Formula SimRacing

Infobox motorsport championship
logo =
pixels = 200px
caption = The official Formula SimRacing logo, created for International SimRacing Club.
category = Computer sim racing single seaters
country/region = International
inaugural2 = 2001
drivers = 24
teams = 12
champion driver = flagicon|Portugal Bruno Margues
champion team = flagicon|Belarus Diamond Racing Team
website = [http://www.formula-simracing.net/ formula-simracing.net]

Formula SimRacing (FSR) is a professional international sim racing league which is arguably the world's highest and largest Formula 1 sim racing league in the world. It is owned and organised by the International SimRacing Club which was founded in 1999. The first season of the league was in 2001. Currently, the racing simulation game rFactor is being used for all events since 2006. FSR conducts its championships exclusively with Formula 1 cars.

History

The International SimRacing Club (ISR Club) was founded by Kurt Baumann (Switzerland) in 1999. in order to build up the world's first and foremost Simracing league. FSR's first season ran in 2001. FSR is by now arguably the world's highest simracing league using Formula 1 cars.

Format

Formula SimRacing (formerly named GP3GL) was built and designed to support realistic racing simulations and to establish simracing as an acknowledged sport in the international press. FSR is divided into two categories: The World Championship category and the World Series category, whereas the World Series itself consists of currently four sub-categories (World Series Ace, World Series Pro, World Series Advanced and World Series Amateur).

The World Championship category is the league's highest category. In order to compete, interested parties are required to purchase licences from the International SimRacing Club. All Team Owners and Administrators are automatically members of the Club and have democratic rights with regard to the targets, activities and financials.Although many of the world's best simracers are racing in this category, Formula SimRacing had a special highlight in early 2006 when ChampCar driver A. J. Allmendinger was competing in the World Championship.

The World Series league can be seen as a place for rookies and advanced simracers. Participation in the World Series for teams and drivers is free, the number of teams and drivers is unlimited. The main target of the World Series category is to prepare rookie drivers for participating in the World Championship category. As of the end of the 2007 Season FSR Announced that they would also have Live Broadcasting for each division instead of just for FSR WC.

World Championship history

2001

GP3GL (today’s Formula SimRacing, FSR) started out in 2001. with using the Grand Prix 3 simulation by Geoff Crammond. The first official qualification of the World Championship was held at Melbourne, Australia. The first man who got pole-position was Artur Mlodzinski, driving for Famm RIN. The first official points race was won by Italian driver Ernesto de Angelis for Virtual-Games in a time of 1h 28:39.385s. Second came Heimen Brons with a time of 1h 29:02.968s and third was Benjamin Voelkel in a time of 1h 29:34.191s.

The winner of the first race took pole-position in the second race in Malaysia, Sepang. However the roles were changed in the race, as the first pole-sitter Artur Mlodzinski drove to his first victory in the championship. Behind Mlodzinski it was again the Dutch driver Heimen Brons finishing 2nd, the podium was completed by Jari Montonen. The second race saw 14 drivers finishing and a total of 17 different nations participating.

After the first two races it was Artur Mlodzinski and Ernesto de Angelis together that won the first 7 races. In Canada it was Christian Neumann with his first victory of the season and his career. He would need to wait 4 more years until he took his 2nd victory in Austria 2005. Jari Montonen finished second with his Virtual-Games car, showing a good pace. He would get his first win later in the season. After Melbourne it was Roy Kolbe who began to win many races. The German driver for Virtual-Games took 5 wins in the first season of GP3GL. It was Max Dell’Orco who won the last race of the season in Japan.

The final standing saw some outstanding results. Artur Mlodzinski wrote history of being the first champion in the GP3GL with a total of 154 points. The second place was divided by not 1, not 2, but 3 drivers! Scoring all exactly 100 points: Jari Montonen, Heimen Brons and Roy Kolbe. The constructor champion was Virtual-Games.com with a total of 255 points, followed by Famm RIN and NetrexGP.

2002

For 2002., Formula SimRacing switched games from Grand Prix 3 to 'F1 2001' from Electronic Arts and switched to 'F1 2002' later in the year. FSR's second season kicked off on March 3 2002. in Australia, Melbourne. 58 laps on the 5,313 km long circuit lead into a total distance of 308 km. There were 3 championship contenders who would battle the whole season long for the 2002. Formula SimRacing World Championship trophy: Ernesto de Angelis (ITA, Team Racebase), Roy Kolbe (GER, Virtual Games) and Artur Mlodzinski (POL, Kiwi Racing).

