Looks like the Prancing Horse is now serious about esports. Ferrari has announced the Ferrari Hublot Esports Series, a new sim racing competition for Europe.
The Ferrari Hublot Esports Series will be conducted in Assetto Corsa, with the winner getting a spot to be in part of the Ferrari Driver Academy Hublot Esports Team. This is the name of Ferrari’s esports team, which for now competes in F1 Esports with two signed members currently: 2019 Drivers’ champion David Tonizza and long-time sim racer Enzo Bonito.
Any European citizens above 18 can sign up to join the series by signing up here. The first stage is qualifying for the AM Series in September. From there, the AM Series and PRO Series will commence, racing together on the same track. The PRO Series are 24 seasoned esports drivers invited by Ferrari to compete.
The fastest 12 drivers will then move to the finals, held in November, for another three races before a champion is crowned.
Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc acts as an ambassador for the championship, and will be “following all the stages very closely and offering participants advice based on his experience as both a real and esports driver“. Leclerc has spent the past months when there was no F1 racing being involved with sim racing, including participating in the F1 Virtual Grands Prix, as well as streaming on his Twitch channel.
Ferrari follows McLaren for having sim racing/esports endeavours done by an automotive manufacturer. While we here in Southeast Asia can’t participate, it’s cool to see how big brands continue to dabble with esports, or video games.