F1 Esports Series Pro Championship drivers and schedule announced

During a streamed preview show recently, all 10 real-world F1 teams revealed their three drivers for the upcoming virtual season.

The Pro Championship is the leading F1 gaming championship and features a mix of professional esports and up-and-coming driving talent.

Many familiar names return for another season, while some new talent has advanced through the qualifications, time trials and supplementary F1 Challenges series. A total of 10 new drivers were scouted through May's Pro Exhibition event.

Each team will be trying to grab their piece of the $750,000 purse over the course of the 12-race season as the Algarve International Circuit and Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari join the schedule for the first time in the series' five-year history.

The first event starts on the week of 13th October in Bahrain where Jarno Opmeer will look to start his defence of the title from 2020, this time with a new team. Red Bull Racing Esports will look to do the same with the Teams' championship, fielding a largely unchanged squad. Meanwhile, 2019 champion David Tonizza lines up alongside 2017 and 2018 champion Brendon Leigh at Ferrari.

2021 F1 Esports Series Pro Championship driver lineup

Team	No.	Driver	Nationality
Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN F1 Esports	30	Simon Weigang	German
	38	Filip Prešnajder	Slovakian
	73	Thijmen Schütte	Dutch
Scuderia AlphaTauri Esports Team	51	Joni Törmälä	Finnish
	13	Sebastian Job	British
	28	Dario Iemmulo	Italian
Alpine Esports Team	40	Nicolas Longuet	French
	8	Fabrizio Donoso	Chilean
	80	Patrik Sipos	Hungarian
Aston Martin Cognizant Esports Team	88	Lucas Blakely	British
	92	Daniele Haddad	Italian
	79	Shanaka Clay	British
FDA Esports Team	95	David Tonizza	Italian
	72	Brendon Leigh	British
	29	Domenico Lovece	Italian
Uralkali Haas F1 Team Esports	2	Cedric Thomé	German
	15	Samuel Libeert	French
	48	Matthjs van Erven	Dutch
McLaren Shadow	12	Daniel Bereznay	Hungarian
	20	Bardia Boroumand	Iranian
	52	Josh Idowu	British
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Esports Team	34	Jarno Opmeer	Dutch
	26	Dani Moreno	Spanish
	94	Bono Huis	Dutch
Red Bull Racing Esports	24	Marcel Kiefer	German
	19	Frederik Rasmussen	Danish
	59	Liam Parnell	German
Williams Esports	21	Álvaro Carretón	Spanish
	53	Michael Romanidis	Greek
	23	Alessio Di Capua	Italian

2021 F1 Esports Series Pro Championship calendar

Event	Date	Round	Circuit
Event 1	13-14 October	Round 1	Sakhir, Bahrain
		Round 2	Shanghai, China
		Round 3	Spielberg, Austria
Event 2	27-28 October	Round 4	Silverstone, Great Britain
		Round 5	Monza, Italy
		Round 6	Spa, Belgium
Event 3	24-25 November	Round 7	Portimão, Portugal
		Round 8	Zandvoort, Netherlands
		Round 9	Austin, USA
Event 4	15-16 December	Round 10	Imola, Italy
		Round 11	Mexico City, Mexico
		Round 12	Interlagos, Brazil