The F1 Sim Racing World Championship is back for 2025

The 2025 F1 Sim Racing World Championship is set to get underway with all 10 F1 teams creating rosters to compete on the virtual stage.

With three drivers lined up for every F1 squad, the 30 drivers will be competing for a share of the $750,000 (~£615,513) prize pool across three events and 12 rounds of racing action.

The F1 Sim Racing World Championship is F1’s official virtual esports competition which is cnetred around its flagship game franchise of the same name. The goal of the competition is to bring more engagement to Formula 1, especially during the winter break for the F1 squads.

The 2025 edition marks the eighth season of the programme and it will take place on F1 24, developed by Codemasters and published by EA Sports.

Last year, the 2023/24 Driver Championship went to Frederik Rasmussen of Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing, who beat Kick F1 Sim Racing Team driver, Thomas Ronhaar, in the last round. Scuderia Ferrari Esports emerged as the World Constructors’ Champions.

The first event will kick off on January 14th, as the drivers will be racing 29 laps in Melbourne’s Albert Park Street Circuit, followed by three other races in the following two days.

The remaining eight races will be split into two separate events, the first one taking place from February 12th to February 14th, and the second from March 25th to March 27th.

The races will be broadcast live via the official F1 YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook channels, as well as the dedicated F1 Esports social media channels.

The F1 esports scene has undergone a major rise and fall over the few past years. The COVID-19 lockdown allowed the game title to thrive, reaching over 400,000 peak viewers at the F1 Esports Virtual Grand Prix Series Vietnam back in 2020.

That being said, the competition wasn’t able to maintain the same level of engagement in the following years, with the 2023–24 Formula One Sim Racing World Championship left in a state of uncertainty following delays caused by a change of organisers and last-minute race cancellations.

The revamped F1 Sim Racing World Championship made the return in April 2024. Despite having much lower numbers than its peak, it still gathered a peak viewership of 42,877 in Event Two, according to Esports Charts, signalling that there is still an active community around the F1 esports scene.