The opening round of 2022’s Mobileye GT World Challenge Europe Esports Championship takes place this evening at Misano, (6th April 2022) featuring a field replete with some of the fastest Assetto Corsa Competizione players in the world.
Headlining the new campaign is 2021 champion, James Baldwin. The Veloce McLaren driver was notable for being the only driver to score points in every single race in last year’s GT World Challenge Europe Esports Sprint Series but still showed incredible pace to take three race wins.
His main rival last season, David Tonizza, also returns for 2022, driving a Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo for the Scuderia Ferrari Velas Esports Team. At times, Tonizza was the man to beat in 2021, also taking three wins, but two non-scores and a costly ten-second penalty in the Spa-Francorchamps finale meant he finished eight points shy of the title.
We shouldn’t expect it to be another two-horse race, however, with the likes of BMW Team BS+COMPETITION’s Nils Naujoks, Unicorns of Love’s Michael Tauscher and Tonizza’s new Ferrari team-mate Kamil Pawlowski also in the hunt.
Also of note are works-backed Aston Martin and Lamborghini teams, the latter using 2021 Lamborghini The Real Race EMEA champion Jordan Sherratt.
New for this season is a second class for Silver drivers. Designated based on last season’s finishing positions and points accrual, Silver drivers are no less quick than their Pro counterparts, so expect to see the likes of Robbie Stapleford, Dominik Blajer and Egor Ogorodnikov mixing it at the front of the field. The key for them will be to pick their battles to ensure they maximise class points.
Races remain at 60-minutes, with a mandatory pit stop spicing things up in terms of strategy. Balance of Performance remains a closely-guarded process, but organisers intend to make it more transparent by offering official tests to drivers on request.
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