It was Roy Kolbe who dominated the season opener at Melbourne by taking the pole position and chequered flag. The so called "hot trio" of 2002. won 9 out of 17 championship races. Other race winners were Max DellOrco (Brazil), Joshua Lyon (Great Britain, Hungary, Japan), Greger Huttu (Germany, Belgium, Italy) and Adriano Calligarich, who won the most glamorous race in the 2002. Formula SimRacing World Championship schedule, the Monaco Grand Prix.

Roy Kolbe was leading the point standings for 9 consecutive races but suffered from a disqualification in Montreal, Canada. It was Ernesto de Angelis who took advance of this and took over the point standings for good. Roy Kolbe was even falling back to third when Artur Mlodzinski won the last race of the season in Suzuka, Japan.

On the way to a well deserved championship, Ernesto de Angelis finished every single race and all of them within the points. With only 3 wins, de Angelis showed the world’s elite what consistency means.

Dimitry Gerards' Team Racebase won the 2002. Formula SimRacing constructors’ championship in dominant fashion. There were 116 points that separated Team Racebase and runner-up finisher Virtual-Games, managed by Rogerio Barroso.

2003

The third season of Formula SimRacing saw Roy Kolbe taking a brake from racing and kicked off with simracing legend Greger Huttu (NetRex GP) dominantly winning the first five races. Huttu started his FSR career in 2002. already, but also he needed half a year to be every time competitive. Now he sorted out all his problems and started with NetrexGP into season 2003. in a style nobody expected. Not only did he win those five races, he also got five pole positions in the respective qualifyings.

In the wet race of Brazil Huttu showed his extraordinary driving skills and lapped everyone except Domink Binz, who finished half a minute behind. One race later in Imola he was even stronger and won with an incredible lead of 1m30sec. It was the biggest gap ever we saw in FSR history until 2003. Huttu’s ambition to win the title was more than clear.

But in the sixth GP in Austria, Huttu was, as well as a few other drivers, disqualified after Qualifying and finished only 9th in the race. For the first time in 2003., someone else than Huttu won a GP: Joshua Lyon (Kiwi Racing).

The next race was to be held at Monaco, where Joshua Lyon put his Kiwi Racing car on Pole, outpacing Huttu by four tenths. Lyon also dominated the race, whereas for Huttu it was all over after a crash in lap 23. After this race Huttu retired from FSR for unknown reasons, which was of course a big surprise.

However, the show went on, and so the road was now free for the other title contender Joshua Lyon. In Canada he finished behind race winner Dominik Binz and Yannick Lapchin. The next two races though in Europe and France Lyon dominated and took a comfortable lead in the rankings. Thereafter, he missed the GP of Britain and it was Binz who took his chance and got the victory when for the first time EA's new game F1 Challenge '99-'02 was used. In Germany, Lyon was back on P1 and destroyed all ambitions of Binz to win the title, after Binz finished with big problems three laps behind in eighth. The field moved on to Hungary, seeing a great battle between Binz and Lyon. Indeed Binz struck back and finished just six tenths ahead of Lyon.The circus moved to Monza in Italy and it was Adriano Calligarich who secured his second career victory, this time on his home track. He was followed by championship leader Joshua Lyon and another Italian, Fabrizio Pescali. The last two races went to Joshua Lyon, who secured his first FSR World Championship title in his second season.

2004

The year 2004. was to be the big showdown between reigning 2003. World Champion Joshua Lyon of Kiwi Racing and fast but never successful Roy Kolbe of Virtual-Games.com.

The season started well for the two top chances, qualifying 1st and 2nd on the grid for the first race of the season at Albert Park. The fairytale was soon over on Sunday however when the two ever so slightly touched on the run to turn 1.

The middle of the season would heat up for rounds 10, 11 and 12 at France, Great Britain and Germany. After the French Grand Prix, the top 3 drivers were separated by just 3 points with Joshua Lyon 83, Yannick Lapchin (Hernj Grand Prix) 81 and Roy Kolbe 80. Those three drivers went on to take 1st, 3rd and 2nd respectively at the British Grand Prix the following week to move Kolbe up to 2nd and extend Lyon’s lead slightly. From here on Kolbe never looked back. Yannick Lapchin missed the points at the German GP, Kolbe took the chequered flag and after the race Lyon, who could manage only 3rd place, retired from the Formula SimRacing World Championship due to private problems.

