After the previous season was cut short due to many of the drivers having to prioritise the F1 Esports Pro Championship, top level league racing is back.
Image credit: PSGL
When we covered Premier Sim Gaming Leagues’ top PC tier heading into Season 29, it was the place to be if you couldn’t wait the extra two months for the F1 Esports Series Pro Championship drivers to get racing. Many of the top drivers compete in PSGL and are doing so again starting 19 January for a run of 15 races until the end of May.
As with our preview of the top tier of PC racing heading into Season 29, we feel it’s only fitting we let you know about the people competing in Season 30 and we have some big names involved.
Esports regulars
Mercedes-AMG Esports racer Jarno Opmeer successfully defended his F1 Esports crown, joining Brendon Leigh in becoming two-time champion. Opmeer, along with his Mercedes teammate Dani Moreno, is again committed to a third season in PSGL. Joining them on the list will be the aforementioned FDA Esports Team driver Brendon Leigh, marking his long-awaited return to league racing.
Two #F1Esports champions on the #PSGLS30 grid?
— PSGL (@PremierSimGL) January 3, 2022
Yes please! @jarno_opmeer goes in pursuit of a fourth @PremierSimGL title @BrendonLeigh72 makes his long awaited return to league racing
19/1 🇵🇹 🔜 pic.twitter.com/dohkZsKoKZ
Alongside Leigh in the Ferrari camp is his former Mercedes-AMG teammate Daniel Bereznay, who raced last season for McLaren Shadow. Bereznay’s teammates from the 2021 season Josh Idowu and Bari Boroumand will be racing the orange cars just like the last few seasons of PSGL.
Aston Martin are represented by their own esports talent too, in the forms of Daniele Haddad and Shanaka Clay. Unfortunately, Lucas Blakeley will not be joining them though which is a shame considering he was consistently fighting the Merc drivers last season. On top of that, Williams Esports will also be represented by their esports drivers Alvaro Carreton and Michael Romanidis.
Red Bull Racing Esports will have one of their cars split between two of their esports drivers Marcel Kiefer and reserve Liam Parnell, but they will be joined by former Red Bull driver Nicolas Longuet. The Frenchman raced the solitary outing for the team back in the 2019 Pro Series and took a podium finish, and moved to Renault Vitality/Alpine Esports Team for two years, departing only recently.
We’re terrified 😱 @marcelkiefer_ & @liamparnell02 #PSGLS30 pic.twitter.com/TMMfuX5dSE
— PSGL (@PremierSimGL) January 13, 2022
Over at what is now Longuet’s former team, Fabrizio Donoso Delgado remains and he will be joined by former Renault driver Simon Weigang who raced in the Pro Championship last year for Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen Esports. His teammate from last year Thijmen Schütte remains at the team he raced for in 2021 for his first season, as does fellow Dutch 2021 rookie Matthijs van Erven who represents Haas F1 Esports.
New faces
Along with all the names we know already from F1 Esports, there’s a whole bunch of drivers looking to make an impression. Firstly there’s Wilson Hughes, who is part of McLaren Shadow but will race the AlphaTauri alongside longtime F1 Esports driver Joni Törmälä. Hughes was placed in the AlphaTauri for the upcoming season of F1 Esports Challengers on the PC, which begins the day after the first PSGL round.
There’s also Jake Benham, a two-time champion in another major league and a development driver for Veloce Esports, and he will be driving the other Alfa Romeo alongside Schütte. Last but not least, the final Haas seat is occupied by John Evans, who will also be competing in Challengers and is a member of R8G Esports who operate Haas’ esports team.
The grid for PC F1 grid for #PSGLS30
— PSGL (@PremierSimGL) January 13, 2022
Who is excited? 🤔
It all gets underway on 19/1 at 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/Np5Myl8XgK
As is often the case in leagues and we saw last year when a lot of the esports drivers began prioritising preperations for the F1 Esports Series Pro Championship, there were a lot of dropouts midway through the season. Plenty of high level drivers are waiting in the wings, including Pro Championship drivers like Williams’ Alessio Di Capua, Alpine’s Patrik Sipos and former AlphaTauri driver Dario Iemmulo.
Other reserve drivers include McLaren Shadow’s Tomek Poradzisz, Veloce development driver Ruben Vallejo, Samuel Bean (all three of whom will be competing in Challengers), Louis Welch and Dylan Warren.
How to follow
After typically occupying a Thursday evening timeslot in the first two seasons, the upcoming Challengers season having their PC races on every other Thursday has forced PSGL to move their top PC tier to Wednesdays. All broadcasts will start at 8pm CET and you can watch all 15 races on the Premier Sim Gaming Leagues YouTube channel. The schedule is as follows:
- Rd 1: 19 January – Portimão
- Rd 2: 27 January – Silverstone
- Rd 3: 2 February – Monaco
- Rd 4: 9 February – Le Castellet
- Rd 5: 23 February – Budapest
- Rd 6: 2 March – Spielberg
- Rd 7: 9 March – Jeddah
- Rd 8: 16 March – Spa
- Rd 9: 30 March – Zandvoort
- Rd 10: 6 April – São Paulo
- Rd 11: 13 April – Mexico City
- Rd 12: 20 April – Marina Bay
- Rd 13: 27 April – Austin
- Rd 14: 11 May – Imola
- Rd 15: 18 May – Sakhir
Former PSGL commentator and our September 2021 Hero of the Month George Morgan has moved on from the league. Commentary for this season comes courtesy of Dan Field and GingerAndy. If you would like to catch the action, you can do so using the link below.
Will you be following PSGL this season? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
