2025 British F4 Esports Championship Round 1: Moore sets out his stall

The British F4 Esports Championship returns for 2025, boasting a grid stacked with Formula 1-affiliated sim racing teams.

Alpine, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Red Bull and Williams are all represented on the grid, but 2024 Drivers’ champion Graham Carroll is not, being listed as a reserve for 2025. 

2024 Teams’ champion Guild Esports is also absent from the grid, having folded earlier this year. However, the squad’s top drivers, Remy Gilbert and Henry Moore, now form Team Benki and are likely the early-season favourites as a result.

Race 1

It was Moore who claimed the first pole position of the season at Donington Park’s Grand Prix layout, with the teenager no doubt eager to improve on his second-place championship finish in 2024. Surprisingly sat alongside him was Pablo Espes of Williams Sim Racing, with Leo Brown and Dani Moreno third and fourth, respectively.

Moore made a rapid getaway, but was quickly followed by Drive Lounge Racing’s Brown. The pair made an immediate breakaway from the pack, with a four-way battle developing for the final podium slot.

Espes had Gilbert, Will Reford and Moreno for company, but by the final couple of tours, Espes had built up enough of a gap to clear the cars behind, as Reford, Moreno and Gilbert finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.

Up front, Brown shadowed Moore all the way to the line, but it was the Team Benik driver who prevailed by just a tenth of a second to take the first race of the season.

Matt Caruana, perhaps one of the quickest single-seater drivers in iRacing right now, finished seventh and would be one to watch for the reversed grid race.

Race 2

TC Esports’ Agustin Torlaschi drew pole position for Race 2, but had Caruana for company on the front row, as Race 1 winner Moore started down in eighth.

Torlaschi made the better start, but ran slightly too deep at Redgate, allowing Caruana to switch back and lead into the Old Hairpin on lap one. Gilbert displaced Torlaschi into third, while further back, Reford was fired off at McLeans by Brown, elevating Moore into sixth before lap two.

The first seven cars settled into a slipstreaming train for the majority of the race, but with three laps left, Moore eased ahead of Brown into fifth before slicing past Torlaschi for fourth on the next lap.

Shoma Shintani, the runner-up in the 2024 UK FF1600 Esports Cup, made impressive progress up to sixth, pressuring Torlaschi for fifth, but couldn’t quite maintain the consistent pace of the top five in the closing stages.

On the penultimate lap, Cauruana was under intense pressure from both Moreno and Gilbert for the win, with the latter lightly body-checking Moreno on the exit of the Melbourne Hairpin to reassert his grip on second position.

Caruana was unflappable on the final lap, however, holding off Gilbert to take the victory, with TC Esports’ Moreno still in close proximity in third. 

Moore eased home in fourth to retain the championship lead, with Torlaschi rounding off an impressive debut for TC Esports with fifth, and second-place in the Teams’ standings.

2025 UK FF1600 Esports Cup, Round 1

With Shoma Shintani and Mark Fletcher now out of the picture, the returning Crofton Woodhatch and Sam Sanders seemed best-placed to compete for the top two spots in the UK FF1600 Esports Cup standings, and a place on the 2026 British F4 Esports grid.

Woodhatch, who so often had the pace to match both Fletcher and Shintani in 2024, duly took pole position for the first race of 2025, narrowly ahead of Hayden Bramley and Charlie Summers in second and third, respectively.

Race 1

Woodhatch led from the off, as Summers capitalised on a mistake from Bramley at Redgate on lap one to slot into second.

Mid-race, Summers fell foul of track limits at the Fogarty Esses, dropping him to sixth and elevating the canny Sanders to third, as Woodhatch built a slipstream-busting gap out front.

With Woodhatch effectively home and hosed, the four-car battle for second took precedence, with Bramley and Sanders now joined by 2024 debutants Matt Kendall and Kane Rider.

On the final lap, however, Sanders got into the back of Bramley at McLeans, spearing into Dylan McClements as a result. Bramley continued in P2, with Kendall slotting into third. 

Woodhatch crossed the line five seconds further up the road, though, getting the best possible start to his season.

Race 2

The reversed grid draw saw Woodhatch starting from eighth, with the unfortunate Summers on pole position and eager to make up for a disappointing Race 1.

Summers held onto the lead through the Craner Curves, only just holding off the advances of Brandon Lowden and Sanders. Woodhatch initially made solid progress towards the front of the field but ran wide at the Esses mid-race, dropping him out of the top 10.

Up front, Kendall usurped Summers for the lead, with Sanders holding on to make it a three-way battle for victory. Unfortunately for the trio, their skirmishing allowed the pack to close in to make it a six-way fight by the final lap, with Sanders just pipping Kendall to the chequered flag.

Behind, Teemu Myllykangas instigated contact with Summers at Goddards, dropping the latter down to P5, while Woodhatch could only muster eighth, losing ground to Kendall in the championship fight.

Round 2 of the British F4 Esports Championship and UK FF1600 Esports Cup will take place on the 1st October at Thruxton, with all the racing broadcast live on iRacing’s YouTube, Twitch and Facebook channels, produced by RaceSpot TV.

2025 British F4 Esports Championship, Round 1, Donington Park GP Race 1 results 

1. Henry Moore, Team Benik
2. Leo Brown, Drive Lounge Racing
3. Pablo Epses, Williams Sim Racing
4. Will Reford, G2 Esports
5. Dani Moreno, TC Esports

2025 British F4 Esports Championship, Round 1, Donington Park GP Race 2 results 

1. Matt J Caruana, HYMO Setups by EMM
2. Remy Gilbert, Team Benik
3. Dani Moreno, TC Esports
4. Henry Moore, Team Benik
5. Agustin Torlaschi, TC Esports

Drivers’ standings after Round 1

1. Henry Moore, Team Benik, 76 points
2. Matt J Caruana, HYMO Setups by EMM, 66 points
3. Remy Gilbert, Team Benik, 63 points
4. Dani Moreno, TC Esports, 61 points
5. Leo Brown, Drive Lounge Racing, 60 points

Teams’ standings after Round 1

1. Team Benik , 139 points
2. TC Esports, 107 points
3. HYMO Setups by EMM, 75 points
4. Drive Lounge Racing, 60 points
5. Williams Sim Racing, 59 points

2025 British F4 Esports Championship and UK FF 1600 Esports Cup schedule

• Round 1, Donington Park GP, 24th September
• Round 2, Thruxton, 1st October
• Round 3, Snetterton 300, 15th October
• Round 4, Oulton Park International, 22nd October
• Round 5, Silverstone GP, 29th October
• Round 6, Knockhill, 12th November
• Round 7, Zandvoort, 19th November
• Round 8, Brands Hatch GP, 26th November