2025 F1 Sim Racing World Championship – Event 1 Recap

Racing began on Tuesday with Round 1, the Australian Grand Prix, with MoneyGram Haas F1 Sim Racing Team electing their two new rookies to compete for the duration of the first event to gain experience, with Shanaka Clay advising on-site.

Qualifying looked to set the tone for the first week, with surprise early exits from both McLaren Shadow drivers, Lucas Blakeley and Haas alum Alfie Butcher, as well as Ferrari challenger Nicolas Longuet. 17-year-old Joris Croezen exited qualifying in P20, while teammate Tamás Gál secured his first Q3 appearance of the series, being one of five rookies to debut in the final stage of qualifying, securing P10 for the Australian Grand Prix.

The Race around Albert Park started with both drivers holding position for the first phase, with Gál coming into pit on Lap 10 with the front-runners. Six laps later, teammate Croezen pitted and with the race order reinstated after pit stops, Gál was driving in P9, Croezen P19. Due to damage, Gál began dropping down the order and with a handful of laps to go, dropped down to P18 while Croezen climbed to P14. Once the checkered flag dropped on the opening event of the series, and with penalties applied to competitors, Croezen finished P12, with Gál P16.

The second day of racing consisted of two rounds in China and Bahrain, with China returning to the F1 Sim Racing World Championship after an absence on the calendar. Qualifying resulted in penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct for both drivers, turning Gál’s and Croezen’s initial qualifying positions of P6 and P8 to P7 and P10 on the grid.

MoneyGram Haas F1 Sim Racing Team tried a different strategy to race around the Shanghai International Circuit, knowing that to get points in this competitive championship, risks will need to be taken. The decision was to start both drivers on soft tires, swapping to mediums for their second stint, but it became a risk too great to pull off with the pairing falling down the order in the second part of the race when tire degradation set in, with Croezen finishing P14, Gál behind in P17.

Qualifying for Round 3 took place underneath the floodlights of the Bahrain International Circuit. It was a qualifying of two halves for MoneyGram Haas F1 Sim Racing Team, as Croezen could only manage P19 while Gál secured his second-best qualifying of the season so far, in P7.

Both drivers held their positions through the opening melee, with a train of cars forming before the pitstop window opened. On Lap 17 - Gál pitted for softs to come out P15, but unfortunately joined several drivers who received a three-second penalty for pitlane speeding. Croezen got up to as high as P4, opting to be one of the late stoppers, finally coming in on Lap 19 putting him to P18. Once the field had pitted, Gál and Croezen were P15 and P18 respectively, before damage to Gál dropped him to P19, one place behind his teammate at the checkered, finishing a demanding day of racing for the pair.

The final day of Event 1 kept the grid in the Middle East, with a race around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, a track favored by both drivers. As always, qualifying preceded the usual 50 per cent distance Grand Prix and with the trend of championship contenders being knocked out early, Gal made it through to Q2. Wanting to save a new set of tires for a potential Q3 appearance, Gál didn’t go out for a second run, but the field continued to improve, knocking the Hungarian out in P12, ahead of Croezen in P17.

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix began with all cars starting the race on the same hard compound, changing the focus of the race from strategy to track position. Opting to pit later into the race, Gál waited until Lap 15 to pit from P3, leaving teammate Croezen out there in P5. The Dutchman was the last to pit after leading the race on Lap 16, finally bolting on a fresh set of medium tires two laps later. The race reached its climax in classic sim racing style with battles up and down the field, resulting in seven cars not finishing the race. MoneyGram Haas F1 Sim Racing Team drivers Tamás Gál and Joris Croezen finished P10 and P11 respectively, Gál picking up the team’s first point of the championship. 

Racing resumes for Event 2 on February 11-13, tackling Silverstone, Spa, Zandvoort and Austin.