The FIA has stepped up its sim racing esports involvement in 2026. Alongside its officially sanctioned FIA Esports European Hill Climb Cup event in Luxembourg last weekend, at the SimRacing Expo Frankfurt, it was the European leg of the FIA Esports Global Rally Tour.
The competition started with open online qualification, which anyone could attempt, for a week in May. Then the eight best qualifiers (or 16 in Europe) went to Regional Finals, which started with the Asia-Pacific sphere in Macau in June.
Argentina hosted the South American shootout in September, while SimRacing Expo held the European round on the same weekend as the North American finals in Costa Rica. It’s a truly global event, perhaps even the first of its kind, and it all takes place on Assetto Corsa Rally, across an 11.6km stage in Wales.
By the time of the European Shootout live show on stage in Frankfurt, the field had been whittled down to the final four who would all be going to Shanghai in December. Tommi Makinen was up against Tommi Hallman in the first semi-final, while in the other, Jan Hujicek was up against Kaapo Kalenius.
In the all-Finnish matchup, the two were extremely well matched in the first half of the run, with Hallman just two tenths up by the halfway time check, but he slowly eked out a bigger advantage as the run went on, ending 3.2 seconds ahead of his compatriot.
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