Mentioned in this article Teams: G2 Esports, McLaren

All F1 teams, minus Ferrari, commit to participating in the next season of the F1 Esports Series.

F1 has changed the series’ rules to prohibit any player signed to an esports organization from participating.

F1 is taking a big risk by ignoring the established simracing scene.

Formula One has announced the return of the F1 Esports Series. Once again, it will see players competing in F1 2017/18 to take home a large cash prize of at least $200,000. This year, however, players will be racing for official F1 teams.

Similar to the NBA 2K League, players will represent the esports division of an official F1 team rather than a traditional esports organization. With the exception of Ferrari, every F1 team has committed to participating in the Esports Series.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Whatever options F1 explored, they’ve chosen the worst case scenario for endemic esports orgs.[/perfectpullquote]

In this new format, the F1 Esports Series will be comprised entirely of car brands with real-life F1 teams, such as McLaren and Renault. F1’s head of digital growth and F1 esports, Julian Tan, said that involving F1 teams was always the goal of the Esports series.

However, this means that existing esports organizations with F1 2017/18 players, such as Esports+Cars, Redline, and G2 Esports , will be locked out of the competition. If their players want to compete, they will have to effectively leave their esports organization in order to be drafted by a F1 team. This structure very closely mirrors the NBA 2K League, which has been built entirely out of existing NBA organizations.

A source close to the F1 Esports Series told TEO that organizations received little warning of this change. In March, they were still hearing rumours of various possible structures, including F1 teams partnering with endemic orgs, or even a program where organizations could buy a spot to compete alongside F1 teams. Whatever options F1 explored, they’ve chosen the worst case scenario for endemic esports orgs. Now organizations will have to effectively give up their signed players with no way to recoup their investment.

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For F1, this model might make sense as a business strategy. By restricting their esports competition to their own existing brands, they are effectively multiplying their marketing power. Cross-promotion becomes much easier. If you cheer for the Red Bull Racing esports team, you may also support the F1 team, and vice versa.

The risk, of course, is that this model is entirely unproven. The simracing esports scene has developed slowly over the last 20 years. Esports orgs know which players the fans already like and support, and F1 is taking a big chance by distancing themselves from the knowledge and experience of organizations that helped develop the F1 esports scene.

To help teams build their esports rosters, the 2018 season will be split into two phases. In the first phase, players will compete for a spot in the Pro Draft, playing F1 2017. When the qualifier phase ends, F1 teams will draft their players from the top 40 eligible drivers. Once drafted, players will compete for their new teams, playing on F1 2018, in the season’s second phase, consisting of three live events, to crown a champion.

F1 renewed its partnership with last year’s partners F1 game developer Codemasters and Gfinity . DHL, an existing F1 partner, has also extended its partnership to include the Esports Series.