David Tonizza: Why the 2019 Champion Left F1 Esports

David Tonizza interview RD.jpg
The F1 Sim Racing season should have been wrapping up by now, but instead it is in shambles. However even before this implosion, one former champion elected to not compete – 2019 F1 Esports champion David Tonizza told us why.

Image credit: Lamborghini Esports

Over the weekend, the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix takes place and it should have been the culmination of the top sim racing championship. Since 2017, F1 Esports (known now as F1 Sim Racing) has played host to the top Codemasters F1 game players in the world.

In that time, four drivers have won the championship. These include Brendon Leigh, Jarno Opmeer and most recently Lucas Blakeley. All three of them travelled to Jönköping for the opening round of the 2023-24 F1 Sim Racing season, and we know how that went.


But for the first time ever, a former champion was not taking to the grid. David Tonizza had decided to not commit to the series after leaving Ferrari Esports, the team that drafted him for their first season then went on to win the driver’s championship together.

Tonizza also had plenty of success on ACC with the Scuderia, winning the SRO GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup in 2021 and just missing out on the Sprint Cup title twice over. For 2023, he joined the other major Italian performance car brand Lamborghini for an all-out assault on SRO Esports.


Leaving aside the current state of F1 Sim Racing much like its real life counterpart, we were interested in learning Tonizza’s reasons for leaving the series. David was kind enough to sit down with us for an interview.

OverTake: How did you get your start in competitive sim racing?

David Tonizza:


I started racing on video games in 2016 but at that time, it was with a controller. It was not long after I had stopped racing go-karts and I had a huge passion for gaming. I discovered there were these communities organising championships so I picked up the most recent F1 game available at the time, joined a league and after a few races, I bought my first wheel which was a Logitech G29.

I was kind of good in the races and I was also enjoying it. The first championship I did was part of an Italian community and I won it. A year later I joined Apex Online Racing which was at the time the most prominent and renowned F1 league community, due to F1 Esports drivers competing there.

That was the time I started doing it with more commitment. 2016-17 was when I was having fun and was not really thinking of it as a viable career path for my future. But by joining AOR for 2018, I was already with the mindset of aiming to get to F1 Esports.


OverTake: What would you say have been some of the highlights in your time racing competitively?

David Tonizza:


There are a few! Many would assume when I won F1 Esports in 2019, which if you look at the importance of that championship, then it is easy to agree with that. It is surely the biggest achievement I have ever had. But also with 2021, I know it is not part of the question, but the one that slipped through my grasp.

GT World Challenge Esports when I was battling with James Baldwin for the Sprint title. I was P1 until the very last race of the championship but due to the commitment I had in F1, I had to stop training for GTWC in the middle of the season and as a result, I was not on the pace to beat James. I lost the title in the last race.



The other major achievement of mine that I put amongst my very best in my racing career, last year I finally made it to real life car racing, competing in a championship called Trofeo Predator’s and I actually won it! It is the reason I started sim racing, like many others of course to get back into real motorsport.

Also, a full season and testing is covered by a budget that is a quarter of what a season in old-gen F4 costs.


OverTake: F1 Esports/F1 Sim Racing has kind of imploded this year but you seemed to have decided to not race before all that came to light. Why did you step away from the series?

David Tonizza:


Since this is a big question, I want to be very specific. I will say what happened at the end of 2022 so you can understand my point of view. As I already said, losing the GTWC Esports Sprint title resulted in me starting 2022 with the aim of doing the series again on ACC and win it this time.

Along with that, I was really hoping F1 Esports would revert back to running in an onsite environment. I never enjoyed a single race that we did online, because even from the first set of races we did, I could just tell something felt wrong. We always suspected something would happen, then it did.

In the Canada round, I had desynced from Jarno Opmeer’s screen and we had that collision, even though from Jarno’s perspective I was not in front of him.



So after being told that 2022 would be online only, I decided that I want to fully commit to ACC and I wanted nothing to do with F1. But of course, at the time, I was the main driver for Ferrari’s F1 Esports division. It was a tricky situation, trying to explain to them that I wanted to commit more to ACC until F1 Esports switched back to being onsite.

When the GTWC Esports season on ACC began, I was again fighting for the championship, and that did not end so well for me again. But during the season, there was a one-off onsite event during the Spa 24 hours, I got invited, won the race and earned a lot of money from the prize pool.

