Over the years, many different teams and drivers from across the world have come and gone; some enjoying far more success than others. As Formula Virtual prepares to enter its ninth season, we take a look back at some of the rather less successful teams and drivers who have done enough – or not, as the case may be – to earn themselves a place in the list of Formula Virtual Rejects. Today we begin by looking at two drivers who don’t qualify for the 'Formula Virtual Rejects' tag but failed to ever make the start line, and one driver who does make the list and becomes the first official Formula Virtual Reject. Driver: Chase Hargrove Team(s): Magnificent Racing Nationality: British Race Entries: 0 Race Starts: 0 Wins: 0 Podiums: 0 Points: 0 Best Finish: N/A To begin, we must go way back in time to mid-2013. Formula Virtual had just been formed by series CEO Nic Morley and the entry list was beginning to take shape. One of these entries was a British team called Magnificent Racing; set up by Magnificent Geoffrey. Magnificent Racing were officially the first ever team to enter Formula Virtual and signed Spaniard Hilario Bull and Chase Hargrove from the UK, as well as Mario Belmonte as their reserve driver. However, Magnificent Racing ended up disappearing before the season even begun, and so Bull and Hargrove were left on the side-lines. Whilst Bull eventually worked his way back to Formula Virtual to – briefly – drive for Ocelot in 2016. Chase Hargrove was not so lucky and only ever competed in one season of any FVA officially recognised series; VERS in 2015 – alongside fellow ex Magnificent signee Belmonte – where the Brit achieved very little in the way of results and so his career came to an abrupt end. Could things have turned out differently for Chase, had Magnificent Racing made it to Australia? Well, other than the fact that he would have officially been a Formula Virtual driver, probably not really. Looking at his performances against a rather poor 2015 VERS field; it is hard to imagine him making any sort of positive impression on the Formula Virtual grid and would have most likely either been dropped mid-season, or at the very best seen out the year before failing to find a drive for 2014. Driver: Danilo Casemiro Team(s): Andromeda Automobilismo Brasileiro Nationality: Brazilian Race Entries: 0 Race Starts: 0 Wins: 0 Podiums: 0 Points: 0 Best Finish: N/A For the next driver to be officially announced to drive for a Formula Virtual team but never make the grid, we must fast forward six years to the end of 2019. Brazilian Formula Virtual team Andromeda ABR were nearing the end of their relatively successful debut season in FV; where they scored five points courtesy of a fantastic drive from Rodolfo de la Fuente in his home V-Prix to eighth, and big money signing Will Hoskins achieving the teams’ first ever point in just their fourth race. Hoskins however, who had cost the team a whopping £5m, had been signed to FIRST for the 2020 season and Andromeda were left needing a replacement to race alongside de la Fuente for the teams’ second season. The most obvious choice and odds-on favourite to get the nod was Qing Xun Zhao; Andromeda’s reserve driver who had impressed in VWRS that year. However, Andromeda instead shook the paddock and announced Brazilian youngster Danilo Casemiro as Hoskins’ replacement. Casemiro had just finished in an incredibly uninspiring eleventh in VARS and rumours began to swirl about his confirmation being more about financial backing than talent. Sure enough, just twelve days later, Andromeda pulled out of Formula Virtual after the team went into liquidation amidst massive debts following a huge overspend and team owner Hector Seibel being arrested on charges of crimes relating to the “Operation Car Wash” investigation. The team itself ultimately disappeared entirely from Formula Virtual before resurfacing in late 2020 when they announced their shock return to the Virtual Motorsport world with their entry to the brand new VUSC series. Casemiro, after having possibly the shortest Formula Virtual career to date, did not find another drive and instead returned to VARS in 2020 where he remained with CopaMundo. He endured another incredibly average season and ultimately finished twelfth. Driver: Rafael Palou Team(s): Lopez FV Team, Arnello Milner & Ronson Autosport Nationality: Spanish Race Entries: 4 Race Starts: 0 Wins: 0 Podiums: 0 Points: 0 Best Finish: N/A For our final driver in this article, and the first driver to officially become an FV Reject, we only have to look back to last season. Rafael Palou had been part of the Lopez academy for some time and had acted as their reserve driver for the 2019 season but, with Viktor Ostberg stepping down to reserve and Allar Kangur coming into the team; the Spaniard was left without a role and subsequently ended up being sent out on loan to Australian backmarkers AMR. Palou spent most of the year watching Schnyder and Kovalenko fail to qualify the car the majority of the time but then, for the final four races, the team announced he would stand in for the Ukrainian. The number 91 car had only previously been seen once all season when Kovalenko miraculously hauled the car to tenth place on the grid in Australia, so you could forgive most of the paddock for predicting Palou would struggle to make any impression whatsoever – and so was the case. He impressively beat well regarded teammate Finn Schnyder in his first qualifying session as a Formula Virtual driver, although it was still not enough to make the race, and that was as good as it got; with Schnyder comfortably beating him 3-1 in the qualifying battle and Palou failing to make a single race start. This means that he – for now – holds the unenviable record of being the only driver to enter but never qualify for a single race. Admittedly, it may seem a little premature to induct Rafael into the FV Rejects Hall of Shame just yet, especially considering he had a quite decent junior career including 2017 where he utterly obliterated the rest of the VOARS field, and the 23 year old does have time on his side. However, it does seem highly unlikely that he will get another opportunity in Virtual Motorsport’s top tier any time soon.
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