Taking place over the next two days is the final event in the F1 Esports Pro Series, with the top spots in both championships being fought over by Alfa Romeo and Red Bull.
Last years’ constructors’ championship winner Red Bull currently holds a 32-point advantage over Alfa Romeo as both teams aim to win the largest slice of the $750,000 prize fund.
Meanwhile in the drivers’ championship Alfa Romeo’s Jarno Opmeer is currently leading the way with 153 points, 19 more than Frederik Rasmussen and 32 more than Rasmussen’s Red Bull team-mate Marcel Kiefer.
A total of 78 points are up for grabs across the final three races making it a definite three-way fight to be crowned the 2020 F1 Esports Pro Series champion, with Renault’s Nicolas Longuet fourth in the standings and still in mathematical contention but 65 points behind Opmeer.
Drivers’ championship
1 Jarno Opmeer 153
2 Frederik Rasmussen 134
3 Marcel Kiefer 121
4 Nicolas Longuet 88
5 Daniel Bereznay 70
Can @jarno_opmeer bring home the drivers championship next week? 🏆
His season has been a rollercoaster and we're sure these last 3 races will be no different 🔥🎢 pic.twitter.com/Szf7mw8zAo
— Sauber Esports (@SauberEsports) December 12, 2020
It’s hard to see the drivers’ championship not going the way of Opmeer as he won the first race and has led the drivers’ championship ever since.
He managed to finish on the podium in all of the first six races, but the third event was comparatively fruitless as he only scored two points in Silverstone after being knocked out in Q1 and then crossed the line in fifth at Spa.
The most recent race was a return to form as he ended the race at Monza in second, less than a quarter of a second behind 2019 champion David Tonizza.
Despite the drop in results in the previous event, Opmeer believes he can still maintain his points advantage over the rest of the competition and become the third different driver to win a F1 Esports Pro Series drivers’ championship.
“I knew I was the favourite going into the first event and I think a lot of people knew that as well, but I was especially surprised with the first two events and then disappointed with the third one, as you can imagine,” Opmeer said.
“It would be an extremely big disappointment if I don’t win it but, at the same time, I know Frede and Marcel are having insane seasons so far so they have been pushing me very hard in the drivers’ title [race].
“So am I confident? Yes, I’m confident because I think we’ve made good steps forward but at the same time they might’ve made steps forward as well.
“I’m just focusing on what I can do to get the maximum out of it.”
Japan, Mexico and Brazil will be the three venues for the final Pro Series event, with Mexico making its F1 Esports Pro Series debut.
Last year’s calendar also featured Brazil as the final round, and it was the race where Opmeer finished in 12th place, one of only two times he failed to score points.
It’s a low point Opmeer doesn’t believe will be repeated given the time he’s put into working on the circuits where he was weaker relative to the rest of the grid.
“I wouldn’t really say past results mean anything, I remember last year in Baku I finished 14th in the Pro Series and then I won the Pro Exhibition race,” Opmeer recalls.
“I’ve definitely worked on the tracks where I finished badly last year extra hard.
“Same for Monza this year as I finished in second but last year I qualified in P10.
“I know from last year what tracks I was weak on and I already started practicing really early on those tracks, so I don’t think it really means anything, to be honest.”
Red Bull driver Kiefer is very confident of his pace at the upcoming three circuits, despite having never completed a Pro Series race on any of those tracks.
With himself and his team-mate Rasmussen both in contention for the drivers’ championship, there is the potential for both drivers to fight each other hard for the better spot in the standings.
However, Kiefer reveals that the constructors’ championship takes priority, but also that the team trusts he and Rasmussen won’t aggressively battle and hit one another – Vettel/Webber-style.
“The team doesn’t say anything to both me and Frede [Rasmussen] because they know we are dealing with the situation on our own and they can rely on our professionalism that we will treat each other like team-mates and not just punt each other off so we get the glory,” Kiefer said.
“So no, we don’t have any team orders but we have a clear goal, which is the teams’ championship and whatever happens from there on.
“I mean, if Jarno Opmeer would drop behind us that would also mean we have the teams’ championship most likely.
“That would mean the fighting would start because then if there’s nothing to lose anymore in terms of teams’ standings then we can also fight for the drivers’ championship a bit harder than usual.”
When compared to real-world motorsport it is unusual the focus the drivers have for the constructors’ championship, although given that the prize money is distributed based on those standings it does make sense.
For Kiefer though, he sees the drivers’ title as the much harder goal given the consistency needed to win it and the calibre of the drivers taking part.
“I know I wouldn’t be able to drive if I didn’t get the opportunity to drive for Red Bull or any team so for me it’s natural to think that the team is more important than my own personal interest.
“The interests of the team is of course winning, possibly everything, but the main target is always the teams’ championship because there we represent the team, in the drivers’ championship it’s mainly for our own good.
“It’s not like I don’t want to win it, I definitely want to but in esports with all of these tiny margins it’s getting harder and harder.
“A bad weekend for Lewis Hamilton is probably still a podium, whilst for us a bad race is out of the points or dead last.
“So it’s much harder to always be up there so it also becomes a challenge to from the beginning say ‘I will be the champion’ because there are so many talented guys.
“It’s the best 20 drivers in the world and we’re split by a couple of tenths every single time.
“I think there’s no question that it’s insanely tough to always win, last year David Tonizza (pictured above) won and this year he’s struggling.
“So for me the teams’ target is more realistic because you can work together, it’s two drivers and two are stronger than one.
“So that’s why I heavily focus on the teams’ standings and it’s the same approach from Frederik Rasmussen and everyone involved in Red Bull.”
When asked who he sees as his toughest opponent going into the final event, Opmeer named 2019 runner-up Rasmussen, and that’s not just due him having a smaller points deficit.
“Rasmussen is always very consistent, always up there.” Opmeer said, “I know he’s not bulletproof as you can see in Monza he messed up his Q3 and the same for Bahrain.
“But he’s always extremely fast and I think Marcel’s had a few more mistakes than him this season.
“I’m thinking most likely if I win the drivers’ we’re very likely to win the constructors’ as well.”
