Last Sunday Veloce eSports launched a new fun format with a 1 vs 1 event starring racing drivers including W Series Champion Jamie Chadwick.
Veloce was the first eSport event organizer to exploit the simracing potential following the cancellation of the Australian F1 GP and now, after the launch of the official F1 e-races, they created something new: the 1 vs 1-Mode. Two drivers started side by side in a KO-system for a one lap race. 16 drivers from different motorsport series, as well as youtubers and other athletes and personalities were up for the challenge.
Round 1 - Interlagos, Sao Paulo
Youtuber Benjamin "Tiametmarduk" Daly won against David Schumacher (F3), the son of former Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher, after the young German had a slow middle sector and had no chance to catch up.
Archie Hamilton (racing driver) won easily against music producer Chris Lake, who made a mistake in the first corner and thus lost his chances to come back.
Youtuber Aarav "Aarava" Amin had no problems with golfer Ian Poulter, who battled against the Senna-S corner and lost.
The first race between real-world drivers was between Formula 2 racers Artem Markelov and Nicholas Latifi, but the Russian lost the race against Latifi straight at the start.
A real interesting race was the one between Lando Norris and Sacha Fenestraz, the Japanese F3 Champion. Norris had a better start, but Fenestraz fought back in the second sector. Norris did not give up and passed his opponent with the help of a slight contact at turn 12 for the victory.
W Series champion Jamie Chadwick had high hopes, but without much experience in the F1 Game from Codemasters she could not prevail over Youtuber William "WillNE" Lenney. Chadwick had too much wheelspin as the lights went green and lost touch with her opponent into turn one. From then on, she was forced to overdrive her digital Williams and found the grass in more than an occasion.
Esteban Gutierrez had a good start and drove with no problems to victory against Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid goalkeeper).
The same scenario in the last round between Stoffel Vandoorne and German youtuber Jonathan "Jay" Apelt (member of Pietsmiet) resulted in the Formula E driver advancing to the next round.
Round 2 - Monza, Italy
In the first duel, Daly started well and Hamilton had no chance to catch up.
The second fight was a bit more exciting, as Latifi lead at the first corner and defended hard against Aarava, ultimately driving to victory.
Norris and WillNE didn´t give up anything in their shootout. In the first corner, both bumped into each other’s car and slipped into the gravel. WillNE had the better chance at first, but Norris didn´t give up and caught up quickly. At the end, Norris won this quarterfinal after an outstanding pass at Ascari.
Gutierrez and Vandoorne had a hard fight in their race as well: Vandoorne won on the on-track battle, but was disqualified due to a hard overtaking move on Gutierrez at Parabolica, leaving Gutierrez as the lucky winner.
Round 3 - Suzuka, Japan
The third and the last rounds were contested at the Best-of-3 races.
The first round between Latifi and Daly required the whole distance over three rounds: Daly won the first match, but in the second race Latifi passed the youtuber in the last chicane. In round three, Daly won the final heat and moved into the final.
The second semi final needed three round for the decision as well. Both drivers won the o è-lap race from the start, but the last and deciding round was a bit more difficult: Gutierrez passed Norris in the last chicane where he tagged and spun the McLaren Formula 1 driver, who drove backwards over the finish line and won with a penalty against Gutierrez.
Round 4 - Spa-Franchorchamps, Belgium
It was then the final round between Norris and Daly. Both fought hard and passed each other more than once, but at the last sector Norris crashed and Daly won the first round. The second leg was won by Norris after a collision and the last and final round decided the whole event between the Formula 1 driver and the youtube star. Norris stayed in Daly’s slipstream, but finally passed him and won the first 1 vs 1-format event from Veloce eSports.
It was the first outing for Chadwick in of the numerous simracing events at the moment, but she isn´t a new face to eSports: the Brit, who is managed by Veloce co-founder Rupert Svendsen-Cook an previously worked with the team, has been using the iRacing platform to prepare for real-world racing. It is no secret that the Official F1 Game from Codemaster isn´t a professional racing simulation like iRacing or rFactor 2; Lando Norris also struggled with the game in the past days, famously after the F1 official event won by Charles Leclerc. But the Veloce 1 vs 1 is more of a fun event and has set the bar for entertainment. We’ll now see what new ideas the British eSport company will introduce this weekend to further entertain us.