As the Formula Virtual world begins to look ahead with great anticipation to the 2021 season, Phoenix Motorsport have confirmed their full line-up and youth driver plans for the upcoming Virtual Motorsport season. Formula Virtual
Posted via the teams’ website earlier today, the statement reads; “XXX Energy Phoenix Motorsport are pleased to announce our full line-up for the 2021 Formula Virtual World Championship. As previously announced, Sergio Alvarez will remain in the #41 car whilst James Thompson and Dominic Hanson will act as test and reserve drivers. Thierry Xylander will keep the #42 car for his third season with the team.” Phoenix Motorsport Deputy Team Principal Christian Sear said on Xylander’s retention; “It’s good to have the continuity again in the team with both our regular drivers and the reserves too. The ethos of the team is all about togetherness and having such a stable team is key to keeping everything going as well as it has been.” Thierry Xylander - who sat out the 2020 season finale - shed some light on the last-minute switch in Brazil, and gave his thoughts on keeping his seat for next season; “I don’t know why the media caught on so much to the story of me not racing in Brazil. From what they were saying and people on social media it sounded like the team sacked me but I’m still here with them. For the final race I was playing the team game and cheering for Sergio and James. I sat down with Alex, Christian and Terry after Mexico and we all decided it would be good for me to spend that one race just watching and analysing things. Obviously racing drivers want to be in the car one hundred percent of the time but for me it was a rare chance to step back and assess the situation. I think I have learnt from the situation. It’s quite a relief actually to finally be confirmed to be on the grid again next year. This second season for me in Formula Virtual has not been as happy as the first with lots of bad luck and silly things from myself which have made it a very difficult year. I am thankful to the team for showing trust and faith in me for another year and I will like to repay them with my best season yet in my third year.” Phoenix Motorsport Founder and Team Principal Alex Easton shared his thoughts on the announcement, and Phoenix’s season as a whole; “2020 was a bit of a strange season really. Sergio was incredible as ever and, more often than not, found himself amongst the fight for the lower points scoring positions despite a car that – definitely at the start of the year – was looking like a proper contender for the Q1 drop. Thierry, though, had an incredibly tough second season in Formula Virtual and found himself either plagued by bad luck or overdriving the car and making a mistake. In any other season it probably wouldn’t have been as evident but with the midfield as heavily congested as it was, these small mistakes get magnified and you end up going from the front of the midfield right towards the back. Thierry has a lot of learning to do and hopefully the final race on the side-lines helped him to see certain things which you just can’t see when you’re driving in a race. However, having said all that, the lad is still just 21 and we at Phoenix have full faith in him to deliver on the masses of promise he has shown so far in his career. We are showing trust in him now at this difficult stage in his career and hope that he will repay the favour by sticking by us when we inevitably go through tough times at some point.” This means that Phoenix - come 2021 - will have had the same line-up for three seasons from 2019 to 2021, becoming the third longest current partnership in Formula Virtual; behind only Downton and Ingram. In their fifteen races as teammates in 2020; Sergio Alvarez scored 32 points with a best finish of fifth compared to Xylander’s three points, with the Belgian’s best result of ninth coming at the Italian V-Prix. Over the course of the last two seasons, the points stand at 68 to 18 in the Argentine’s favour. Today’s confirmation from Phoenix means that the grid of 30 drivers – who will all have dreams to be crowned the 2021 Formula Virtual World Champion – is now complete, and now the attention of the watching world can turn to the fifteen teams as they gradually reveal their 2021 challengers. Junior Series After a relatively successful 2020 season for Phoenix’s young drivers, the British team – who take great pride and responsibility in providing a pathway for young talent – will once again support three drivers across the various junior series. Daniel Zientek from Poland, Ott Eskola from Estonia, and Chloe King of Great Britain make up the roster for the coming year. Easton detailed the plans for the crop of young talent in 2021; “We have to consider ourselves incredibly lucky at Phoenix to have the technical partnership and financial backing from Lucas V-Prix in Formula Virtual, but also the full support of Downton across our whole Virtual Motorsport presence which has allowed the team a great deal more flexibility than would otherwise be possible. This has enabled Christian [Sear] and Terry [McCarroll], along with Jon Oakwell, to go off and establish their own outfit – OSM Racing International – to compete in VWRS and the VTC too. Naturally, OSM will be the perfect home for both Daniel and Ott to compete in VWRS next season, with Daniel entering his third and final season at Tier 2 and Ott making his debut at that level after winning the VERS last season with Formation Competition. Ethan [Matthews] concluded his junior series career with us with a very respectable finish in VWRS last season, picking up a second place in Abu Dhabi. Ethan has been a great lad to have around the last couple of years and it is now our job to ensure he is able to forge a career for himself in Virtual Motorsport, with the VTC looking like the most likely destination for him. His departure paves the way for another exciting young talent to join our roster; Chloe King, who made her debut in VOARS last season with Higgs Grand Prix and was crowned 2020 Rookie Champion. Chloe’s destination is yet to be decided but she’ll definitely remain in Tier 3 with the hope that she can challenge for the title.” Zientek, who has five wins and two further podiums in VWRS, said on his upcoming 2021 campaign; “It is so good to be with the new OSM team for this year. I already know Christian and Terry of course from my two years already here at Phoenix so to drive for their team in their first season of VWRS is very exciting for me and something I feel privileged to do. It is a big year for me now in my last year of the junior series. I hope to prove myself again and show my talent to hopefully put me on the radar of FV teams for 2022. Matteo [Zetticci], Hector [Draper], Urmo [Kruuda], Raj [Sharma], all of these guys will be doing the same though so it will not be easy, and I have a very fast guy next to me with Ott so I hope we push each other on.” His new teammate Eskola is relishing the opportunity; [Translated from Estonian] “For me, Daniel’s challenge as a teammate in the first year of VWRS is ideal. There are very few riders better than him at this level and so I compare myself to a high grade, but I also learn a lot from him.” Meanwhile King, who becomes the first female driver to be backed by Phoenix at any level, said; “It’s really exciting to be going into the 2021 season as an official youth academy driver for Phoenix Motorsport but I need to stay focussed and keep doing my thing. Japan last year was a real highlight for me and that’s when they came to me to sign me up, I need to have those sorts of weekends throughout the whole year this season to really do myself justice and prove they’ve made the right choice by signing me.”
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