Ferrari is entering a quartet of aces in the Virtual Vietnam GP, which takes place on Sunday 5 April at 21.00 CET, with two separate races. Running under the FDA Hublot Esports Team banner, the part of the Ferrari Driver Academy given over to virtual racing, will be the Leclerc brothers, Charles and Arthur, alongside professional sim racers, David Tonizza, the F1 Esports Series reigning world champion and Enzo Bonito, who recently joined the Maranello squad. The event will be broadcast by Formula 1 on their YouTube, Twitch and Facebook channels as well as on Ferrari’s FDAFans channel on Facebook.
Show. The Covid-19 pandemic has shut down all forms of motorsport around the world and Formula 1 is no exception. So, with the majority of countries enforcing a lockdown, to avoid the spread of the virus, Formula 1 decided to put on an entertaining show for the fans and on 22 March, it launched the “We Race On” initiative. On the Sunday when we should have been racing in Bahrain, it organised the Virtual Bahrain GP and this weekend we have the Virtual Vietnam GP, when twenty drivers from a variety of racing backgrounds will race each other using the series’ official game (F1 2019). As the Hanoi street circuit is a new venue and therefore did not feature on the game, the Vietnamese round will actually be played on the Albert Park street circuit in Melbourne, home to the Australian GP.
Two races. There will be two races on Sunday. The first is for real racers, along with TV commentators and various celebrities. Competing for FDA Hublot Esports Team will be Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc, a former student of the Academy, who finished fourth in the 2019 championship with two wins and seven pole positions and his brother Arthur, newly recruited to the Ferrari young drivers programme, on the strength of his excellent showing last season in the ADAC Formel 4 championship. The race will be run over 28 laps and to help level the playing field, given the different degrees of experience, the cars will have identical set-up and performance and the amount of damage that can be done to the cars will be limited.
Sim drivers. Then, at 22.30 CET it will be the turn of the professional Esports driver with the aforementioned Tonizza and Bonito flying the flag for FDA Hublot Esports Team. The 14 lap exhibition race will be an exercise in pure Esports, with cars being damaged if they are involved in incidents and their set-up being tuneable by the sim drivers.
How to see the Virtual Vietnam GP