The 2023 eVirtual season is nearly upon us, and Alex Tunnicliffe takes a look through what we could expect from the season ahead of pre-season testing. Formation Competition - Jaguar: The reigning champions ended Downton’s reign and clinched the teams championship in a thrilling season finale at Long Beach, but Jochem van Snelheid was beaten to the drivers title by just 4 points. For the first time in 4 seasons, the older brother of the FV champion will drive for the same team, and he will look to use this stability to go one better this season and match his brother. After a late season cameo for SRT, Karl Beckenbauer is ineligible for eV this year. But Jaguar have hired a top quality replacement in ex-Lucas driver and FV race winner Maximilian Thunström. With Thunström recently announcing a 2024 FV drive with Kōwhai, this will be his single season in eV and he will look to make the most of it. Jaguar have a formidable lineup, and look as if they could be tough to beat this year.
Downton McLaren eVirtual Team: It’s all change at Downton as the team look to shake things up to reclaim the constructors crown in 2023. With Marcus Thunder departing for a Kōwhai seat in FV and Kip Maxwell released after his results steadily declined over 3 seasons, the team are taking an all new driver lineup to Calder Park. Headlining the lineup is the return of Ukrainian Oleksandr Zozulya. After leading Downton to their 2021 eVirtual triumph, Zozulya departed for a drive at AMR, but found himself replaced by Nathaniel Powers just a year later. So far Zozulya has come 2nd and 3rd, and he will be a strong contender to win his maiden championship. As a second driver Downton have gone for a someone who almost feels like a younger Kip Maxwell in Ethan Matthews. Matthews has shown flashes of speed across 2 seasons competing for the now defunct OSM team, gaining 1 win and 2 pole positions. He will need to prove himself quickly in the chaotic world of eV if Downton are to mount a challenge to Jaguar this season. Mobil EV Porsche Team Mathershaw: The Signature entry has been taken over by one of Formula Virtual’s most iconic names in Mathershaw, who have stepped up their efforts from chassis manufacturer to team owners. Sebastian Bergkvist’s services have been retained after 3 wins in 3 seasons for Porsche, but he will have new competition this year after Mathershaw chose not to retain the less consistent Sebastien Vocquelin. After 2 underwhelming seasons at Westwood, Jules Barclay is looking to resurrect his career with a move into eVirtual. Barclay has talent, demonstrated by a dominant VARS title and his VWRS championship win in 2020, but for whatever reason he was never able to kick on in Formula Virtual. Mathershaw will hope that he can regain his form, as if he does they could be serious contenders this year. Lada Sport eVirtual Racing Team: 2022 was a disappointing season for Lada, as the high of 2021 could not be built upon and the team slipped back to 5th in the championship. While Sam Hudson took more podiums in 2022, the consistency of results that he showed in his impressive debut season faded away with his points finishes halving from 10 to 5. If he can marry both skills of speed and consistency, Hudson could be a dark horse contender for a title. After a poor performance last season, his teammate Viktor Östberg has departed for Cerberus and Lada have taken a gamble on reigning eV2 champion Urmo Kruuda. Lada will be hoping that the pace shown by Kruuda in his eV2 title win can be brought into the main game, as question marks were raised by his underwhelming performances in VWRS that saw him dropped from the Ingram academy. Renault A.R.C. ZE eVirtual Team: One of virtual racing’s top female racers, if not the best, Kiara Thunder returns to Renault after scoring a rookie season win that helped Renault to an improved 6th place last season. While Thunder never quite succeeded in Formula Virtual, at 26 she still has a long career ahead of her potentially, and eVirtual with Renault could be just the place to build her legacy. Alongside her is the returning Aron Einarsson, back at Renault after a season away from the team at Manziel. Einarsson scored Renault’s maiden victory but departed after a less successful second season which saw Renault slip down the table. Despite this, the team will no doubt be happy with a familiar driver lineup that can provide stability and maybe even help Renault rise up the rankings. Cerberus Bentley Motorsport: With Maserati choosing to expand their fledgling factory efforts from FV to eVirtual, Cerberus have chosen to partner a new manufacturer in Bentley. And the changes don’t stop there, with eVirtual’s most consistent driver pairing of Ryota Yoshida and Felipe Cesar broken up by the