Kolbe went on to win 5 of the remaining 6 races to become the Formula SimRacing World Champion of 2004. by a huge 44 points lead to Yannick Lapchin. Kolbe’s teammate Gareth Clayton (WAL, Virtual-Games) finished a very respectable 3rd in the championship, passing Joshua Lyon’s points total in the final two races. Virtual-Games.com became the 2004 constructors’ champions.

Season 2004. saw the new entry of Twister-Racing in a build up year to their very successful 2005. MayhemF1 and Holland Racing team were to be absent from the grid, replaced by MayenceF1 and Twister-Racing.

2005

The 2005. season started with the international press conference on March 19, held by former ISR Club President Steven Holgeth to announce the Formula SimRacing World Championship driver- and team lineup. The league didn't use the standard game anymore but Ralph Hummerich's RH2004 Modification.

There were 10 teams that travelled "down under" to Melbourne, Australia for the season opener. Last year’s Formula SimRacing World Champion Roy Kolbe (GER, Virtual Games) was able to win the first event of the 2005. season, although having started from the midfield. Kolbe profited from a drive through penalty for Hernj Grand Prix driver Christian Neumann (GER) for crossing the pit exit merge line and a brake failure of Dennis Hirrle (GER), who was going to compete in his first full-time Formula SimRacing World Championship season at Twister-Racing.

Dennis Hirrle won his first ever FSR World Championship GP in Malaysia closely in front of Roy Kolbe.Kolbe won the Imola GP but was yet again beaten in Barcelona by the later world champion from Twister-Racing.

The Monaco GP was held on May 29. Pole setter was Yannick Lapchin (FRA, Hernj Grand Prix). He set the new track record with a lap of 1:11.665 m. The race was won by Da Silva Racing driver Fausto Pappalardo (ITA).Soon after, reigning world champion Roy Kolbe announced his withdrawal from the season.

Dennis Hirrle was the dominant man of the season by winning 11 out of 19 events. The German was able to put in a new FSR record of winning 6 consecutive races (Europe, Canada, USA, France, Great Britain, Germany) and to win the most races in a season. Hirrle secured his World Championship title at the Belgium GP in Spa-Francorchamps, 5 races from the end of the season, where the German was able to lap the entire field in rainy conditions to finish first.

At the last Grand Prix of the season in Bahrain, Christian Neumann won in dominant fashion in front of Dennis Hirrle. It was his third win of the season and his fourth career victory. Scoring 10 points, Neumann also prevailed against Fausto Pappalardo in the fight for the runner-up point standings position.

Martin Gosmann's Twister-Racing Team became the Formula SimRacing Constructors' Champion in its second season.

2006

For 2006, Formula SimRacing switched games from F1 Challenge '99-'02 to rFactor using Jason Tedstone's 'F1Champions' Modification. Before the 2006 season started, reigning world champion Dennis Hirrle (Twister-Racing) announced his retirement for after the season due to personal reasons. The German was barely competitive, instead the season started in perfect fashion for 2004 world champion Roy Kolbe who switched to the new Coca-Cola Kiwi Virtual team and won the first three races of the season.Bruno Marques (Diamond Racing Team) missed the first two races due to technical problems, nevertheless the Portuguese would prove to be Kolbe's hardest opponent for the rest of the year.At the San Marino GP in Imola, FSR welcomed ChampCar driver A.J. Allmendinger (Roaldo Racing) in the World Championship category. The American qualified 9th, did a solid race but spun and stalled his engine few laps from the end.

Both championship contenders failed to score at the European GP at the Nurburgring: Marques did an early mistake and was out of the race, Kolbe spun in the very last part of the race under pressure from team mate David Greco who won his first race in the FSR World Championship.The next race was to be held in the glamurous streets of Monaco where Bruno Marques was able to score his first ever World Championship victory in dominant style, crossing the line long before Dominik Binz (Red Bull Kiwi Virtual) and Dennis Hirrle in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Roy Kolbe just scored 4 points in this race and he scored his so far last victory at the British GP in Silverstone. After a third place in Canada where David Greco celebrated his second season victory, Kolbe didn't score any points in the next 3 races: At the US Grand Prix in Indianapolis, the German was taken out at the start in a mass collision, the next two races he was forced to miss out due to major technical problems.

