Michi Hoyer won the first round of the 2021 Formula SimRacing World Championship on rFactor 2, beating his team-mate and defending champion Jernej Simoncic at Imola.
A rule shake-up in FSR has seen the virtual series take inspiration from both Formula 1’s past as well as near future.
The cars are comparable to the upcoming F1 cars of 2022, with aerodynamic changes designed to create better racing, but in addition to that refuelling has been added to the championship.
On top of that the rule that drivers have to use two sets of hard compound tyres collectively between qualifying and the race has also been introduced, having been carried over from FSR’s IndyPRO championship – which was also won by Simoncic.
Despite that everyone qualified on soft compound tyres, with Hoyer taking pole position.
Liam de Waal in second split the two Burst Simplexity Esport team-mates Hoyer and Simoncic, with Janos Bracsok starting the race from fourth and Alex Siebel fifth.
The top five drivers elected to start the race on the soft compound tyre. Tom Satherley in sixth was the highest-placed driver to start on the hards and quickly dropped behind the second Evolution Motorsports driver, Dennis Jordan, who was on the softs.
Simoncic briefly took the lead of the race due to an undercut strategy to stop for a set of hards, something which helped secure the race win for his team mate as he let Hoyer past swiftly but held up de Waal for the majority of his stint.
Despite ending the race on the soft compound tyres, Simoncic wasn’t able to completely close down the six-second deficit to the top two and finished the race in third place, three seconds behind de Waal in second.
Conversely, a final soft-tyre stint allowed Evolution Motorsports drivers Siebel and Jordan to clear Bracsok for fourth and fifth respectively.
This year the drivers are competing for a €5000 prize pool, which will be distributed in the form of hardware and cash.
The drivers’ champion will win a Sim-Lab P1-X racing chassis and seat, and the top three in the championship at the end of the season will win a trophy.
As for the teams, they will earn a certain amount of money per championship point earned, last year distributed at €3 per point with the points system being identical to Formula 1’s.
The second race in the 12-round calendar will take place on March 21 at the Estoril circuit.
