F1 Esports Series Pro Championship – Event 1
Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN Esports had a rocky start to its 2022 F1 Esports Series Pro Championship campaign. The all-new roster, made up of Hungarian returning race winner, Dani Bereznay; speed-expert Frenchman, Nico Longuet; and rising star, Tomek Poradzisz from Poland, lined up for the first three rounds of the championship, hosted in the virtual circuits of Bahrain, Imola and Silverstone.
Despite promising starts, the trio saw their performances affected by a few unfortunate crashes and minor errors, which ultimately kept Dani Bereznay and Tomek Poradzisz outside the points. As a positive to take from the event, even though the final positions didn’t quite meet the team’s expectations, Nico Longuet showed great promise by getting into Q3 in two out of three races, as well as some great pace overall, topped with a ninth place at the Bahrain season-opener and brilliant sixth place finish in Silverstone.
The points collected over the event place Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN Esports in eighth place in the Constructors standings. The team will return to racing on 12-14 October for Round 4-6 in Austria, Spa, and Zandvoort.
Round One: Bahrain
Nico Longuet (car number 40): 9th
Dani Bereznay (car number 15): DNF
Round Two: Imola
Nico Longuet (car number 40): 17th
Tomek Poradzisz (car number 37):14th
Round Three: Silverstone
Nico Longuet (car number 40): 6th
Dani Bereznay (car number 15): 17th
Cameron Cowell, Team Principal: “Even though the results didn’t quite match our expectations, there are some definite positives we can take from Event 1. We saw Nico making it into Q3 in two out of three events, as well as showing some great race pace, awarded with points finishes in Bahrain and Silverstone. He even looked like he would get in the top five in Imola, but a little blimp on concentration and possibly a wrong strategy call meant he was out of it. Going into Event 2 in October, we will need to make a few tweaks into our preparation, which will put us in a better position to start climbing up the Constructors standings.”
Nico Longuet: “Event 1 didn’t quite go as expected for us. Qualifying in Bahrain was very frustrating for me, as I made a couple of mistakes, but at least I was able to recover during the race and finish in the points despite starting from the back of the grid. In Imola, everything was going pretty good, qualifying was on point, I was battling for the podium spots during the race, until a small lack of focus made me lose the car and crash, definitely not something you see every day in F1 Esports. All I wanted for Silverstone was to get some solid points, and I did. I qualified 4th on the grid, and despite lacking some straight-line speed during the race, not being really able to overtake anyone, I managed to finish 6th. We are more motivated than ever to turn these results around, and I’m confident we will. See you soon for Event 2 in October.”
Dani Bereznay: “I really enjoyed the Bahrain track, even though being too cautious on my lap in Qualifying only put me in 14th place. I knew with the race pace I had been showing, and with the new 50% format, points were not out of reach at all: Nico proved me right by scoring a great 9th place starting from four positions behind me on the grid. Unfortunately, Piotr Stachulec and Filip Presnajder had a small accident in front of me and I could not avoid their cars – I ended up collecting a front wing damage myself and ultimately, a DNF. In Silverstone I was again too cautious on the qualifying lap: that put me in a poor starting position again, I gained a few places during the race, but points were out of reach that night. Looking onto the next Event, I will make sure to improve my qualifying times: in the competitive field of Esports, only full-send mode works to do a proper job.”
Tomek Poradzisz: “A far from ideal debut from my side in Imola: I made a mistake on my final Q1 lap which cost me an easy pass into Q2 and put me in 19th place on the grid. Despite a good race pace, it was quite hard to get back into the top ten, and I had to accept a pointless 14th place finish. Still, I managed to gain several positions and extremely valuable experience which will come in handy come the next events – it can only go up from here.”