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This weekend sees the third race in the Formula 1 Virtual GP race series. This week’s race takes place at the Chinese GP circuit. The F1 Virtual GP series has been designed to ensure that real F1 drivers are competing during this period of no real races. The format was created so that Formula 1 fans were still able to watch Formula 1 racing on weekends where a real race should be taking place.
This weekends race will take place at the Shanghai International Circuit in China, and takes place on the same day which the original event was scheduled for.
This weekend there are seven real Formula 1 drivers entering the Chinese Virtual GP. They will be joined by other racing drivers, sports stars and celebrities.
This weekend’s race sees Carlos Sainz Jr joining the virtual grid for the first time in the Virtual GP series. He will join his real life team mate Lando Norris to complete McLaren’s driver lineup. Previous Virtual GP race winner Charles Leclerc will be returning and driving for Ferrari. Leclerc won his debut race at the Virtual Australian GP and will be looking to make it two wins out of two races this weekend.
Other Formula 1 drivers will be returning to race again including George Russell, Nicholas Latifi, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alex Albon.
Joining these Formula 1 drivers are a host of Formula 2 drivers including Juan Manuel Correa, Guanyu Zhou and Callum Ilott. Guanyu Zhou is the only other Virtual GP race winner on the grid after he won the first ever Virtual GP at Bahrain.
The Best F1 24 Racing WheelsMax Verstappen will not be entering the Chinese Virtual GP despite being a well known sim racer. Max has stated that the reason for not entering any of the official Virtual GP races is that he isn’t familiar with the F1 2019 game. All races of the Virtual GP series use Codemasters official F1 2019 video game as their racing platform. And Max doesn’t race in this game.
In an interview with Dutch broadcaster Ziggo Sport, Max said the following: “No, I won’t. Especially since I never play that game. It will take days to understand the game just a little bit better. And I don’t want to get into it right now.
“Also because I’m very busy with the other racing games. So switching between all those games just doesn’t work for me. And on top of that I always race to win. I’m not going to drive around somewhere at the back. Then I’d rather not participate at all.”
| Team | Driver |
|---|---|
| Mercedes | Stoffel Vandoorne |
| Mercedes | Esteban Gutierrez |
| Ferrari | Charles Leclerc |
| Ferrari | Callum Ilott |
| Red Bull | Alexander Albon |
| Red Bull | Thibault Courtois |
| McLaren | Lando Norris |
| McLaren | Carlos Sainz Jnr |
| Renault | Guanyu Zhou |
| Renault | Ian Poulter |
| AlphaTauri | Liam Lawson |
| AlphaTauri | Ciro Immobile |
| Racing Point | Anthony Davidson |
| Racing Point | Jimmy Broadbent |
| Alfa Romeo | Antonio Giovinazzi |
| Alfa Romeo | Juan Manuel Correa |
| Haas | Louis Deletraz |
| Haas | Pietro Fittipaldi |
| Williams | George Russell |
| Williams | Nicholas Latifi |
The full live stream of the whole event will be available to live stream on the official Formula 1 website, as well as their official Youtube channel and Twitch. Join the live stream at F1.com
You can also watch the live race around the world on popular sports channels such as Sky Sports F1 and ESPN. Tune in to the official live stream here.
This weekends event will start at 18:00 BST on Sunday April 19th.
The format for the event will start with a qualifying session where all drivers try to set their fastest lap time. These lap times will then form the starting grid for the race. The race will then start and will be a 50% distance race. This means there will be 28 laps for all drivers to compete for the win.
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Rich is the co-founder, and one of the main F1 setup creators and content writers for SimRacingSetups. With over a decade of experience as a graphic designer, marketing director, competitive sim racer and avid motorsport fan, Rich founded SimRacingSetup.com to share his passion and knowledge of sim racing and Formula 1 with other sim racers. Regularly writes for sim racing website SimRaceReviews.com
View all articles written by Rich
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