Superstars Open sim racing event televised
June 12, 2020
By Colin Mann
Sports promotion company GT Sport, SIRIO eSports and MSD have announced the Superstars Open – a one-day televised sim racing event to find the greatest Euroformula Open single-seater graduate of all time, including big names who have gone on to compete in series such as F1, F2, F3, Indycar, Superformula, Formula E, DTM, the World Endurance Championship and International GT Open. The event will mark GT Sport’s debut in televised sim racing, which happens to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the launch of GT Sport’s F3-based series, known today as Euroformula Open.
The event, run by gaming consultancy SIRIO eSports and its technical partner MSDivision, will comprise three 20-minute sprint races at Silverstone, Barcelona and Monza with a 90-minute show airing on Friday June 19th on Movistar F1 and the GT Sport YouTube channels.
With household names from around the world such as F1’s Carlos Sainz; Indycar star Ed Jones and fellow former Euroformula champion Andy Soucek; Superformula front-runners Alex Palou and Tatiana Calderon; former Formula E favourite Nico Prost; DTM drivers Dani Juncadella and Ferdinand Habsburg and many more, the show promises to draw in a huge global audience. As many as nine Euroformula champions will participate with competitors representing 15 countries around the world.
While the event is taking place to celebrate 20 years of world-class racing and to recognise the huge achievements of its former stars, the organisers were also determined to use the opportunity to raise money for the Red Cross COVID-19 Response Aid and support the most vulnerable people who may get overlooked in a crisis.
“I’m extremely proud of what we have achieved over the past 20 years and I’ve enjoyed watching our Euroformula Open drivers go on to huge success,” commented Jesus Pareja, CEO of GT Sport. “The thought of having them all back for one race event is extremely exciting and I can’t wait to see who comes out on top.”
“We hoped, of course, to celebrate our sim racing debut in happier times but our focus must be on supporting people who are facing the impact of this virus. We often feel helpless but even by just donating a small amount of money or time can make a huge difference. We are proud to be supporting the Red Cross and hope that this event can not only be a fantastic display of the incredible talent that has passed through our Euroformula Open series but can also help to raise money for the most vulnerable in our society.”
The event is the first step into esports for GT Sport, which is the home of Euroformula Open, International GT Open and GT Cup Open Europe – three of the most highly respected single-seater and GT series in the world – and will see the global launch of the new Dallara 320. The car will be used by all 30 racers for the first time and, although set-up is fixed, each driver will compete in the sim race with their livery from their real-world competition in Euroformula Open.
“We are excited to be working with GT Sport Organization on its first esports event,” declared Director of SIRIO eSports Emilio de Villota. “It has obviously been a lot of work for us and our partners at MSD to develop the new Dallara 320 F3 car in rFactor2 – it didn’t already exist because it is so new, but we wanted to use a car that reflected the 2020 real-world season and that none of the competitors had experience in. It was also a lot of work to find and recreate all of the liveries for each of our 30 competitors but it’s important with this project to ground our virtual races in the nostalgia and emotion of real racing.
“The rest is quite straight-forward for us as sim racing organisers and we are looking forward to running an event that is professional, fun and brings together some great racers who share Euroformula Open memories. If we can also help to raise some money for a very worthy cause then I’ll be very pleased with what our team at SIRIO eSports and MSD has achieved in just a few weeks.”
The Superstars Open presented by GT Sport, SIRIO eSports and MSD will be on Movistar F1 and streamed on YouTube channels on Friday 19th June with exact timings and details to be released in race week.