Calendar Changes

The Jeddah Corniche Circuit replaced the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, making its debut on the calendar. The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza and Suzuka International Racing Course were also absent, being replaced by the Las Vegas Strip Circuit and the Losail International Circuit respectively.

Event One: DreamHack Winter 2023

Round 1 was held during DreamHack Winter 2023, held in Jönköping, Sweden. It was the first F1 Sim Racing LAN event since 2019.^[19]

At the opening round in Bahrain, Kick F1's Thomas Ronhaar took pole position and led from the start, dominating the race. Nicolas Longuet was involved in a collision at turn 1 on lap 6, clashing with reigning champion Lucas Blakeley and rookie Alfie Butcher. Longuet managed to recover following a wing change to finish 3rd, while Blakeley was left dropping down the field on worn softs. Two-time champion Jarno Opmeer made his way through the field to P2, including making a double overtake, to finish 6 seconds behind winner Ronhaar from P9 on the grid.^[20] Ronhaar’s teammate, two-time champion Brendon Leigh, struggled with issues on his racing simulator, finishing down in twelfth after starting 14th.^[19] Jed Norgrove finished seventh on debut for AlphaTauri after starting P8.^[21] Ronhaar received a $5,000 prize for winning the event.^[20]

Event Two: Stockholm, Sweden

After nearly five months, the season resumed at Jeddah with Frederik Rasmussen taking pole position. Rookie Butcher qualified an impressive third place, but shunted into Ferrari's Bari Broumand during their pitstops, giving him damage and forcing him into retirement. Ronhaar battled with Williams rookie Ismael Fahssi and Blakeley for the podium positions, and in the end Rasmussen took his thirteenth career victory from Ronhaar, Fahssi, and Blakeley.

Ronhaar took pole position in Austria and spent the first third of the race battling with Broumand for the lead. Blakeley disconnected from the race, meaning a Virtual Safety Car was called for a lap to allow Blakeley to rejoin the server. The incident affected several strategies and, after the round of pitstops, led to Butcher taking the lead from twelfth on the grid after teammate Ulaş Özyıldrım backed up the pack to form a clear gap for him. This allowed Butcher to take his maiden race win with Ronhaar second and Fahssi third. Rasmussen could only manage eighth, and Opmeer withdrew from the race after receiving a ten-second penalty in game for speeding under the VSC.

Opmeer received a grid penalty for the race at Silverstone for withdrawing from the Austrian Grand Prix without proper reason and exiting his simulator rig mid-race without permission. This meant that despite Opmeer setting the fastest lap time in qualifyng, his Mercedes teammate Daniel Bereznay started on pole position. Opmeer responded by going on a longer strategy during the race, getting a set of six-lap younger tires than the rest of the frontrunners with twelve laps to go. He charged through the field and won ahead of Longuet, Bereznay, and Fahssi. Championship leader Ronhaar could only manage eighth.

Ronhaar's luck worsened during the Belgian Grand Prix, only finishing tenth. Pole-sitter Broumand battled with Blakeley on the final lap, eventually winning ahead of Blakeley in second with Rasmussen third and Idowu fourth, while Opmeer finished fifth with the fastest lap. Ronhaar's lead in the championship decreased to three points ahead of Rasmussen and seven points to Opmeer.

Longuet took pole at the Dutch Grand Prix, but as an originally wet track dried, he pitted for the mediums when the game bugged and gave him the wrong set of tires; he pitted again for the right set, dropping down to last. Rasmussen inherited the lead to take a comfortable victory, and with it not only became the first repeat winner of the season but also surpassed eleventh-placed Ronhaar for the championship lead.

Blakeley took pole at the United States Grand Prix, but lost out at the start to Broumand, Rasumssen and Alvaro Carreton at the start. His strategy didn't help him progress, leaving him stuck at fourth. Rasmussen tussled with Broumand to win ahead of him and Leigh, ensuring he would lead the championship for the next two rounds. Alpine scored their first points in the championship, with its drivers Patrik Sipos and Ruben Pedreno finishing seventh and eighth respectively. Rasmussen left Event Two with a 41-point lead over Broumand, with Opmeer a further point back and Ronhaar a further five. Red Bull Racing led the Constructor’s Championship by twenty points over Mercedes, thirty over Ferrari, and fifty over Kick.

Season summary

More information Round, Circuit ...