latter’s graduation to an Ocelot FV seat. In his place Cerberus have signed Lada’s Viktor Östberg. As previously written, Östberg had a poor 2022 season, but he still has plenty to offer the eVirtual grid. Cerberus will certainly hope so, as Ryota Yoshida’s results have slowly dropped off over the last 3 seasons. Despite him recording a win at Imola, Yoshida struggled to break into the points through much of the rest of 2022. If Cerberus want to stop their slow decline in the standings they will be hoping for improved performances from both Östberg and Yoshida this season. Manziel Racing: After recording a stunning debut win in 2022, Manziel Racing recorded 2 more podiums on their way to 9th place in a debut campaign that showed flashes of real quality. Their hero from Calder Park, Lithuanian speedster Dominykas Zvironas, returns to the team and will be looking for a second season boost to jump Manziel up the grid in 2023. Joining him will be Mercedes stalwart Steven Kasami, moving to a rival Porsche customer team after 3 years with both K8ley and Arrow. A driver who came onto the scene at a very young age but was never able to make a big impact, Kasami is slowly finding his feet as a regular in eVirtual, adding 2 podiums to his 3 pole positions. He has shown that he has speed, and if he can put it together in a race it could be him as the next winner for Manziel, not Zvironas. Pepsi Max Mercedes-K8ley: After two consecutive 11th place finishes, K8ley are looking to an all new driver lineup to give them greater success in 2023. Joining from OSM is the late blooming Pole, Leo Brzyski, who sensationally returned from a 2 season absence to claim a 2nd place in eV2 followed by a rookie season win in last year’s season finale at Long Beach. At 31, Brzyski doesn’t have a long career ahead of him, but K8ley might be just the place to continue his remarkable resurgence. His teammate is another veteran given a second chance in eVirtual, former Westwood driver Nikolajis Christodoulou. After losing his race seat at the end of the 2016 season, the Greek spent 2 years as a reserve and 2 years out of full time racing altogether (aside from the occasional V24 effort). Christodoulou was not as quick to impress as Brzyski in eV2, but gained the confidence to put together a strong 2022 campaign that saw him finish 3rd, gaining 5 podiums along the way. It is clear that experience is valued at K8ley, and that may be what helps them up the table for 2023. Arrow Mercedes eRacing: Despite being 1 of 10 teams to record a win in 2022, Arrow went on to lose their position as top Mercedes team to K8ley by the end of the season. To help them regain the upper hand Arrow’s FV reserve driver Zander Brynildsen has been drafted in from the departing SininenTuuli team. Brynildsen isn’t the only driver with FV experience as he is joined by the returning Rodolfo de la Fuente, a journeyman driver who scored points with the short lived Andromeda FV team before spending two seasons on the sidelines at Arrow FV. The question this season is whether Arrow eRacing can step out of the shadow of their bigger brothers in Formula Virtual with the drivers that once drove for them in the main game. BMW i Gray Autosport: A small yet ambitious privateer team from Hertfordshire, Gray Autosport pulled off quite a coup when they partnered with BMW to bring the manufacturer to eVirtual in 2021. A 2nd and 7th at the Triple Crown race in Laguna Seca was a positive sign, but less positive was the team’s failure to score points at any other race. Still the team is slowly moving forward and have replaced the ageing Austrian Arden Hutchinson with a driver in Kip Maxwell that, while still being experienced, comes with a lot of pedigree having previously driven for Mathershaw, Westwood and Downton in Formula Virtual. Of course, those days were a long time ago and Maxwell needs to make this step down the grid work to maintain his racing career. Alongside him, Niklaus Hölzberg is looking to build on his breakout podium, after a junior career that was steady but unspectacular nearly saw him out of motorsport. He enters his 3rd season with Gray Autosport, who clearly have a lot of faith in him and like Maxwell he will be under pressure to improve his performances this season. Lamborghini Squadra Corse: Lamborghini struggled towards the end of the 2022 season, finding themself more and more on the receiving end of one or even two DNQ’s. The team has the remarkable statistic of being the only unchanged driver lineup of all 15 teams, and also the oldest, with a combined age of 73 between veteran drivers Romano Agostino and Diego Campos. Based off last season, Agostino is the stronger of the pairing, scoring all of Lamborghini’s points and being more consistent in