Ex-Ferrari Formula 1 ace is among the 40 professional drivers to compete in a newly announced VCO ProSIM SERIES.
Photo credit: VCO
Rubens Barrichello will join the likes of reigning Formula E champion Antonio Felix da Costa in a new championship created by the Virtual Competition Organisation. 40 real-world racing drivers will compete alongside sim racing stars for their share of the $50,000 prize pot.
The series will use Dallara Formula 3 cars on iRacing and commence this November. Open qualifiers for some of the sim racer places will take place at the end of October with the remaining places reserved for drivers nominated by one of the twelve Esports Racing Team Association members.
Famous entries promise exciting event
A draft process is scheduled for the first week of November, where one real-world driver will be paired with one virtual ace to form each team. They will share driving duties of one of the 40 virtual F3 cars in the field. This number may be expanded at certain rounds with non-points scoring wildcard entries.
The order of the draft process will be determined by a qualifying event for the real-world drivers. The fastest driver will get the first pick of their sim-racing team-mate and so on. Barrichello’s son Eduardo – who is racing in one of the IndyCar feeder series, USF2000, this year – will compete alongside his eleven-time F1 grand prix winning father. Barrichello himself commented:
I am really looking forward to meeting a lot of my friends again in sim racing. In lights of the pandemic, it would not really be possible to meet at the circuit, however, it is possible virtually – and that is fantastic. It is all about having fun. You are also always learning something new, as this is a totally unique type of racing.
Also, on the entry list are DTM race winners Timo Glock and Dani Juncadella, who won the real-world European Formula 3 championship in similar machinery in 2012. Former F1 driver Glock acts as a driver ambassador for VCO. Each circuit on the calendar will be decided by a Twitter poll, with the results not revealed until just two hours prior to the start of the race.
This decision was made to lessen the training required for drivers with already packed schedules. It’s expected that the full entry list of the 40 participating real-world racers as well as the invited sim racers will be released shortly.
