Watch live: Virtual Le Mans 24 Hours – plus driver line-up

Esports

Live stream of the 2020 virtual Le Mans race taking place this weekend, with top drivers and sports racers

Author

Jake Williams-Smith

 

The only racing at Le Mans this June will take place in the virtual world, and this weekend sees a cast from across motor sport gathering for an online race at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

The real-life equivalent has been postponed to mid-September, so the ACO has organised a virtual replacement, with competitors from the endurance, open wheel and esports worlds colliding in a 24-hour race online.

There are 50 teams, including Toyota, Rebellion, Aston Martin, Porsche and Ferrari racing through the night for online racing honours on the original weekend of the 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours.

Some of the biggest drivers in the sport today will be taking part from around the world, including Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris, Simon Pagenaud, and Charles Leclerc

Cars are split between LMP2 and GTE entries. Conditions will be random and a full day/night cycle will take place in the rFactor 2 sim.

Teams will be free to create their own liveries for the event, and the race will be presided over by a race director to ensure sporting behaviour throughout.

The racing world’s top drivers will also be involved, with a limit on two esports drivers per entry.

Ferrari has enlisted Charles Leclerc, Antonio Giovinazzi as well as its esports stars Enzo Bonitto and reigning F1 esports champion, David Tonizza.

Leclerc has taken to online streaming and sim racing during the current hiatus, and has proved himself to be a competitive force, with multiple wins in the F1 Virtual GP series.

Fernando Alonso and Rubens Barrichello will join forces, partnering up in their own team alongside McLaren Shadow esports driver Olli Pahkala and esports racer Jarl Teien.

The Spaniard has scored multiple victories at Le Mans in the real world already, and while racing online in the Legends All Star races has proved his pace in the virtual racing world also. Alonso has taken several wins since joining the series part-way through its championship, with impressive performances and pace.

The winner of that championship though was Jenson Button, who has also acclimatised well to sim racing. He will be entering the virtual Le Mans as part of the Team Rocket Zansho effort, alongside Alex Buncombe and sim racers Matt Richards and Jan von der Heyde.

2019 Le Mans winners Toyota will be back to defend its crown in the virtual sphere. Two full teams have been entered as the no8 team will attempt a back-to-back victory after its success in real life last year.

Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Kenta Yamashita and Yuri Kasdorp will be at the wheel of the no8 car, while Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez and Maxime Brient will race in the no7 car.

Team Penske will include 2019 Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud alongside Juan Pablo Montoya, Dane Cameron and Ricky Taylor.

Pagenaud scored multiple race victories during IndyCar’s iRacing Challenge series, while Montoya has been outspoken in his support of esports unearthing driving talent, and has been heavily involved in the World’s Fastest Gamer contest as judge and driver coach.

Team Redline was one of the first teams to unveil its star-studded cast, including Formula 1 drivers Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. Both F1 talents race virtually often, with Norris live streaming races on his Twitch channel.

The pair have previously teamed up on the way to a victory, winning a 24-hour race at Spa last year.

Jota Team Redline’s entry will include Formula E championship leader Antonio Felix Da Costa and IndyCar’s Felix Rosenqvist as well as winner of the inaugural World’s Fastest Gamer competition and McLaren simulator driver, Rudy Van Buren.

Rebellion will join forces with Williams esports for the event. Louis Deletraz, Raffaele Marciello and the team’s World Endurance Championship drivers Gustavo Menezes and Bruno Senna will be paired with esports pros in two separate entries.

Porsche was the first major manufacturer to declare its participation in the race. Four different Porsche teams will take part, with Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani and iRacing world champion Mitchell De Jong headlining the team’s entry.

Veloce Esports has a packed line-up of its own across three different entries. Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne will team up with Pierre Gasly, ex-Renault F1 esports driver Jarno Opmeer and Veloce’s Isaac Gillessen.

Rebellion WEC driver Norman Nato will race with Mercedes Formula E driver Stoffel Vandoorne as well as sim racers Eamonn Murphy and Tomek Poradzisz in the second team and Sacha Fenestraz and Ryan Tveter will race alongside winner of the 2019 World’s Fastest Gamer contest, James Baldwin and Veloce’s Tom Lartilleux.

Felipe Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella are both a part of H.S.H Princess Charlene of Monaco’s virtual team, Roman Grosjean will enter his own esports team, Richard Mille has an all-women’s entry that includes Katherine Legge, Tatiana Calderon and Sophia Floersch and Mahle’s includes W Series champion Jamie Chadwick and avid esports racer Jimmy Broadbent.

The race will be shown on Le Mans’ You Tube channel, which can be seen at the top of this page.

ESPN and Eurosport will be covering the race in the U.S. and Europe respectively. ESPN.com and the ESPN app will broadcast the race in its entirety, with 12 hours of the race available on ESPN 2. Eurosport will split its coverage into three segments, with the final five hours shown in its entirety, with the Eurosport Player showing the whole 24 hours.

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