The start of the F1 season has been heavily disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak. With more races having been scratched, an alternative has popped up.
The F1 shutdown
F1 is expected to be on a long shutdown this year. Already a third of the scheduled races have already been either postponed or cancelled.
The season was supposed to have started earlier this month in Australia. However, the race was stopped from proceeding just ahead of the weekend.
F1 goes virtual
But there is some light relief has come along. Current F1 drivers and celebrities are competing in the online F1 Esports Virtual Grand Prix Series.
The series will use the F1 2019 PC video game.
The series started last weekend to take the place of the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix which had been scheduled.
Virtual F1 Bahrain Grand Prix
The virtual F1 Bahrain GP was contested over 28 laps, half of the distance of the real race.
For the Virtual Bahrain Grand Prix six-time, British Olympic cycling champion Sir Chris Hoy took part, along with Austrian driver Philipp Eng, former F1 driver Johnny Herbert and Formula 2 driver Guanyu Zhou. The winner was Guanyu Zhou.
Series To Continue
The series is going to continue throughout the season. On each of the planned weekends where there should have been a race, the F1 Esports Virtual Grand Prix Series will instead be happening.
The next virtual F1 race would be covering the Vietnamese Grand Prix which was scheduled for April 5th.
Cancelled/Postponed F1 Races:
Australian Grand Prix – March 15th
Bahrain Grand Prix – March 22nd
Azerbaijan Grand Prix – June 7th
Vietnamese Grand Prix – April 5th
Dutch Grand Prix – May 3rd
Spanish Grand Prix – May 10th
Monaco Grand Prix – May 24th
Broadcasts of the races will be streamed live. The stream can be accessed on F1’s Youtube channel as well as on Twitch and Facebook.
The virtual races are set up to be competitive as well. That means that drivers will be running with the same car setups.
Any of the celebrity competitors who may be lacking the experience with the game, have the choice of whether or not to run with things like anti-lock brakes and traction control.
To help create an even playing field, celebrity drivers will have car damage reduced.
Veloce Esports alternative
Veloce Esports ran a “Not the Bahrain Grand Prix” on the same day as well. That has nothing to do with the F1 Virtual Racing Series.
Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and golfer Ian Poulter signed up for the race. They joined last season’s F1 Rookie of the Year Lando Norris and others for the Veloce Esports race.
All of the information about that and future races can be found on Veloce Esports YouTube and Twitch channels.
They had also held a “Not The Autsrliaan Grand Prix” virtual event as well, for which bookmaker Betway had a winners market open for.
No start date for real F1 Season
The start of the 2020 F1 season is heavily under review. The Australian Grand Prix and the Monaco Grand Prix have both been cancelled as things stand.
The Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Chinese, Dutch, Spanish and Vietnamese Grands Prix are all on “postponed” status.
The next scheduled event beyond all the postponements is the Canadian Grand Prix which has a date booked for June 14th.
