Mercedes-AMG Petronas joins Red Bull Racing for debut in upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual

TOP ESPORTS TEAMS AND GLOBAL MOTOR MANUFACTURERS COMBINE FOR 24 HOURS OF LE MANS VIRTUAL

• Alpine, Mercedes, Williams, Red Bull Racing, W Series taking on the virtual endurance world
• Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Aston Martin and Corvette all represented in GTE

Names from Formula One and the motorsport world at large, familiar to all, are joining with some of the most successful sim racing teams in existence to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual.  The finale to the 2021-22 Le Mans Virtual Series will take place online on 15/16 January, and the list of drivers will include champions from F1, IndyCar, WEC, GT Racing in Europe and the USA and many, many more well-known names.  The full driver list will be released on Friday, January 7, 2022.

The event brings together the world’s best professional drivers and sim racers, teamed together for 24 hours of virtual racing around the legendary French track and the whole event will be televised live across the world via a special TV programme to be made live from Paris.

Real world interest in the virtual world

The 50-strong team entry list (HERE) reveals that Mercedes-AMG Petronas Esports will be making its debut in the Le Mans Virtual Series, competing against Alpine Esports and Red Bull Racing Esports – the official sim racing divisions of the F1 Grand Prix teams.  Joining them will be an all-female team from the W Series, an official Prodrive Esports team, and a return to the spotlight for a famous French racing name, Pescarolo.  They will line up alongside Le Mans Virtual Series full season endurance esports entries from Team WRT, JOTA, Panis Racing, Duqueine, GR Racing, Proton Competition, Team Project 1 and D’Station Racing.

The crème de la crème of sim racers will be representing such well-known esports teams as Rebellion GPX Esports, Rocket Simsport, Floyd ByKolles Burst, R8G Esports, Team Redline, Veloce Esports, Team Fordzilla and SIMMSA Esports.  The list is long and exciting.

GTE’s diversity as impressive as at the real 24 Hours of Le Mans

The entries for the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual are split into two categories of cars, LMP and GTE.  While all LMP teams will use the ORECA 07 LMP2 model, the range and variety of GTE cars entered strongly reflects the diversity and popularity of the virtual race’s real-life heritage.  Ferrari’s official FDA Esports Team will compete with a Ferrari 488 GTE, also used by SIMMSA Esports, while Porsche Esports Team leads the way for no fewer than 10 Porsche 911 RSR GTE entries.

Current GTE championship leader BMW Team Redline is one of five teams using the BMW M8 GTE – the W Series entry opting for this model for their entry to endurance racing.  Two Aston Martin Vantage GTE cars, including one from Prodrive Esports, and two Corvette C8.Rs make up the extremely competitive and always entertaining GTE category

The full entry list including driver line ups will be released tomorrow, January 6, but in the meantime more information about Le Mans Virtual Series including press releases, visuals, official poster and a presentation can be found HERE. All information on the event can also be found on www.lemansvirtual.com.

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