If you fancy taking part in the 2022 F1 Esports Pro Championship and aren’t currently one of the 30 selected “Pro Rank” drivers, now’s your chance. Qualification starts today, and all you need to take part is a copy of F1 2021 and a valid PSN, Xbox Live, or Steam account.
The qualification event is open to everyone, although you will need to sign up on F1Esports.com, and runs within F1 2021 on any platform. As with previous years it consists of a special race within the game.
You’ll be taking charge of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari SF21 in the closing stages of the Austrian Grand Prix. In the real world, Sainz finished in fifth, and you’ll be trying to at least match that achievement — and preferably better it.
However it’s not quite as easy as just finishing as high as you can. The challenge will score your attempt not just by race time and finishing position but also your lap times, how many assists you use — including the Flashback rewind feature — and how clean your driving is.
F1 Esports uses a mystery formula to calculate your score, but we can safely say that the faster and cleaner you are, and the fewer assists you use, the higher you’ll rank.
You’ll have a month to set your best score, with the event running through the whole of October, and the top-scoring drivers on each platform will secure an invitation to the F1 Esports Challengers Series early next year.
That consists of three, 12-race championships — one each for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox — where the best-placed drivers will advance to the 2022 F1 Esports Pro Exhibition. There they’ll have a chance to show off their skills to the ten official esports teams of the F1 grid, which a chance of selection for the 2022 season.
The official 2021 F1 Esports Pro Championship also gets underway this month, with the first races over the October 13-14, and if you’re good enough you could be racing with the field next season.
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