The F1 Sim Racing season should have been wrapping up by now, but instead it is in shambles. However even before this implosion, one former champion elected to not compete – 2019 F1 Esports champion David Tonizza told us why.
Image credit: Lamborghini Esports
Over the weekend, the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix takes place and it should have been the culmination of the top sim racing championship. Since 2017, F1 Esports (known now as F1 Sim Racing) has played host to the top Codemasters F1 game players in the world.
In that time, four drivers have won the championship. These include Brendon Leigh, Jarno Opmeer and most recently Lucas Blakeley. All three of them travelled to Jönköping for the opening round of the 2023-24 F1 Sim Racing season, and we know how that went.
But for the first time ever, a former champion was not taking to the grid. David Tonizza had decided to not commit to the series after leaving Ferrari Esports, the team that drafted him for their first season then went on to win the driver’s championship together.
Tonizza also had plenty of success on ACC with the Scuderia, winning the SRO GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup in 2021 and just missing out on the Sprint Cup title twice over. For 2023, he joined the other major Italian performance car brand Lamborghini for an all-out assault on SRO Esports.
Leaving aside the current state of F1 Sim Racing much like its real life counterpart, we were interested in learning Tonizza’s reasons for leaving the series. David was kind enough to sit down with us for an interview.
OverTake: How did you get your start in competitive sim racing?
David Tonizza:
I started racing on video games in 2016 but at that time, it was with a controller. It was not long after I had stopped racing go-karts and I had a huge passion for gaming. I discovered there were these communities organising championships so I picked up the most recent F1 game available at the time, joined a league and after a few races, I bought my first wheel which was a Logitech G29.
I was kind of good in the races and I was also enjoying it. The first championship I did was part of an Italian community and I won it. A year later I joined Apex Online Racing which was at the time the most prominent and renowned F1 league community, due to F1 Esports drivers competing there.
That was the time I started doing it with more commitment. 2016-17 was when I was having fun and was not really thinking of it as a viable career path for my future. But by joining AOR for 2018, I was already with the mindset of aiming to get to F1 Esports.
OverTake: What would you say have been some of the highlights in your time racing competitively?
David Tonizza:
There are a few! Many would assume when I won F1 Esports in 2019, which if you look at the importance of that championship, then it is easy to agree with that. It is surely the biggest achievement I have ever had. But also with 2021, I know it is not part of the question, but the one that slipped through my grasp.
GT World Challenge Esports when I was battling with James Baldwin for the Sprint title. I was P1 until the very last race of the championship but due to the commitment I had in F1, I had to stop training for GTWC in the middle of the season and as a result, I was not on the pace to beat James. I lost the title in the last race.
The other major achievement of mine that I put amongst my very best in my racing career, last year I finally made it to real life car racing, competing in a championship called Trofeo Predator’s and I actually won it! It is the reason I started sim racing, like many others of course to get back into real motorsport.
Also, a full season and testing is covered by a budget that is a quarter of what a season in old-gen F4 costs.
OverTake: F1 Esports/F1 Sim Racing has kind of imploded this year but you seemed to have decided to not race before all that came to light. Why did you step away from the series?
David Tonizza:
Since this is a big question, I want to be very specific. I will say what happened at the end of 2022 so you can understand my point of view. As I already said, losing the GTWC Esports Sprint title resulted in me starting 2022 with the aim of doing the series again on ACC and win it this time.
Along with that, I was really hoping F1 Esports would revert back to running in an onsite environment. I never enjoyed a single race that we did online, because even from the first set of races we did, I could just tell something felt wrong. We always suspected something would happen, then it did.
In the Canada round, I had desynced from Jarno Opmeer’s screen and we had that collision, even though from Jarno’s perspective I was not in front of him.
So after being told that 2022 would be online only, I decided that I want to fully commit to ACC and I wanted nothing to do with F1. But of course, at the time, I was the main driver for Ferrari’s F1 Esports division. It was a tricky situation, trying to explain to them that I wanted to commit more to ACC until F1 Esports switched back to being onsite.
When the GTWC Esports season on ACC began, I was again fighting for the championship, and that did not end so well for me again. But during the season, there was a one-off onsite event during the Spa 24 hours, I got invited, won the race and earned a lot of money from the prize pool.
