Severe flooding had forced Formula 1 to cancel the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola this past weekend, as countless inhabitants of the region were affected by the disaster. To aid their situation, reigning World Champion Max Verstappen and Team Redline took to the virtual track instead, collecting donations during their Real Racers Never Quit event supported by numerous professional racing drivers as well as esports racers. Meanwhile, Williams Esports hosted their own event called Racing for Imola featuring several well-known names from both racing worlds.
Image Credit: Team Redline
Four short races had been scheduled for Redline's Real Racers Never Quit, all of them taking place at the digital version of the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola. 24 racers in total took to the track in Formula 3, Mazda MX5, Formula Ford and Toyota GR86 cars in iRacing to battle for victory and mostly the fun of it, as the stream hosted by Luke Crane showed.
Image Credit: Team Redline
Antonio Felix da Costa, Enzo Fittipaldi or Jack Doohan were just a few of the names alongside Verstappen who held up the flag for the pro racers' camp, competing against esports drivers like Jeffrey Rietveld, Atze Kerkhof or Luke Bennett.
While the results were not the focus of the event, they likely caused some happy faces among the pro drivers, as they took victory in all but one of the four races - Verstappen won the F3 race, Japanese F2 driver Ayumu Iwasa was on top in the MX5, and Australian F2 racer Doohan got to the top step of the virtual podium in the Formula Ford race. 2022 PESC World Champion Diogo Pinto of Team Redline was victorious in the remaining race in the GR86s.
Image Credit: Williams Esports
Their 16-lap race at Imola took place in F1 22 and was won by Williams Esports driver Shanaka Clay ahead of Jannick Schmidt and Carreton. Albon, meanwhile, was disqualified for ignoring blue flags and accumulating too many penalties three laps before the end of the race. The F1 racer took it with humor, replying to the offer of commentators Kieran McGinley and Matt212 to join them in the commentary booth with "I would rather do a Kimi Räikkönen and head to the yacht with a few drinks", before indeed commentating on the remainder of the race.
Both event's donation efforts fully benefitted the Emilia Romagna flood relief. It is certainly nice to see the F1 community come together to help the thousands of people affected by the catastrophe and not even shy away from offering hands-on help, like in the case of Yuki Tsunoda and the Alpha Tauri Team who have been spotted helping the clean-up efforts in the team's hometown of Faenza.
Image Credit: Team Redline
Four short races had been scheduled for Redline's Real Racers Never Quit, all of them taking place at the digital version of the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola. 24 racers in total took to the track in Formula 3, Mazda MX5, Formula Ford and Toyota GR86 cars in iRacing to battle for victory and mostly the fun of it, as the stream hosted by Luke Crane showed.
Image Credit: Team Redline
Antonio Felix da Costa, Enzo Fittipaldi or Jack Doohan were just a few of the names alongside Verstappen who held up the flag for the pro racers' camp, competing against esports drivers like Jeffrey Rietveld, Atze Kerkhof or Luke Bennett.
While the results were not the focus of the event, they likely caused some happy faces among the pro drivers, as they took victory in all but one of the four races - Verstappen won the F3 race, Japanese F2 driver Ayumu Iwasa was on top in the MX5, and Australian F2 racer Doohan got to the top step of the virtual podium in the Formula Ford race. 2022 PESC World Champion Diogo Pinto of Team Redline was victorious in the remaining race in the GR86s.
Albon Disqualified, Clay Wins
Williams' Racing for Imola also featured several exciting names on the grid, with current F1 driver Alexander Albon being joined by esports drivers like Alvaro Carreton or Daniele Haddad, as well as Williams Racing Team Principal James Vowles and Team Belgium and Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. Even Mercedes' esports squad took part, fielding James Baldwin and Bono Huis.Image Credit: Williams Esports
Their 16-lap race at Imola took place in F1 22 and was won by Williams Esports driver Shanaka Clay ahead of Jannick Schmidt and Carreton. Albon, meanwhile, was disqualified for ignoring blue flags and accumulating too many penalties three laps before the end of the race. The F1 racer took it with humor, replying to the offer of commentators Kieran McGinley and Matt212 to join them in the commentary booth with "I would rather do a Kimi Räikkönen and head to the yacht with a few drinks", before indeed commentating on the remainder of the race.
Both event's donation efforts fully benefitted the Emilia Romagna flood relief. It is certainly nice to see the F1 community come together to help the thousands of people affected by the catastrophe and not even shy away from offering hands-on help, like in the case of Yuki Tsunoda and the Alpha Tauri Team who have been spotted helping the clean-up efforts in the team's hometown of Faenza.