I got home and just thought “Why am I committing so much time and energy to the F1 game?”, because I looked back to all the money I earned playing F1 compared to that one event on ACC, being brutally honest here, I earned four times the amount of money.


SRO Esports Racing Night podium.jpg

Tonizza (middle) on the podium during the SRO Esports Racing Night. Image credit: @uol_simracing on Twitter
After the ACC season ended, F1 Esports began and at that time, the team manager of Ferrari proposed to the team for me to race in the Trofeo Predator’s for the following year, but they were not interested. With the esports team and the driver academy, they did not need one of their esports drivers in a real car.

Then, when we finished the F1 Esports season, I told the team that I did not want to do it anymore and if I could have a contract just for racing in ACC. They then said they were not interested in investing into championships outside of the F1 game. The manager I just mentioned was about to leave the team and offered me a chance to go back to Jean Alesi Esports and potentially also racing for Lamborghini – which was at the time unlikely, but it did end up happening – but also racing in the real life Trofeo Predator’s.

I had options to stay in F1 Esports, but I just had no excitement or drive to do it. In short, financial incentive was just so much better, focusing on just ACC racing which I had been wanting, and racing a real car. For all these reasons, I left F1 Esports behind.


OverTake: Assuming the organisers got their act together, what would tempt you back into the series? Or would there be no real incentive?

David Tonizza:


Currently I do not see any reason to go back to the series, but it does not mean I will never go back. I know the amount of effort you have to put to be on the pace on the F1 game, and because of that huge amount of effort, you have to ensure it is sustainable financially speaking.


If I choose to compete in F1 Sim Racing, I would need to quit everything else and have it be the only thing I train for. Ultimately, if I can earn more doing something else then I will do that. Right now with my current situation, I can do many other activities that do not require as much commitment.

For me to return to F1 Esports, it would have to be a very good offer. Plus a much more enjoyable game to drive on.


OverTake: What are your plans for this season? Still racing on ACC with Lamborghini?

David Tonizza:


Yes, I will still race ACC, that is the intention, but nothing is 100% finalised yet. Whether it is with Lamborghini or not, we are still working on that. When it comes to real life racing, again still finalising everything but I know I will be racing in real life this year. We still need to sort a few details.

Lastly, there is something I have been involved with in the background since last year but still cannot talk about. As soon as I have been given permission to talk about it, you will hear about it. It is not related to esports or real life racing, but it is very cool.


What do you make of David Tonizza’s reasons for leaving F1 Esports behind? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
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RedLMR56
Biggest sim racing esports fan in the world.

Comments

Oh look, yet another real world driver who ran out of money, and saw simracing as a way to try to get back into real racing, or just earn money...

I am sure if he wins anything relevant in real racing on day, there will be articles saying "simracer turned pro!" etc etc...
 
Oh look, yet another real world driver who ran out of money, and saw simracing as a way to try to get back into real racing, or just earn money...

I am sure if he wins anything relevant in real racing on day, there will be articles saying "simracer turned pro!" etc etc...
Damn man, why are you so angry? What is bothering you? It's a simple article about guy who did some go karting, did some simracing, did some real racing and he enjoys that..... On every article you comment you sound angry and pissed off because someone dared to make connection between racing cars and racing in videogames...why are you so bothered with that? Why you play those games? Why you spend time on this site?
You sound like a old man beaten by life and now cant find smile even when baby is laughing.
Those are much better articles than those about war, murders and worse...
Be positive man, and good luck to you!
 
What I find shocking is that he says he won 4 times more money on a single on-site SRO event rather compared to all his time in F1 esports. The picture shows him on said event with a 6k euro price...

1k5 euros after years as a Ferrari esports driver? That's crazy low given the numbers handled by these events.
 
Premium
What I find shocking is that he says he won 4 times more money on a single on-site SRO event rather compared to all his time in F1 esports. The picture shows him on said event with a 6k euro price...

1k5 euros after years as a Ferrari esports driver? That's crazy low given the numbers handled by these events.
Indeed. This is in spite of the fact that F1 Esports' prize pool is the largest in all of sim racing, $750,000 but it's distributed amongst the teams. There is very little in the way of prize money left to the individual drivers.. it's a travesty.
 
Damn man, why are you so angry? What is bothering you? It's a simple article about guy who did some go karting, did some simracing, did some real racing and he enjoys that..... On every article you comment you sound angry and pissed off because someone dared to make connection between racing cars and racing in videogames...why are you so bothered with that? Why you play those games? Why you spend time on this site?
You sound like a old man beaten by life and now cant find smile even when baby is laughing.
Those are much better articles than those about war, murders and worse...
Be positive man, and good luck to you!
I am doing just fine, thanks for asking!
 
Indeed. This is in spite of the fact that F1 Esports' prize pool is the largest in all of sim racing, $750,000 but it's distributed amongst the teams. There is very little in the way of prize money left to the individual drivers.. it's a travesty.
Then why do they stay there? I don't think other participants of F1 esports are on a very different situation. A simracer on a high profile championship like iRacing's NASCAR o Porsche Supercup can earn more than that in a year just with sponsorship, not counting prizes.

Add on that a questionable handling model that some of them reportedly don't enjoy, netcode issues, cheating scandals, organizational mistakes, and more bad stuff I cannot recall now...and the end result is even more difficult to understand.

Does this platform give them so much exposure that they can earn the missing money on YT/Twitch/Instagram or hardware endorsements? It's the only possible explanation I can understand; Real life motorsport opportunities are a fallacy, they won't come unless they land a very good contract with everything carefully laid out for that chance.
 
Premium
Then why do they stay there? I don't think other participants of F1 esports are on a very different situation. A simracer on a high profile championship like iRacing's NASCAR o Porsche Supercup can earn more than that in a year just with sponsorship, not counting prizes.

Add on that a questionable handling model that some of them reportedly don't enjoy, netcode issues, cheating scandals, organizational mistakes, and more bad stuff I cannot recall now...and the end result is even more difficult to understand.

Does this platform give them so much exposure that they can earn the missing money on YT/Twitch/Instagram or hardware endorsements? It's the only possible explanation I can understand; Real life motorsport opportunities are a fallacy, they won't come unless they land a very good contract with everything carefully laid out for that chance.
Well for one, you don't see many F1 game specialists having that same level of success on sims. Frederik Rasmussen and Tonizza are the rare exceptions, Opmeer too although lesser so.

I mean, Gran Turismo specialists had it even worse for the longest time. 2018-2019, drivers would travel to all the onsite World Tour events but there is no prize money at all and no opportunity to represent their teams and sponsors. But they still did it! They have their reasons.
 
Well for one, you don't see many F1 game specialists having that same level of success on sims. Frederik Rasmussen and Tonizza are the rare exceptions, Opmeer too although lesser so.

I mean, Gran Turismo specialists had it even worse for the longest time. 2018-2019, drivers would travel to all the onsite World Tour events but there is no prize money at all and no opportunity to represent their teams and sponsors. But they still did it! They have their reasons.
Rasmussen is a weirder case, considering he was already a top iRacing driver, winning the big championships and earning money. Although he definitely did not like how he was paid when he won the Blancpain series lol.
 
Premium
Rasmussen is a weirder case, considering he was already a top iRacing driver, winning the big championships and earning money. Although he definitely did not like how he was paid when he won the Blancpain series lol.
Well it is worth bringing up that F1 Esports was in its infancy at the time. With all that hindsight, it is a wonder why many of them stick around.
 
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What I find shocking is that he says he won 4 times more money on a single on-site SRO event rather compared to all his time in F1 esports. The picture shows him on said event with a 6k euro price...

1k5 euros after years as a Ferrari esports driver? That's crazy low given the numbers handled by these events.
The question is...why would he get any more than that for playing a VIDEO GAME? And why would anyone hire somebody to play VIDEO GAMES? What good does it do for the company? Nothing.
eSports will have SOME value and the champions will be worth some money, when the level of simulation reaches that of the professional simulators that the teams use.
Take for example Steel Beasts and War Thunder. Who would you put in a real tank and send to battle? A Steel Beasts or a War Thunder veteran?
It's the same thing with racing simulators. They're not at a level yet that this kind of money or even working for a team is justified because it has ZERO reflection on reality. Meaning, 99% of these guys are WORTHLESS on a real track and maybe there's a 1% who might be able to just keep up with the real pros. Especially the F1 guys because the game sucks.
 
