Two drivers who were conspicuously absent from on-track proceedings during Friday practice for Mexican V-Prix, the final round of the 2022 Formula Virtual season, were Johan Halvosen and Brock Kidd, with North Star Racing running neither of their usual race drivers. Instead, their seats were filled at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez by the team's test and reserve driver Hector Draper, along with Karl Beckenbauer, making his first appearance in a Formula Virtual paddock since the close of the 2021 season.
Playing musical chairs with four drivers is uncommon in the modern era of Formula Virtual, with regulations restricting teams to running just three drivers during qualifying and race sessions over the course of a season. It was ultimately a quirk of their contracts, allied to an unfortunate quirk of fate, that forced North Star's hand this weekend. The team had scheduled Draper to take the place of Kidd during practice, having previously subbed in for Halvosen on the Friday of the Italian V-Prix. Initially, Draper and Halvosen would handle the running for that day, before Kidd would return to his car for qualifying and the race. Two days before the team were due to fly out to Mexico, however, a significant spanner was thrown into those plans. Taking part in a road cycling event in his native Denmark, Halvosen was involved in an incident with three other riders, and was subsequently launched over the safety barriers, colliding with a parked taco van. Suffering a pair of fractured ribs and a separated shoulder, doctors later ruled the Dane out of competing in the final V-Prix of the season. Ordinarily, this would allow Draper to make his Formula Virtual race debut, as the team's regular race driver could not compete. However, it is understood that in the interests of fairness between the race drivers, their contracts permit the reserve driver to take over each race driver's car for a single round, typically during free practice before the race driver in question returns for the rest of the weekend. It also stated the time handed to the reserve is to be shared equally between race drivers. This brought about an unusual edge case for North star, as Draper had already substituted for Halvosen back at Monza, but was yet to do so for Kidd. Allowing Draper to race in place of Halvosen, with Kidd retaining driver duties for the whole weekend, could well have been interpreted as a breach of contract. Instead, the team made the last-minute decision to call upon Beckenbauer, who had spent much of the season up to this point at their base in Perth, carrying out important simulator running to aid development of the NS-07. Now, though, the German is back behind the wheel of a Formula Virtual car for the first time since departing Highwind last season, racing for the team with which he scored a sensational victory in Canada five years ago. North Star are currently 11th in the constructors' standings, having scored 19 points across the season so far, and will be hoping that Beckenbauer and Kidd can add enough to that tally to move back into the top ten in the final race of 2022.
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