After picking up two F1 Esports race winners, Ferrari have come out swinging with a range of drivers with success across a range of games.
Image credit: Ferrari Esports
Ferrari’s esports presence has only increased since being the last of the F1 teams to commit to sim racing. F1 Esports on the Codemasters games, SRO Esports on Assetto Corsa Competizione and Le Mans Virtual on rFactor 2 is where Ferrari have been competing virtually.
For 2023, Ferrari have already announced the signings of F1 Esports race winners Bari Boroumand and Nicolas Longuet along with Ferrari Esports Series champion Jonathan Riley. Now they have signed six new drivers, including two rFactor 2 specialists, three ACC experts and an F1 Esports protégé.
New Hunting Ground
The first prominent signings to come out of this announcement are Dennis Jordan and Alex Siebel, two names that have been associated with racing on rFactor 2 for Red Bull. Jordan and Siebel have raced in the likes of the Le Mans Virtual and Formula Pro. The latter fought for the Formula SimRacing championship, just losing out to Collin Spork.
In the press release, Ferrari confirmed that Jordan and Siebel will be participating in the newly revived GT Challenge series. It begins 27 March and it will be held every Monday for the next six weeks. Drivers will race GT3 cars in a 15 minutes sprint and a 45 minutes top-10 reverse grid race in each round.
As of now, GT Challenge is the only championship that Jordan and Siebel will be competing in for Ferrari. But they could also race in the Le Mans Virtual Series when it gets underway for a third season potentially later this year.
With both also being prominent high-power open wheel drivers, Ferrari may find a way to enter Formula Pro. The series does have a strict method of permitting teams to join, but perhaps with a name as famous as Ferrari, an exception could be made.
Dedicated SRO Team
With the SRO Esports Sim Pro LAN series on the horizon, Ferrari have picked up some great signings for their ACC division. Joining Jonathan Riley for Ferrari’s SRO Esports team firstly is Jordan Sherratt. The South African is the 2021 Lamborghini The Real Race EMEA champion and raced for Lamborghini’s esports team in SRO Esports last year.
Along with former Ferrari F1 Esports Pro Championship driver Gianfranco Giglioli and now Ferrari Esports manager Giorgio Simonini, they took a pole and win in the Intercontinental GT Challenge Esports Bathurst 12 hours opener.
Simonini was also formerly the manager of the now defunct pro division of GTWR Esports. A couple of drivers from there have also joined the Scuderia.
Chris Harteveld is the reigning GT World Challenge Esports America Silver class champion. He even gave James Baldwin trouble in the FIA Motorsport Games Esports Cup event, just falling short of beating Baldwin to gold. Also coming from GTWR is Andrea Capoccia, who along with now Veloce driver Luke Whitehead and now Unicorns of Love driver Niklas Houben, won the third round of the ERL Summer Cup on ACC.
Sherratt and Harteveld will be doing the Sim Pro races onsite at the GT World Challenge Endurance Cup events. They’ll be joined by Riley and Capoccia for the Intercontinental GT Challenge Esports enduros.
Final Piece For F1 Esports
Last but by no means least, Tomasz ‘Tomek’ Poradzisz. Having raced for Alfa Romeo in his first season of F1 Esports, he has been on the pace of Pro Championship calibre drivers for many years before being eligible to compete. He was part of McLaren’s academy team and won the F1 Esports Challengers PC title prior to joining Alfa Romeo.
The Pole endured quite the difficult first season scoring only the solitary point, but Ferrari are clearly convinced Poradzisz is the best choice to complete their Pro Championship line-up. Poradzisz joins back up once again with former McLaren stablemate Boroumand and follows Longuet straight from Alfa Romeo.
When Ferrari won the driver’s championship with David Tonizza in 2019, his two teammates didn’t score points meaning they couldn’t overhaul Red Bull at the top of the team’s championship. Now with Tonizza and fellow F1 Esports champion Brendon Leigh having left the team, will the trio of Boroumand, Longuet and Poradzisz be the team they need to finally help them taste team’s championship winning glory?
Not just on the F1 game but also on ACC and rFactor 2, Ferrari clearly mean business in esports this year.
What do you make of Ferrari’s new esports signings? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
