Breaking news
Esports
Leclerc, Giovinazzi to race Ferrari in Virtual Le Mans 24 Hours
Formula 1 stars Charles Leclerc and Antonio Giovinazzi will share a GTE-spec Ferrari 488 in the Virtual Le Mans 24 Hours.
Josh Suttill
Edited: May 29, 2020, 5:34 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Leclerc will make his Le Mans debut in the rFactor 2 race, which is been run by a partnership between Le Mans organisers the ACO, the World Endurance Championship and Motorsport Games.
The race will take place on June 13-14, the original date of the real-life Le Mans 24 Hours, before it was postponed to September 19-20 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although Leclerc has won twice and is on a run of five consecutive podium finishes in F1’s Virtual Grand Prix series on Codemasters’ F1 2019, he has limited competitive experience on the simulation-focussed platforms.
Leclerc will be joined in one of three AF Corse-ran entries by Alfa Romeo’s Giovinazzi, who made his real-life Le Mans debut in a Ferrari 488 GTE in 2018, as well as reigning F1 Esports champion David Tonizza and 2018 eRace of Champions winner Enzo Bonito.
They will race the Ferrari 488 - newly released in rFactor 2 this week - in the GTE class, where their main competition is expected to be the factory-backed entries from Aston Martin, Porsche and Corvette.
Aston Martin’s line-up will contain four of its real-life Le Mans GTE Pro drivers, Alex Lynn, Harry Tincknell, Nicki Thiim and Richard Westbrook across three virtual cars.
W Series champion Jamie Chadwick will compete in a privately-run virtual Aston Martin alongside Audi’s new DTM recruit Ferdinand Habsburg as well as popular streamer Jimmy Broadbent and Williams Esports driver Kevin Rotting
Corvette will field eight drivers across two virtual Corvette C7.Rs including Le Mans class winner Jan Magnussen, Tommy Milner and Jordan Taylor.
Elsewhere, Toyota revealed five of its six real-life LMP1 drivers will race in the Virtual Le Mans 24 Hours with 2019 Super GT champion Kenta Yamashita taking Kazuki Nakajima’s usual spot alongside Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley.
Two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso, who has won the previous two Le Mans with Toyota alongside Nakajima and Buemi, will compete in a separate LMP2 entry alongside 11-time F1 race winner Rubens Barrichello.
Also competing in the LMP2 class is F1 drivers Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly as well as double Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya and Formula E’s Jean-Eric Vergne, Antonio Felix da Costa, Stoffel Vandoorne and Oliver Rowland.
The Virtual Le Mans 24 Hours will be streamed live on Motorsport.tv. The race starts on 13 June at 14:00 BST.
Charles Leclerc and Antonio Giovinazzi, Ferrari GTE
Photo by: rFactor2
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Motorsport Heroes: The day Hakkinen was crowned world champion
Next article Runner-up at Charlotte helps Hamlin in "weathering the storm"
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Josh Suttill
Four teams lodge intention to appeal Schumacher’s Sochi win
FIA F2
FIA F2
Sochi
Four teams lodge intention to appeal Schumacher’s Sochi win
Mugello F2: Lundgaard dominates sprint race, Vips on podium
FIA F2
FIA F2
Mugello
Mugello F2: Lundgaard dominates sprint race, Vips on podium
Mugello F3: Piastri crowned champion as Lawson wins final race
FIA F3
FIA F3
Mugello
Mugello F3: Piastri crowned champion as Lawson wins final race
More from
Charles Leclerc
F1 United States GP: Charles Leclerc completes perfect Friday by topping FP2
Formula 1
Formula 1
United States GP
10 h
F1 United States GP: Charles Leclerc completes perfect Friday by topping FP2
F1 United States GP: Charles Leclerc pips Max Verstappen to top FP1
Formula 1
Formula 1
United States GP
13 h
F1 United States GP: Charles Leclerc pips Max Verstappen to top FP1
Latest news
Red Bull identifies two "key focus" areas after Max Verstappen's promising start in Austin
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
Red Bull identifies two "key focus" areas after Max Verstappen's promising start in Austin
Supercars Gold Coast: Chaz Mostert dominates wet race for Walkinshaw Toyota
Supercars
SUPC Supercars
Gold Coast 500
32 min
Supercars Gold Coast: Chaz Mostert dominates wet race for Walkinshaw Toyota
Alex Marquez says overtaking Marc Marquez was “too risky” in Australian GP sprint
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
49 min
Alex Marquez says overtaking Marc Marquez was “too risky” in Australian GP sprint
Jorge Martin declared unfit for Australian GP after suffering fracture in sprint
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
1 h
Jorge Martin declared unfit for Australian GP after suffering fracture in sprint
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe