Following Formula 1's first ever eSports Pro Draft, sixteen gamers have been selected to take part in the second edition of Grand Prix racing's virtual world championship.
London's Gfinity Area hosted the 2018 Pro Draft event, with 66,000 entries back in April dwindling down to the sixteen happy few that will race this year for their respective team.
After its maiden season in 2017, the eSports Series has entered a new dimension with all F1 teams - with the exception of Ferrari - now getting involved in the sim racing craze.
Before reaching the Monday's draft, gamers were filtered through a stringent selection process that included qualifying races on three different tracks (Shanghai, Baku and Barcelona) that ultimately left forty drivers in contention for a sport among the last sixteen.
They were then submitted to three days of intensive training at Silverstone to evaluate their physical abilities under the watchful eye of each F1's team's eSports delegate.
The Pro Draft completed the selection process, with the teams choosing their driver, with Monday's event in London attended by F1 commercial boss Sean Bratches, Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen and Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly.
Here are the teams and their respective drivers:
● Williams Esports : Tino Naukkarinen
● Hype Energy eForce India : Fabrizio Donoso Delgado
● Haas F1 Team : Martin Stefanko, Michal Smidl.
● Mercedes AMG Motorsport : Daniel Bereznay
● Renault Sport Team Vitality : Sven Zurner, Kimmy Larsson, James Doherty
● Sauber eSports : Salih Saltunc, Sonuc Saltunc, Allert Van Der Wal
● Toro Rosso : Cem Bolukbasi, Patrick Holzmann
● McLaren Shadow Esports : Olli Pakhala
● Red Bull Racing : Joni Tormala, Graham Carroll
eSports' qualifying heats will start in October and lead once again to a grand final in Abu Dhabi where each team will have just one selected driver who will battle to become the successor to Brendon Leigh, F1 eSports' maiden world champion.
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