F1 Esports Series: Not great in Brazil, but the FDA Esports Team is making progress

The Ferrari Driver Academy Esports Team failed to score points in the final race of the F1 Esports Series Pro Championship run on the Interlagos layout. However it did mark the debut of Domenico Lovece, as the team experimented with putting him behind the wheel instead of David Tonizza, as a reward for his role all season as a sparring partner on hand to help David and Brendon Leigh improve their performance. 

Qualifying. As one might have expected, Domenico had a difficult time of it on his debut and had to settle for 18th place in qualifying. Looking at the gaps, if he had managed to find just two tenths, he would have been tenth. Leigh struggled even more and was twentieth on the grid. 

Race. Brendon got a brilliant start, making up three places immediately, while unfortunately, Domenico dropped to the back of the pack. But they soon started to move up the order and when all the drivers had pitted, Leigh was 11th and Lovece 19th. But Brendon’s progress ended when he collided with Dani Moreno (Mercedes) which meant he had to pit for a new front wing, while Domenico went on the attack in the second half of the race, which saw him cross the finish line in 12th place. He later found himself promoted to 11th after Marcel Keifer (Red Bull Racing) picked up a five second penalty.

Summary. Overall, the drivers improved over the course of the season. It started poorly but ended in style when David Tonizza won at Imola yesterday. The FDA Esports Team ended up fourth in the classification, which did not live up to pre-season expectations, but it was definitely a better end that might have been predicted at the mid-seasom. Tonizza was sixth in the Drivers’ classification, while Leigh was tenth.