Formula One is the midst of its second-ever professional esports season. The global motorsports series has teamed up with Facebook to release a four-part documentary series that chronicles the inaugural F1 Esports Series Pro Draft, which took place in July.
Some 66,000 gamers made their way through a series of qualifiers, with 40 earning a spot at the draft. Those scooped up had an opportunity to sign contracts with real F1 racing teams.
The 16 gamers chosen in the draft were placed on the official esports driver line-up of Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, Red Bull Racing, Hype Energy eForce India, Williams F1 Esports Team, Renault Sport Team Vitality, Haas F1 Esports Team, McLaren, Toro Rosso, and Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team. Nine out of 10 F1 teams (Ferrari opted out) are participating in this year’s Esports Series.
F1’s documentary promises “unrivaled access to the drivers and the pro teams,” with the series charting the story of the entire process, from assessment days of the 40 gamers at Silverstone before the British Grand Prix through the live selection show in London earlier this month. Professional F1 drivers Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing and Pierre Gasly of Toro Rosso attended the draft.
Facebook’s live stream of the draft amassed roughly 338,000 views (though F1 says livestreams reached nearly 900,000 in total across all channels). The esports league partnered with Facebook and select TV broadcasters to air the documentary, the first part of which was released on Jul. 25.
Wednesday’s episode on the F1 Esports Series site had accumulated more than 180,000 views as of Thursday morning. The remaining three episodes will launch on Aug. 22, Sept. 5, and Sept. 26, scattered throughout the season leading up to the first-ever F1 Esports Pro Series Championship. The esports drivers will participate in three live events, gunning for a prize pool of at least $200,000.
“It has been quite the journey for these drivers to emerge as the world’s best on our official F1 game to partake in our inaugural F1 Esports Pro Draft,” said Julian Tan, F1’s head of growth and esports, in a statement. “This four-part episodic series will tell the story of these drivers, who were flown from across the globe into the historic Silverstone circuit to take part in this. There they were assessed on all aspects from sim racing and fitness to media readiness and go-karting, eventually earning a chance to be picked by an official F1 team.”
Interestingly, the series will also shed light into the F1 teams themselves, providing a behind-the-scenes look into the objectives and plans in esports and what they expect in the future from their rostered esports drivers.
SportTechie Takeaway
This is the first time F1 has recruited its racing teams to collectively participate in an esports draft and series, signaling the ongoing adoption of esports by traditional sports leagues. This is the motorsports equivalent to the NBA 2K draft held earlier this year at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, which had participation from 17 of the NBA’s 30 teams.
At the basketball league’s draft in April, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver referred to the esports series as the “fourth league” in the NBA. The NBA’s esports series live streamed the draft and struck an exclusive rights deal with Amazon.com-owned Twitch to stream all 199 games.