Ferrari has announced a second season of its own Ferrari Esports Series will be coming this year, with the winner getting the chance to join the brand’s own esports squad.
The 2021 series follows on from the 2020 event which saw Italy’s Giovanni De Salvo take the title with a lights-to-flag win in the final race of the Grand Final at Monza. For this season the format will be a little different, but the grand prize of a spot on the Ferrari Driver Academy Esports Team will be the same. That’s not the only prize though.
Throughout the 2021 season, all registered players will be eligible to take part in a prize draw event, whether they’re racing or not. Ferrari hasn’t covered what prizes will be on offer, although we’ll guess at a selection of Prancing Horse merchandise, but the winner of each draw will be revealed live on air during the event streams.
Furthermore, there’s a competition for those who prefer design to driving. Ferrari will allow gamers to enter their vehicle livery designs for the cars in the series on a special web portal — which has yet to be revealed — and the best entries will feature across Ferrari’s social media channels. The most popular design will then become part of the series itself, with the qualified drivers racing with that livery.
As for the main event, that starts with driver registration on the official website, though this is only open to drivers resident in Europe. There’ll then be a qualification stage, using the PC version of Assetto Corsa consisting of four hotlap sessions in the competition’s four official cars: the 488 Challenge Evo; 488 GT3 Evo; 599XX Evo; and FXX K. The two 488 models are exclusive to the Ferrari Esports Series, and only available to registered drivers.
Qualification runs from April 5 through to July, and the fastest 48 drivers — the format is unclear, but we’d assume the top 12 in each of the four qualifiers — will then progress through to the regular series, running from August through November. Following this main season, the top 24 will then go through to the Grand Final. This three-race event will, as with last year, decide the champion.
All of the races across the season will be live streamed on Ferrari’s own Twitch channel, with dates and times to follow later.
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