In the meantime, Bruno Marques put in a series of 4 victories in a row. Since the Monaco GP, Marques never finished in other positions than either first or second. For the next GP at the Hungaroring, FSR switched to the new BMW Sauber F1 Modification by ISI. Roy Kolbe was back racing at Hungary but finished 0,7s behind the Portuguese which increased Marques’ championship lead by another two points.Two weeks later, Formula SimRacing raced for the very first time on the new Istanbul Park track in Turkey. Although Marques started from Pole, he lost his lead immediately to Roy Kolbe at the start who could win the race in front of the Portuguese and Dennis Hirrle.

In Monza and in Shanghai, Marques was again able to cross the line right in front of Kolbe in 2nd, but the German's result was enough to make his team, Coca-Cola Kiwi Virtual, the 2006. FSR World Championship Constructor Champions.Before the next race in Japan, Suzuka, Bruno Marques had a solid 18 points lead over Kolbe and thus only needed to finish in 7th spot in order to win the World Championship on the Asian continent, whereas Roy Kolbe needed to win the race to keep his chances alive for the last race of the season.Marques secured Pole Position over Kolbe by just 0,012s but was passed into Turn 1 by the German who eventually won the race, but it wasn't enough: Bruno Marques finished in 2nd, in front of newcomer and teammate Ondrej Kuncman, and thus won the 2006. FSR World Championship Drivers Championship in the penultimate race. Marques' team, Diamond Racing, has also secured 2nd position in the Constructors Championship in Suzuka.

Ondrej Kuncman won the final season race in Brazil in front of his team mate and new world champion Bruno Marques. It was the newcomer's first victory in his first season. The podium was completed by Dennis Hirrle who announced to continue his career as Team Manager at Twister-Racing.

2007

For the 2007 season, Formula SimRacing conducted many changes in order to further broaden the league’s audience and attraction. A specific internet broadcasting concept was negotiated and as result the league could proudly introduce live coverage of WC events for the first time, including expert commentators and real-time driver comments. The thanks go to gamer-FM, MultiBC and ProSimRacing, of which the ProSimRacing will continue to partner Formula SimRacing for the 2008 season. Secondly, a new category, the World Series Ama, was introduced to allow less experienced drivers get a first touch with the league. The award-winning CTDP 2005 mod was chosen as basis for the physics model, bundled with a 2007 V8 engine and latest tire specifications.

For 2007 two new teams had entered the WC category: the Portuguese GhostSpeed Racing and the American Torrent Motorsports. Other participators included the reigning world champion team Kiwi Virtual, Diamond Racing, Twister-Racing and the revised Roaldo Racing, together with the sim racing world’s elite drivers Bruno Marques, David Greco and Roy Kolbe. The season opener was held at Sepang, where Roy Kolbe and Twister-Racing turned out an unbeatable package and left Greco and Marques battling for the lesser prices. The second foreign continent race at Bahrain was won by Ondrej Kuncman, whilst Marques and Kolbe suffered from technical problems. By the time of finishing the fourth race at Barcelona, Roy Kolbe had won three races out of four possible and the odds were high that the German sim racing veteran would grab a second championship. By this time the first big driver switch had also taken place, as Twister-Racing had switched in Sebastian Schmalenbach for the second seat.

A highlight of every season, the Monaco Grand Prix, was won by David Greco in superior style, giving the Italian the championship advantage after an engine stall by Kolbe. Greco continued his high note at Montreal three weeks later, grabbing his fourth win of career after an eventful race. This race was the first one raced on an updated physics package, with more realistic grip and torque levels. By this time the reigning champion Marques was still without a single pole position and victory, and the champion clearly started to show signs of frustration.

The midsummer race held at Indianapolis proved to be Marques’s turning point, where the Portuguese grabbed a pole and a victory. Even more stunning was his performance at Magny-Cours: a full hat-trick. The two back-to-back races pulled Marques back into the hottest championship fight. The tight pattern continued in July, during which Kolbe managed to recover by clinching a home victory at Nürburgring, but it was too late for the unlucky German to catch the championship lead, and shortly afterwards Twister-Racing announced championship defeat. The month also saw the return of another ex FSR-star, Yannick Lapchin, whose comeback to Roaldo Racing put up some new spice in the constructors’ championship battle.

