Event to be broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK on Saturday 25th of November from 16.00 to 19.00 /19.30 GMT
The first-ever Formula 1® Esports Series Finals will take place Friday 24th and Saturday 25th November in the F1 paddock, forming part of the the 2017 FORMULA 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The final event will consist of three races, held on the Montreal, Spa-Francorchamps and Yas Marina virtual circuit layouts. Twenty esports drivers qualified for the Finals and the one who earns the most points across the three races will be crowned the first Formula 1 Esports Series World Champion.
This is the schedule of the event:
Friday
- 11h00–12h00 Practice 1
- 15h40–16h40 Qualifying 1
- 19h00–20h00 Race 1 (Montreal)
Saturday
- 10h15–11h00 Practice 2
- 11h00–12h00 Qualifying 2
- 15h00–16h00 Practice 3
- 16h00–17h00 Qualifying 3
- 20h00–23h00 Race 2 (Spa-Francorchamps) and Race 3 (Yas Marina)
The twenty esports drivers have qualified for the event in Abu Dhabi through a preliminary phase which started in August and culminated in the semi-finals held at the Gfinity Esports Arena in London on October 10th. A total of 63,827 players took part in the qualifying stages, completing 976,870 laps. Over 195,000 race times were posted on the official leaderboards (f1esports.com.)
The semi-finals had an impressive digital audience: fans clocked up 2.3m minutes watched and 1.3m video views on Facebook, 3.1m views on Instagram Stories and 1.5m Instagram impressions, 3.25m Twitter impressions, and the live Twitch stream was enjoyed by over 137,000 viewers.
The twenty finalists come from 11 countries, with Germany, Great Britain and Italy leading each with four representatives.
The twenty finalists, listed by country, are:
NameCountry
Igor FragaBrazilFabrizio Donoso DelgadoChileFredrik RasmussenDenmarkMads SoerensenDenmarkJoni TörmäläFinlandPatrik HolzmannGermanySven ZürnerGermanyCedric ThomeGermanyMaximilian BeneckeGermanyBrendon LeighGreat BritainSonuc SaltuncGreat BritainHarrison JacksGreat BritainSalih SaltuncGreat BritainNicolò FioroniItalyTiziano BrioniItalyAlberto FoltranItalyGianfranco GiglioliItaly/VenezuelaAllert VanderwalNetherlandsPatryk KrutyjPolandCem BölükbasiTurkey
Race 2 and Race 3 will be shown live on the official F1 Esports Twitch channel (www.twitch.tv/f1esports/), on the F1 Facebook page and by the following broadcasters: Fox Sports Asia, Fox Sports Australia, Rede Globo (Brazil), Cytavision (Cyprus), MTV (Finland), 5 Plus (Israel), Sky Italy, Canal F1 Latin America, Sky New Zealand, Sport TV (Portugal), Movistar eSports/Movistar F1 (Spain, delayed), SRG (Srf, RTS &RSI: Switzerland) and Sky Sports (UK).
The F1 Esports Series is a partnership between Formula 1, the world’s premier motor sport; Codemasters, the leading racing game developer and publisher; and Gfinity, the global leader in esports events and competitions.
The 2017 F1 Esport Series is the first year of an annual competition, highlighting the sport’s long-term investment in esports and gaming as well as its continued ambition to build a greater connection with wider audiences, especially younger fans.
The launch of the competition coincided with the release of the official F1™ 2017 game which allowed gamers to get closer to Formula 1 than ever before. Released worldwide on PlayStation® 4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One and Windows PC (DVD and via Steam) on August 25th, F1 2017 is the most feature rich game in the franchise’s history and the new F1 Esport Series was open to players on all three platforms.
