During lockdown, much of the motorsport world has been waiting patiently for updates on rescheduled race calendars and re-opened tracks. Many drivers, however, have turned to sim racing as a means of keeping the racing action alive through these challenging times.
Whilst simulator rigs and esports have been growing in recent years anyway, the virtual world has truly exploded into view – a way to watch our favourite drivers from all levels and varieties of motorsport from the comfort and safety of our homes!
Next Level Motorsport has also joined the world of eRacing through a collaboration with driver coach and former racing driver Enzo Mucci and Chris Harfield of WH Sports. The newly-formed eRacing Leagues started with its hugely popular iRacing series, attracting a variety of professional racing talent to the starting grids.
F1 drivers Lando Norris and Nicholas Latifi are among those set to compete in the championship. They will take on over 100 professional drivers from a range of different series, including Formula E star Oliver Rowland, F4’s Sebastian Montoya (the son of F1 and IndyCar ace Juan Pablo Montoya) and British driver and F1 pundit, Billy Monger.
F2 driver Felipe Drugovich emerged the inaugural champion of the April Isolation series by a margin of just 0.07s on the line against Ramez Azzam.
BT Sport will be airing coverage of the Isolation eRacing Series as it continues into the lockdown period, providing more exciting, wheel-to-wheel action.
Simon Green, head of BT Sport, said:
“It’s fantastic to see the world of motorsport coming together to create an exciting and innovative new series at a time when viewers are missing their fix of live action. Lockdown is driving broadcast innovation apace across all of our sports and it is great to broadcast this new show to our motorsport fans alongside our live weekly MotoGP show on Sundays.”
Each episode will bring fans three live heats, with the top ten drivers from each heat progressing to the final race. The format of each event will comprise one practice session, qualifying, three qualifying heats and a feature race (final).
The results of the final will determine how many points each driver is awarded which, in turn, will determine the final championship table after the eight-round competition comes to an end. Coverage of the races will also include interview footage of the participating drivers while viewers will be able to choose which circuits they see by voting on social media.
The Isolation eRacing Series will begin at 18:00 on Monday, May 11th on BT Sport 1.