The question is...why would he get any more than that for playing a VIDEO GAME? And why would anyone hire somebody to play VIDEO GAMES? What good does it do for the company? Nothing.
eSports will have SOME value and the champions will be worth some money, when the level of simulation reaches that of the professional simulators that the teams use.
Take for example Steel Beasts and War Thunder. Who would you put in a real tank and send to battle? A Steel Beasts or a War Thunder veteran?
It's the same thing with racing simulators. They're not at a level yet that this kind of money or even working for a team is justified because it has ZERO reflection on reality. Meaning, 99% of these guys are WORTHLESS on a real track and maybe there's a 1% who might be able to just keep up with the real pros. Especially the F1 guys because the game sucks.
Same reasons people get paid to play football, likely. If it sells tickets, subscriptions, sponsorships or advertising. If you are good enough to attract a bigger crowd a promoter will probably pay you to do it so you don't do it somewhere else.

If someone thought they could attract these guys with flashy lights and several hundreds of dolalrs to shill Fanatec gear they probably were going to try.
 
nobody gives a damn about sim racing esports, when will people realize that?
Simdads repeating this point over and over again because they don't "get it" still won't make this statement true. F1 was drawing excellent numbers by most esport standards, and even with the series imploding, the one round they managed to run this season got 20k+ live viewers on YouTube, with the VOD sitting at 741k right now.

There is an audience out there, but many sim racing leagues aren't well equipped to draw them in. They use niche platforms like iRacing, rFactor and Rennsport instead of the mass market titles your average gamer will actually play. They also put way more money into the prize pool than they do the actual marketing and making people aware that the series exists. This is why Gran Turismo and F1 (pre-implosion) were the big two series on the scene, with other series able to rely on association to real life, like WRC and MotoGP, also enjoying a decent turnout. Speaking of Gran Turismo...

I mean, Gran Turismo specialists had it even worse for the longest time. 2018-2019, drivers would travel to all the onsite World Tour events but there is no prize money at all and no opportunity to represent their teams and sponsors. But they still did it! They have their reasons.
It started out as players simply competing because they enjoyed the experience that Gran Turismo's Sport mode provided. Those that went on to become World Tour regulars often stuck around because the all expenses paid VIP treatment at exotic locations around the world made it all worthwhile, money be damned.
 
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Same reasons people get paid to play football, likely. If it sells tickets, subscriptions, sponsorships or advertising. If you are good enough to attract a bigger crowd a promoter will probably pay you to do it so you don't do it somewhere else.

If someone thought they could attract these guys with flashy lights and several hundreds of dolalrs to shill Fanatec gear they probably were going to try.
Extremely poor comparison. People get paid to play football because they played Madden? HELL NO. I don't think you even understand my point.
eSports are OK as dedicated annual competition events, like the ones for League of Legends. But there is no point in organizing entire championships and pay kids a bunch of money to play videogames. It's nonsense. As a company you gain nothing from it and the fact that they get paid as much is absurd. Even more absurd is the fact that he's asking for more. Like he has to train hard 12 hours a day or something. Come on. A REAL sports player or motorsports driver has to WORK HARD for it.
Also,to promote motorsports you don't need eSports, that's for sure. And of course no Senna will even come out of eSports. Ever. Even if technology progresses so much that we have access to proper superhardcore simulators and advanced simulation gear that we can't even dream of today. Nothing can replace reality.
 
Premium
Extremely poor comparison. People get paid to play football because they played Madden? HELL NO. I don't think you even understand my point.
eSports are OK as dedicated annual competition events, like the ones for League of Legends. But there is no point in organizing entire championships and pay kids a bunch of money to play videogames. It's nonsense. As a company you gain nothing from it and the fact that they get paid as much is absurd. Even more absurd is the fact that he's asking for more. Like he has to train hard 12 hours a day or something. Come on. A REAL sports player or motorsports driver has to WORK HARD for it.
Also,to promote motorsports you don't need eSports, that's for sure. And of course no Senna will even come out of eSports. Ever. Even if technology progresses so much that we have access to proper superhardcore simulators and advanced simulation gear that we can't even dream of today. Nothing can replace reality.
You're implying esports competitors don't work hard? What utter tosh
 

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