Round	Circuit	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Winning team
1	Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir	Thomas Ronhaar	Wilson Hughes[lower-alpha 2]	Thomas Ronhaar	Alfa Romeo F1 Team Kick Esports
2	Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Jeddah	Frederik Rasmussen	Jake Benham	Frederik Rasmussen	Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing
3	Red Bull Ring, Spielberg	Thomas Ronhaar	Joni Törmälä[lower-alpha 3]	Alfie Butcher	MoneyGram Haas F1 Team Esports
4	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone	Daniel Bereznay[lower-alpha 4]	Jarno Opmeer	Jarno Opmeer	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Esports Team
5	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot	Bari Broumand	Jarno Opmeer	Bari Broumand	Scuderia Ferrari Esports
6	Circuit Zandvoort, Zandvoort	Nicolas Longuet	Ismael Fahssi	Frederik Rasmussen	Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing
7	Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas	Lucas Blakeley	Alfie Butcher	Frederik Rasmussen	Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing
8	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City
9	Interlagos Circuit, São Paulo
10	Las Vegas Strip Circuit, Paradise, Nevada
11	Lusail International Circuit, Lusail
12	Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi

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Scoring system

Points will be awarded to the top 10 classified finishers in the race and one point will be given to the driver who sets the fastest lap inside the top ten. Starting from this season, one extra point will be awarded to the pole-sitter.

In the event of a tie at the conclusion of the championship, a count-back system is used as a tie-breaker, with a driver's/team's best result used to decide the standings.

Drivers' Championship standings

More information Pos., Driver ...

Pos. Driver BHR SAU AUT GBR BEL NED USA MXC SAP LVG QAT ABU Points 1 Frederik Rasmussen 4 1P 7 7 3 1 1 115 2 Bari Broumand 5F 17 10 11 1P 2 2 74 3 Jarno Opmeer 2 7 Ret 1F 5F 7 8 71 4 Thomas Ronhaar 1P 2 2P 8 10 11 19 68 5 Lucas Blakeley 17 4 14 6 2 6 4P 59 6 Ismael Fahssi 8 3 3 4 8 9F 20 53 7 Alfie Butcher 9 Ret 1 18 Ret 4 5F 50 8 Nicolas Longuet 3 8 6 2 13 20P 18 46 9 Josh Idowu 10 9 9 9 4 5 7 35 10 Daniel Bereznay 6 3P 6 32 11 Brendon Leigh 12 16 12 5 7 10 3 32 12 Jake Benham 5F 4 8 12 27 13 Tom Manley 16 13 9 3 11 17 14 Jed Norgrove 7 12 5F 14 14 17 15 Wilson Hughes 19F 6 8 20 11 12 16 Álvaro Carretón 18 18 11 12 6 8 17 Patrik Sipos 15 12 17 16 9 2 18 Rubén Pedreño 11 15 16 17 10 1 19 Fabrizio Donoso 20 10 18 13 1 20 Simon Weigang 13 13 19 10 15 1 21 Ulaş Özyıldrım 14 11 13 17 16 19 17 0 22 John Evans 17 19 12 15 16 0 23 Dani Moreno 13 14 0 24 Filip Prešnajder 14 15 15 18 0 25 Joni Törmälä 19 18 14 15 0 26 Will Lewis 16 Ret 0 - István Puki 0 - Bence Szabó-Kónyi 0 - Sebastian Job 0 - Matthijs van Erven 0 Pos. Driver BHR SAU AUT GBR BEL NED USA MXC SAP LVG QAT ABU Points Sources:[20][22]

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Other points position Blue Other classified position Not classified, finished (NC) Purple Not classified, retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not enter Annotation Meaning P Pole position F Fastest lap

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Teams' Championship standings

More information Pos., Team ...

Pos. Team BHR SAU AUT GBR BEL NED USA MXC SAP LVG QAT ABU Points 1 Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing 4 1P 7 7 3 1 1 152 10 9 9 9 4 5 6 2 Mercedes-AMG Petronas Esports Team 2 5F 4 1F 5F 7 7 132 6 7 Ret 3P 6 8 12 3 Scuderia Ferrari Esports 3 8 6 2 1P 2 2 120 5F 17 10 11 13 20P 20 4 KICK F1 Sim Racing Team 1P 2 2P 5 7 10 3 100 12 16 12 8 10 11 19 5 McLaren Shadow 17 4 8 6 2 6 4P 71 19 6 14 20 11 13 14 6 Williams Esports 8 3 3 4 8 9F 5 63 18 18 11 16 Ret 12 20 7 MoneyGram Haas F1 Team Esports 9 11 1 17 16 4 9F 41 14 Ret 13 18 Ret 19 17 8 Scuderia AlphaTauri Orlen Esports Team 7 12 5F 13 9 3 11 34 16 19 18 14 14 14 15 9 Alpine Esports 11 14 15 12 17 16 8 6 15 15 16 15 18 17 9 10 Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Esports 13 10 17 10 11 15 13 2 20 13 19 19 15 18 16 Pos. Team BHR SAU AUT GBR BEL NED USA MXC SAP LVG QAT ABU Points Sources:[22]

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Notes:

• The standings are sorted by best result, rows are not related to the drivers. In case of tie on points, the best positions achieved determined the outcome.