The culmination point in the Greco-Marques battle turned out to be Hungaroring. While Greco couldn’t finish a qualifying lap on the slow track, it meant that the Italian’s podium chances were minimal and the first retirement of the season eventually ended his 10-race-long point streak. An exciting Istanbul race finally yielded a new Formula SimRacing winner, Patrick De Wit from Holland, just in front of the blue diamond cars. The most exciting race of the season was carried out at Monza, where the spectators witnessed countless overtakes performed by the Greco-Kolbe-Marques axis.

The last quarter was dominated by Marques, who managed to win four consecutive races. With thankfully Spa-Francorchamps back in the calendar, the race saw a tight struggle for the last tenths between Marques and Kolbe. The 2001 champion Artur Mlodzinski accounted for an excellent comeback by grabbing second place at Shanghai, whereas similar to last year the Interlagos race was dominated by Diamond Racing – a result that secured Marques his second consecutive championship. The season finale at the new Fuji track accounted for a great final show between Marques and Kolbe, which once again ended in the Portuguese’s victory and completed his perfect season. The final drivers’ top three table was formed by Marques, Greco and Kolbe, and the teams’ by Diamond Racing, Roaldo Racing and Twister-Racing.

2008

The 2008 season of Formula SimRacing started at Melbourne on March 30th and has currently passed the half-way mark. During the off sason a few changes were done roster-wise by the teams. The most notable exchange was the signing of the double FSR WC champion Bruno Marques, who after two successful years at Diamond Racing joined his home country team GhostSpeed Racing.

The FSR WC 2008 started out with a bang with Stephane Rouault winning his first career pole, but early problems made him drop back and finish in P19. In contrast his team mate Bruno Marques took the lead from the very beginning and would dominate and win round one in front of David Greco. Round two was held at Sepang, where Roy Kolbe took pole position but yet again Bruno Marques, starting from P4, would take the win in front of Kolbe. Marques continued his domination at Bahrain, where he finished in a superior victory in front of John-Eric Saxén, who took the first podium in WC for Torrent Motorsports. The fourth round gave no changes in terms of performances: Marques finished in a fourth victory in row after overtaking Ondrej Kuncman, who this time made the victory harder for the Portuguese.

When entering the second quarter of the season, Bruno Marques was holding an impressive 24-point lead over his strongest rivals. Roy Kolbe started his leap towards the top at Istanbul with his 30th career victory - a race which was foremost remembered of disconnected drivers, amongst those Marques and Lapchin. The Monaco race ended in surprise victory; whilst Marques and Kolbe were struggling, Yannick Lapchin finished in an irreproachable victory for Ash Racing. The Montreal race was held in the absence of Marques and Greco, which Roy Kolbe took advantage of and finished victorious. The same trend continued in the next race at Magny-Cours, but with reversed order, as Ondrej Kuncman took his 3rd WC victory in front of Kolbe. The season halfpoint race was held at Silverstone, where Kolbe lost the championship lead back to Marques, who finished second behind a real surprise winner, Stefan Kanitz.

FSR World Champions

External links

* [http://www.formula-simracing.net Formula SimRacing Official Website]
* [http://www.rfactor.net rFactor Official Website]
* [http://www.f1mods.com/ MMG Official Website]
* [http://www.prosimracing.com/ ProSimRacing Official Website]
* [http://www.racingrenders.com/ Racing Renders Official Website]
* [http://www.racestart.nl/ RaceStart.nl Official Website]
* [http://www.act-labs.com/ ACT LABS Official Website]
* [http://www.allrace.net Allrace World Motorsport News]
* [http://www.revzalotmotorsports.com/ Revzalot Motorsports Official Website]
* [http://www.x6-simulator.com/ X6 Simulator Official Website]

Official Teams Websites

* [http://www.ash-racing.net/ Ash Racing]
* [http://www.bracciano-racing.com/ Bracciano Racing]
* [http://netrexgp.netsons.org Crown Seven Da Silva]
* [http://www.diamondracing.eu/ Diamond Racing Team]
* [http://www.fts-racing.net Faster Than Speed]
* [http://www.ghostspeed.net/ GhostSpeed Racing Team]
* [http://www.precision-motorsports.de Precision Motorsports]
* [http://www.roaldoracing.nl/ Roaldo Racing]
* [http://sbmotorsports.simracing-online.com/ SB Motorsports]
* [http://www.torrentmotorsports.com Torrent Motorsports - Team Atmosphere]
* [http://www.torrentmotorsports.com Torrent Motorsports - Team Osiris]
* [http://www.twister-racing.com Twister-Racing]