Formula Virtual team Royal Phoenix Motorsport have today confirmed that both of their drivers will leave the team following the end of the 2021 season. Following the third round of the 2021 Formula Virtual World Championship in Melbourne, Australia; British team Phoenix confirmed the recent rumours to be true surrounding their two drivers. The team released the following statement: “It is with an extremely heavy heart that Royal Phoenix Motorsport can officially confirm that both of our drivers – Sergio Alvarez and Thierry Xylander – will leave the team upon the conclusion of the 2021 season. It was only a matter of time before teams with far deeper pockets came calling and, as we have always said, we will never stand in the way of our drivers progressing in their careers.
It goes without saying that everyone involved with Phoenix Motorsport wishes both Sergio and Thierry well in their new teams and they will always be more than welcome to stop by and say hello. We look forward to the rest of the current season together and the team will of course do everything possible to ensure that 2021 will be looked back on fondly and with no regret.” Sergio Alvarez joined Phoenix for the Mancunian team’s debut in Formula Virtual in 2018 initially on a season long loan from Westwood which turned into a permanent switch when Westwood were forced to pull out of the sport. In just his fourth start, the Argentine drove a memorable race in torrential conditions in Malaysia; he drove superbly to find himself in fourth place before his Judd engine cried enough with just a few hundred metres to go until the finish line, but nonetheless was classified in ninth and so picked up the team’s first ever points. He has scored points in a further seventeen races, including a career best fifth place in the 2020 US V-Prix and two sixth places in 2019. Belgian youngster Thierry Xylander arrived – much like Alvarez – initially on loan from DS Mathershaw as a part of the deal which saw Phoenix run as a DS Automobiles works team for 2019. The team signed him on a permanent basis for 2020 after an impressive debut season in which he finished every race of the year, picking up fifteen points along the way. 2020 proved much more difficult as he suffered horrendous luck throughout the season, but Phoenix showed faith in keeping him for this season and Thierry repaid them with a fantastic drive yesterday; taking his career best finish of seventh in the Australian V-Prix. It has not yet been revealed where the two drivers are heading, or who their replacements will be at Phoenix, but it could certainly cause a bit of a shake up of the driver market in the lower reaches of Formula Virtual.
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