F1 teams venture into eSports

Last August, F1 launched its first eSports championship, with a final that took place at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

For this new season, the organizers decided to think big by setting up a two-part season inspired by the customs and practices of the professional sports system in the United States.

In fact, it is planned that there will be four separate rounds, all of which will take place on the F1 2017 game, whether on PlayStation, Xbox, or PC. At each stage, the top ten from each platform will be selected for an online and live race. The selection will be narrowed down to the top three from each platform who will be directly qualified for the Draft.

This draft is the novelty of the year since the official F1 teams will have to choose at least one driver from the 40 drivers present for their own team. Thus, the teams will now be officially engaged in this championship, as they can be in the physical championship. However, once again, Ferrari has decided not to align with the rest of the field since the Scuderia is the only one not to have a team for this championship.

Conversely, Sahara Force India fully seized the opportunity of creating this eSports team by monetizing it with one of its sponsors, the energy drink brand Hype. It thus becomes the title sponsor of this new team, replacing Sahara (one of the shareholders of the F1 team).

On this point, the strategies vary between teams as Mercedes maintains AMG (its sports subsidiary) and Petronas as title sponsor, whereas Red Bull has decided to go solo and does not highlight Aston Martin (its title sponsor) or Tag Heuer (its engine sponsor).

Once the selection of drivers is made, there will be three races that will follow, after which the Driver and Team World Champions will be awarded. The amounts at stake are significant, as $200,000 will be distributed.

To finance this operation, F1 has renewed its agreements made last year with Codemasters (the creator of the F1 2017 game) and Gfinity (a company specializing in organizing eSport competitions). A third sponsor has joined in, DHL, which has incorporated this virtual component into the broader agreement with the discipline. Thus, the German carrier gives its name to the challenge for the fastest lap in the race as well as the best pit stop.

With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr