With the second event in the F1 Esports Pro Series gearing up all eyes will be on Alfa Romeo and more specifically Jarno Opmeer to see if they can hold on to the top spot in both championships after the upcoming three races.
Reigning champion David Tonizza emerged on top at the streets of Hanoi but the other two races in the first round were won by Opmeer with his team-mate Daniel Bereznay also claiming podium places in those two races.
🏁WOW! It's @David_Tonizza who takes the #F1Esports chequered flag in Hanoi 🏁
Here's that thrilling last #F1Esports lap for you 😲😲
Wow – what did you think of that?? pic.twitter.com/N7hhJssRoh
— Formula 1® Game (@Formula1game) October 14, 2020
As such Alfa Romeo have taken a clear and early lead of the constructors’ championship with 98 points, 29 more than last year’s champions Red Bull and more than 60 points ahead of every other team.
The action is set to continue on November 4 with races at Zandvoort and Montreal with a Red Bull Ring race on the following day.
While Opmeer’s been the early star, finishing on the podium for every race so far, his Alfa Romeo team-mate has also been one of the strongest performers this year.
One common theme in the Bahrain and China races was that Bereznay and Opmeer went for differing tyre strategies yet on both occasions Opmeer’s proved to be the better one.
The decision to start on different tyre compounds was done for the benefit of the team to see which approach would prove to be better in the 2020 Pro Series.
“We tried to split the strategies as much as we could in the first event and what Jarno is using is a little bit of faster strategy theoretically but it also involves more risk.” Bereznay explained.
“There’s people on the faster tyres trying to overtake you then you need to make many overtakes which Jarno did perfectly.
“Also luck was on our side as well so the first event, especially Bahrain and China was pretty good for us.
“To be honest I have no problem with starting with my strategy even if I know that if nothing bad happens to Jarno, what I don’t want obviously, he will probably beat me because the team performance is the most important for us.
“In Bahrain, we secured 1-2 which is 43 points and in China, we also finished 1-3 which is 40 points to the constructors’ championship, so that’s pretty awesome and I definitely didn’t leave unhappy even if I wasn’t the one who saw the chequered flag first.”
Despite the Alfa Romeo pair quickly establishing themselves as the team to beat, Bereznay hasn’t written off the chances of his nearest rivals.
🏁 The first #F1Esports VICTORY goes to @jarno_opmeer… and it's a 1-2 for @SauberEsports 💪💪
What a win!
👏👏👏
Watch this with us now: https://t.co/BFh1LP2P6d pic.twitter.com/9QmFbiuBgV
— Formula 1® Game (@Formula1game) October 14, 2020
“We are leading the constructors’ and the drivers’ championship with Jarno after the first event, but it’s only one-fourth of the work done, only 25%, so there is still a lot to go,” Bereznay said.
“It’s good to be the team to beat but to be honest AlphaTauri with Joni Tormala, Red Bull with Marcel Kiefer and Frederik Rasmussen, insanely fast pair, also Ferrari with Enzo Bonito and the former champion David Tonizza, they are all a really big threat including Renault as well with Fabrizio Donoso and Nicolas Longuet.
“If you see the timings and not only the results there is basically half a tenth or maximum a tenth of a second that separates us from most of the field and it’s basically just one apex, one little mistake and the championship can turn upside down pretty quickly.”
Splitting the two Alfa Romeo drivers in the championship standings is Red Bull’s Marcel Kiefer who’s claimed two podium finishes so far this Pro Series.
Kiefer was on course to win in China before he was overtaken by Opmeer with fresh soft tyres on the penultimate lap.
🏁 Throwing it back to the last #F1Esports Pro Series event… what an epic battle! #tbt
The #F1Esports action is back from Wednesday 4th November, and we recommend you do not miss it 👀
👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/tN1vteLpNd
— Formula 1® Game (@Formula1game) October 29, 2020
While he sits 24 points behind Opmeer, Kiefer is still happy with how his debut season as a Red Bull driver has gone.
“The first event was obviously really good, it was my best start to an F1 Esports season so far,” he said.
“That clearly already shows that changes we’ve made here at Red Bull, especially for me, the whole surrounding that I’m currently in is really good for me to perform better and also get closer to my potential that I hopefully reach before the end of the season so we can get the title back home where it belongs.
“I didn’t expect anything, I obviously aimed for the top but you never know, the grid is so close and the competition so tight that you can never just say you’re going to become champion – that would probably be really arrogant and not fair to the others.
“I’m really confident that we will do well again and we just have to wait and see what the competition is doing and do our best.”
With the £750,000 prize pot being split according to the constructors’ championship standings, that’s the main focus for most people in F1 Esports.
Bereznay and Kiefer, while still contenders for the drivers’ championship, are both focused on the team’s goal and are happy to have such a quick driver as their team-mate respectively.
“We have a solid pair with me and Frederik Rasmussen and I’ve already proven I can fight up there and we all know Frede can too, he did it the last two years,” Kiefer said.
“I believe we have what it takes for both titles, obviously clear focus is laying on the teams’ championship because we are already team champions from last year and we want to keep that title.
“But if it doesn’t work out we’ll just re-approach next year, try to improve other areas and keep our heads cool.
“It’s so tight that you cannot even be mad if you lose, you obviously want to win but everyone’s so good that you cannot be mad at anyone, they all work incredibly hard all teams so if they win – they deserve it.
The upcoming trio of races provides a tricky challenge and includes the series’ first visit to Zandvoort.
For the drivers, though the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada is the circuit they’re most concerned about due how notoriously difficult it has been, and still is, to stay within the track limits in the Formula 1 games.
After three track limit warnings in the game drivers are given a three-second time penalty, with an additional three-second penalty given for every subsequent track extension or corner cut.
The new three-stage qualifying format could also see some shock eliminations due to the closeness in lap times from the front to the back of the pack.
“I think qualifying will be even more important there like most of the other tracks,” Bereznay predicts.
“Canada is a circuit where you attack the kerbs nice, you gain a tenth, you just miss the kerbs by 5cm or if you attack them with a bad speed, bad angle and you lose plenty of time, you invalidate your lap time or you’re in the wall.
“It’s pretty difficult, I think these tracks are harder than in real life as in real life they mostly go around these high you kerbs and we need to attack them but the only way you gain lap time is if you attack them perfectly.
“Canada is a track where basically every single chicane you gain or lose a tenth and if you nail it you are in pole position but if you make a slight mistake then you are at the backend of the grid.
“So what we practice the most with Canada is consistency.”
In the previous qualifying sessions the top few drivers have been separated by tiny margins, the best example of which came at Hanoi where three-hundredths of a second separated Nicolas Longuet on pole to Enzo Bonito in fifth.
All of the three upcoming circuits all produce short lap times which should make the margins between pole and tenth, or being eliminated from Q1 or Q2, smaller than ever.
“I believe the biggest challenge will be qualifying, the tracks are all so short and the whole grid will be even closer than event one I believe.
“So quali will be the biggest difficulty, everyone knows if you mess up quali you’re probably in a pretty bad spot to score important points.”