I got home and just thought “Why am I committing so much time and energy to the F1 game?”, because I looked back to all the money I earned playing F1 compared to that one event on ACC, being brutally honest here, I earned four times the amount of money.
Then, when we finished the F1 Esports season, I told the team that I did not want to do it anymore and if I could have a contract just for racing in ACC. They then said they were not interested in investing into championships outside of the F1 game. The manager I just mentioned was about to leave the team and offered me a chance to go back to Jean Alesi Esports and potentially also racing for Lamborghini – which was at the time unlikely, but it did end up happening – but also racing in the real life Trofeo Predator’s.
I had options to stay in F1 Esports, but I just had no excitement or drive to do it. In short, financial incentive was just so much better, focusing on just ACC racing which I had been wanting, and racing a real car. For all these reasons, I left F1 Esports behind.
OverTake: Assuming the organisers got their act together, what would tempt you back into the series? Or would there be no real incentive?
David Tonizza:
Currently I do not see any reason to go back to the series, but it does not mean I will never go back. I know the amount of effort you have to put to be on the pace on the F1 game, and because of that huge amount of effort, you have to ensure it is sustainable financially speaking.
If I choose to compete in F1 Sim Racing, I would need to quit everything else and have it be the only thing I train for. Ultimately, if I can earn more doing something else then I will do that. Right now with my current situation, I can do many other activities that do not require as much commitment.
For me to return to F1 Esports, it would have to be a very good offer. Plus a much more enjoyable game to drive on.
OverTake: What are your plans for this season? Still racing on ACC with Lamborghini?
David Tonizza:
Yes, I will still race ACC, that is the intention, but nothing is 100% finalised yet. Whether it is with Lamborghini or not, we are still working on that. When it comes to real life racing, again still finalising everything but I know I will be racing in real life this year. We still need to sort a few details.
Lastly, there is something I have been involved with in the background since last year but still cannot talk about. As soon as I have been given permission to talk about it, you will hear about it. It is not related to esports or real life racing, but it is very cool.
What do you make of David Tonizza’s reasons for leaving F1 Esports behind? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
Image credit: Lamborghini Esports
Over the weekend, the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix takes place and it should have been the culmination of the top sim racing championship. Since 2017, F1 Esports (known now as F1 Sim Racing) has played host to the top Codemasters F1 game players in the world.
In that time, four drivers have won the championship. These include Brendon Leigh, Jarno Opmeer and most recently Lucas Blakeley. All three of them travelled to Jönköping for the opening round of the 2023-24 F1 Sim Racing season, and we know how that went.
But for the first time ever, a former champion was not taking to the grid. David Tonizza had decided to not commit to the series after leaving Ferrari Esports, the team that drafted him for their first season then went on to win the driver’s championship together.
Tonizza also had plenty of success on ACC with the Scuderia, winning the SRO GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup in 2021 and just missing out on the Sprint Cup title twice over. For 2023, he joined the other major Italian performance car brand Lamborghini for an all-out assault on SRO Esports.
Leaving aside the current state of F1 Sim Racing much like its real life counterpart, we were interested in learning Tonizza’s reasons for leaving the series. David was kind enough to sit down with us for an interview.
OverTake: How did you get your start in competitive sim racing?
David Tonizza:
I started racing on video games in 2016 but at that time, it was with a controller. It was not long after I had stopped racing go-karts and I had a huge passion for gaming. I discovered there were these communities organising championships so I picked up the most recent F1 game available at the time, joined a league and after a few races, I bought my first wheel which was a Logitech G29.
I was kind of good in the races and I was also enjoying it. The first championship I did was part of an Italian community and I won it. A year later I joined Apex Online Racing which was at the time the most prominent and renowned F1 league community, due to F1 Esports drivers competing there.
That was the time I started doing it with more commitment. 2016-17 was when I was having fun and was not really thinking of it as a viable career path for my future. But by joining AOR for 2018, I was already with the mindset of aiming to get to F1 Esports.
OverTake: What would you say have been some of the highlights in your time racing competitively?
David Tonizza:
There are a few! Many would assume when I won F1 Esports in 2019, which if you look at the importance of that championship, then it is easy to agree with that. It is surely the biggest achievement I have ever had. But also with 2021, I know it is not part of the question, but the one that slipped through my grasp.
GT World Challenge Esports when I was battling with James Baldwin for the Sprint title. I was P1 until the very last race of the championship but due to the commitment I had in F1, I had to stop training for GTWC in the middle of the season and as a result, I was not on the pace to beat James. I lost the title in the last race.
The other major achievement of mine that I put amongst my very best in my racing career, last year I finally made it to real life car racing, competing in a championship called Trofeo Predator’s and I actually won it! It is the reason I started sim racing, like many others of course to get back into real motorsport.
Also, a full season and testing is covered by a budget that is a quarter of what a season in old-gen F4 costs.
OverTake: F1 Esports/F1 Sim Racing has kind of imploded this year but you seemed to have decided to not race before all that came to light. Why did you step away from the series?
David Tonizza:
Since this is a big question, I want to be very specific. I will say what happened at the end of 2022 so you can understand my point of view. As I already said, losing the GTWC Esports Sprint title resulted in me starting 2022 with the aim of doing the series again on ACC and win it this time.
Along with that, I was really hoping F1 Esports would revert back to running in an onsite environment. I never enjoyed a single race that we did online, because even from the first set of races we did, I could just tell something felt wrong. We always suspected something would happen, then it did.
In the Canada round, I had desynced from Jarno Opmeer’s screen and we had that collision, even though from Jarno’s perspective I was not in front of him.
So after being told that 2022 would be online only, I decided that I want to fully commit to ACC and I wanted nothing to do with F1. But of course, at the time, I was the main driver for Ferrari’s F1 Esports division. It was a tricky situation, trying to explain to them that I wanted to commit more to ACC until F1 Esports switched back to being onsite.
When the GTWC Esports season on ACC began, I was again fighting for the championship, and that did not end so well for me again. But during the season, there was a one-off onsite event during the Spa 24 hours, I got invited, won the race and earned a lot of money from the prize pool.
I got home and just thought “Why am I committing so much time and energy to the F1 game?”, because I looked back to all the money I earned playing F1 compared to that one event on ACC, being brutally honest here, I earned four times the amount of money.
Tonizza (middle) on the podium during the SRO Esports Racing Night. Image credit: @uol_simracing on Twitter
After the ACC season ended, F1 Esports began and at that time, the team manager of Ferrari proposed to the team for me to race in the Trofeo Predator’s for the following year, but they were not interested. With the esports team and the driver academy, they did not need one of their esports drivers in a real car.
Then, when we finished the F1 Esports season, I told the team that I did not want to do it anymore and if I could have a contract just for racing in ACC. They then said they were not interested in investing into championships outside of the F1 game. The manager I just mentioned was about to leave the team and offered me a chance to go back to Jean Alesi Esports and potentially also racing for Lamborghini – which was at the time unlikely, but it did end up happening – but also racing in the real life Trofeo Predator’s.
I had options to stay in F1 Esports, but I just had no excitement or drive to do it. In short, financial incentive was just so much better, focusing on just ACC racing which I had been wanting, and racing a real car. For all these reasons, I left F1 Esports behind.
OverTake: Assuming the organisers got their act together, what would tempt you back into the series? Or would there be no real incentive?
David Tonizza:
Currently I do not see any reason to go back to the series, but it does not mean I will never go back. I know the amount of effort you have to put to be on the pace on the F1 game, and because of that huge amount of effort, you have to ensure it is sustainable financially speaking.
If I choose to compete in F1 Sim Racing, I would need to quit everything else and have it be the only thing I train for. Ultimately, if I can earn more doing something else then I will do that. Right now with my current situation, I can do many other activities that do not require as much commitment.
For me to return to F1 Esports, it would have to be a very good offer. Plus a much more enjoyable game to drive on.
OverTake: What are your plans for this season? Still racing on ACC with Lamborghini?
David Tonizza:
Yes, I will still race ACC, that is the intention, but nothing is 100% finalised yet. Whether it is with Lamborghini or not, we are still working on that. When it comes to real life racing, again still finalising everything but I know I will be racing in real life this year. We still need to sort a few details.
Lastly, there is something I have been involved with in the background since last year but still cannot talk about. As soon as I have been given permission to talk about it, you will hear about it. It is not related to esports or real life racing, but it is very cool.
What do you make of David Tonizza’s reasons for leaving F1 Esports behind? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