getting through pre-quali. Campos still brings valuable experience however, as well as his cult hero status and 1 FV race win. With stability and experience, Lamborghini will be looking to find their feet in their 3rd season in eVirtual. Team Thunderhead: Perpetual wooden spooners Thunderhead are back for a 4th campaign, and so is late season addition Drake Davies, becoming the first resigned driver for the Brazilian privateer. The Bahamian is a smart pick up for the team, having made an instant improvement to the team in just 3 races at the end of 2022. Alongside him is one of the more unexpected signings of the season, with 34 year old Izaya Yuki parachuted in from the ranks of the Toyota test program. It’s hard to see this as anything other than a decision made by Toyota as Yuki has only recorded one half season in virtual motorsport, finishing last of 34 drivers in the 2015 FV3 season before being replaced by Kōwhai driver Hunter Ryan. Ultimately it seems that Davies is Thunderhead’s main hope for 2023, although Izaya Yuki could always be a wildcard in pre-qualifying. GP1 Motorsport: Moving on to the 4 new entries for this season, we begin with Icelandic privateers GP1 Motorsport. The only non-manufacturer out of the 4, GP1 have still put themselves in a promising position by partnering with American giants Cadillac to provide the chassis for their debut campaign. They’ve gone for an all-Nordic lineup led by VWRS frontrunner Robert Stefánsson, also of Iceland. Stefánsson is no stranger to FV having taken part in the inaugural season with Lada and it seems that his meandering career path is set to take another sideways step as consecutive 4th place finishes in VWRS were unable to gain him a promotion to FV. Still, Stefánsson is young and fast and will be a great asset to GP1. Next to him will be the runner-up from last year’s eV2 season, Erik Oliversson. Last season’s eV2 campaign may have been Oliversson’s breakout year, after middling results throughout his time in VWRS. Unfortunately it was overshadowed by the dominance of Urmo Kruuda, ironically the driver that Oliversson finished behind back in VERS in 2018. Both Stefánsson and Oliversson are solid hires for GP1 that can push the team forward as both drivers look to grow their careers. Hyundai eVirtual Racing: Making their first major foray into the world of virtual racing, Hyundai made an immediate statement by signing 2 time FV winner Nick Addison. The Australian’s career took a sharp downturn after a switch of teams to Arrow went poorly in 2022. In what is becoming a familiar sentence to write, Addison is looking to rebuild his career in eVirtual and perhaps put his name back in the conversation for an FV drive. Alongside him is the youngest driver on the grid, rookie Jukka-Pekka Raatikainen. The Finn has had a stunning promotion to the eVirtual grid, skipping straight through eV2 after recording a 5th place finish in eV3. Whether Raatikainen can adjust to the level of competition is perhaps up for debate, but with the experience of Nick Addison alongside him Hyundai’s gamble may pay off in their rookie season. Maserati Corse EV: Maserati have continued their expansion into virtual racing with the factory outfit taking over from Cerberus to launch a new era for the team. As with Hyundai, Maserati has gone for the approach of hiring a driver with FV experience in Gabriele Garcia. The former North Star driver is returning for his second stint in eVirtual after a season of limited success with Thunderhead in 2021. He is joined by 30-year-old Italian Gianluca di Stefano, making his return to racing after spending 2022 on the sidelines. Di Stefano was once an Ingram junior driver after a successful rookie season in VERS, but since 2017 he has never been able to recreate those highs. With di Stefano having aged out of 2nd tier competition after 2021, he will need to prove that he is worthy of staying in eVirtual to keep his career on track. Seifert Racing Team Opel: Just like Maserati, Seifert Racing Team is a new entry to Formula Virtual making their expansion to eVirtual in partnership with Opel. Again, the debuting team has gone with a mix of proven experience and young talent, signing Sebastien Vocquelin of Porsche and Cosmo Roberts from VWRS. Vocquelin is breaking a long term affiliation with Porsche as an eVirtual and FV reserve driver, bringing 5 years of Formula Virtual experience that will be valued by a first year team. His junior teammate, American racer Cosmo Roberts, comes hot off the heels of a 3 year stint in VWRS bringing 5 race wins and a 3rd place finish in 2022. While this wasn’t enough to get Roberts into Formula Virtual, him and the Opel team will be one to watch in 2023.
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