling, I was expecting somebody else to win – not me, the underdog,” said Marcell Csincsik. “48 drivers around the world and it’s absolutely crazy that it’s me on the top. I want to thank my family, my team, just everyone, and ESL for organizing this whole thing – it was really amazing. Thank you, everyone.”
“What a show! What a season! What an event in Munich,” said Romain Grosjean, CEO of R8G eSports. “Congrats to Marcell for the Driver title, to R8G for the second place in the Team standings, and to ESL for having created such a great virtual racing event.”
The €225,000 total prize pool of the ESL R1 2023 Spring Season marks one of the largest seen in a virtual racing tournament. €112,500 was distributed to competing teams as part of the Team Championship, with Team Redline securing the first place position.
The other half of the total sum was part of the Driver Championship which concluded with the ESL R1 2023 Spring Major at the Rennsport Summit in Munich.
Apart from the ESL R1 2023 Spring Major, the Rennsport Summit at which the competition took place featured more highlights, including the announcement that the Closed Beta of Rennsport will begin expanding out to more players, starting June 6th 2023.
ESL R1 will return later this year with a second season, in which the 48 drivers will continue their races.
ESL R1 winners – final standings in Drivers Championship and Team Championship
The ESL R1 winners from the Spring Major are as follows:
ESL R1 2023 Spring Major final rankings of the Drivers Championship and prize pool winnings
| Place | Driver | Championship Prize Money |
| 1st | Marcell Csincsik (Hungary) | €45,000 |
| 2nd | Luke Bennett (UK) | €20,000 |
| 3rd | James Baldwin (UK) | €12,500 |
| 4th | Joshua Rogers (Australia) | €8,000 |
| 5th | Dáire McCormack (Ireland) | €6,000 |
| 6th | Erhan Jajovski (North Macedonia) | €5,000 |
| 7th | Kevin Siggy (Netherlands) | €3,500 |
| 8th | Moritz Löhner (Germany) | €3,000 |
| 9th | Jiri Toman (Czech) | €2,750 |
| 10th | Enzo Bonito (Italy) | €2,500 |
| 11th | Joni Törmälä (Finland) | €2,250 |
| 12th | Marko Pejic (Croatia) | €2,000 |
| 13th – 24th | – | |
| Total | – | €112,500 |
Team Championship results and prize pool winnings:
| Place | Team | Team Championship Prize Money |
| 1st | Team Redline | €45,000 |
| 2nd | R8G eSports | €25,000 |
| 3rd | Porsche Coanda | €17,500 |
| 4th | MOUZ | €12,500 |
| 5th | Mercedes-AMG | €7,500 |
| 6th | Williams | €5,000 |
| 7th | G2 Esports | – |
| 8th | Apex Racing Team | – |
| 9th | Heroic | – |
| 10th | FURIA | – |
| 11th | BMW M Team (BS+) | – |
| 12th | FaZe Clan | – |
| Total | – | €112,500 |
For more information about ESL R1, head to the official ESL R1 website
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.
