The F1 championship was set to commence in March but was postponed to July due to the coronavirus. The first eight races of the 2020 calendar have been announced. The first two will take place in Austria at The Red Bull Ring, with the first run taking place from July 3-5 and the second from July 10-12.

Virtual Grand Prix Series

Covid-19 has brought with it revolutionary ways of enjoying sports. Remember the Virtual FIFA challenge involving your favorite sports personalities that were streamed with live commentary? Well, Formula 1 seems to have taken a leaf from it and introduced the Virtual Grand Prix Series. It was announced on March 20th, and the first race took place on March 22nd.

How does it work?

The Series will use the PC version of the F1 2019 PC video game. The game was meant to help F1 enthusiasts kill the boredom on weekends that the actual Grand Prix would have taken place. It has 28 laps and runs for 1 hour 30 minutes. The grid positions are determined by the drivers’ fastest lap time.

Each driver will join the race remotely, with a host broadcast live from the Gfinity Esports Arena or remotely if required, as from 8:00 pm (GMT). The game settings include reduced car damage, traction control for participants who are not familiar with the game, running fixed setups for equal car performance, and anti-lock brakes, which are optional. These settings are adjusted to encourage entertaining and competitive race, just like in real racing, because the drivers have varying gaming skill levels. 

The participating Formula 1 drivers will compete among themselves and other athletes and celebrities. So far, the drivers that have participated are; 

• Charles Leclerc, 
• Carlos Sainz, 
• Alex Albon, 
• George Russell, 
• Nicholas Latifi and Lando Norris, 
• Alessio Romagnoli who is AC Milan’s captain, 
• England cricket duo Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes 
• Petter Solberg (a Norwegian Rally champion)

All the action will be available on the official Formula 1 YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch channels. The sport is purely created for entertainment purposes, and the participants do not get points in the World Championship. However, most recently, Arsenal's start Striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang revealed plans of starting a virtual F1 team. I have a feeling that virtual F1 will outlive this pandemic.

Which races have taken place so far?

• The Bahrain Virtual Grand Prix - won by Guanyu Zhou.
• The Australian Virtual Grand Prix - Charles Leclerc won.
• The Chinese Virtual Grand Prix - Charles Leclerc won.
• The Dutch Virtual Grand Prix - Alex Albon won.
• The Spanish Virtual Grand Prix - George Russel won.
• The Monaco Virtual Grand Prix - George Russel won.
• The Azerbaijan Virtual Grand Prix - Jarno Opmeer won.

Conclusion

This was not how we expected the Formula 1 experience to be this year. Nevertheless, it will make you happy and keep you entertained during this period because Formula 1 also lets fans compete with Formula 1 drivers on non-racing weekends. It will be a while before we get back to spectating the actual, action-packed Formula 1 races, so go ahead and try it. It will be worth your while.

For more updates about the virtual races, and the upcoming races in July of course, always check out CarPart's website. 

By Eric Anyega