The FIA has announced that the third FIA Motorsport Games will feature an expansion to its esports offerings with a second discipline that sees iRacing make its event debut alongside Assetto Corsa Competizione — but there’s no room for Gran Turismo.
For 2024 the multidisciplinary international motorsports competition moves to a third European country, with the event taking place in Valencia, Spain. The city itself and the nearby Circuit Ricardo Tormo will host the at-least 26 motorsport categories that will make up the 2024 Games.
Organized by the FIA and its partner the SRO Motorsports Group, the 2024 event will be the largest yet with all 16 disciplines from the 2022 event returning alongside ten new events.
That covers the six events from the original, 2019 Games — GT, GT Sprint, Touring Car, Formula 4, Drift, and Esports — as well as Karting, Rally, Cross Car, and Auto Slalom. New categories include Karting Mini and Endurance, a Cross Car Eco class, and the three Rally classes being split into separate Gravel and Tarmac events.
Esports too is part of this category growth, with the original GT3-based section remaining as “Esports GT” and being joined by a new “Esports FIA F4” class.
While Gran Turismo Sport hosted the Esports event back at the first games in Vallelunga — with Cody Latkovski taking gold for Australia — it was replaced with Assetto Corsa Competitizone for the second games in Le Castellet in 2022. Gran Turismo 7 had just come out and was an unknown quantity at the time. The UK’s James Baldwin took victory in that event.
With the SRO co-organizing this year’s event it’s perhaps unsurprising that the official game of the its GT World Challenge remains in place as the Esports GT offering for 2024, with the races once again taking place on ACC.
iRacing’s inclusion comes as a little more of a surprise although it is a natural fit for an open-wheel category. The FIA has worked with iRacing to officially license the “FIA Formula 4” car — previously called the iRacing Formula iR-04 — which has been used in a number of events by the FIA’s national sporting authorities (ASNs) worldwide including the British F4 Esports Championship.
The 2024 FIA Motorsport Games will run from October 23-27, with the esports events taking place in the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias event space. A number of ASNs are already inviting applications from potential esports representatives, so get in contact with yours if you’re interested!
See more articles on Assetto Corsa Competizione Esports, FIA Motorsport Games, and iRacing.
