Motorsport UK is excited to confirm 12 teams selected to compete in the 2022 ROKiT British F4 Esports Championship, with a mix of real-world outfits and pro sim-racing teams.
Britain’s FIA Formula 4 series enters the esports arena for the first time as a sanctioned British title, with a six-event, 12-race schedule taking in a number of the real-world series’ iconic venues using the iRacing IR-04 single seater.
Twelve teams have already confirmed their place on the grid, including 2021 ROKiT British F4 champions JHR Developments.
Steven Hunter’s team took a clean sweep of the Drivers’, Rookie and Teams’ titles last year, and have started the championship’s second-generation era on the front foot, winning five races this season.
They will be joined by another of the UK’s premier junior single seater teams in Arden, who will compete with the support of their affiliated Young Racing Driver Academy to form Arden YRDA.
Arden was a regular fixture on the British F4 grid from its inception in 2015 until last year, running a number of stars including Oscar Piastri, Jack Doohan, Dennis Hauger, and Ricky Collard on their rise through the junior single seater ranks. The team still competes overseas in Formula Regional, and back on domestic shores in the GB3 Championship.
ROKiT Racing Star, the ground-breaking esports initiative, will field a team in the 2022 championship. Earlier this year Monica Boulton-Ramos and Deagen Fairclough won the inaugural ROKiT Racing Star Esports competition and received a fully funded Hitech GP and Motorsport UK Academy-supported drives in ROKiT British F4 for 2023.
Team Fordzilla, the official esports team for Ford, were among the first to commit to the championship. They boast an impressive roster of talent, having recently concluded recruitment with events across London, Milan, Madrid, and Paris to put the famous ‘Blue Oval’ up in lights in pursuit of esports success on-track.
They will enter two teams, the second under the Team Fordzilla Hybrid banner.
TeamSport, the largest indoor karting company in the UK, have combined forces with Century Sim Racing, the North-West’s premier sim racing facility, in a bid to win the inaugural title with their TeamSport Century Sim Racing team.
Apex Racing will enter two teams, with an affiliated Apex Racing Academy squad to complement the main team. Apex are one of the UK’s most successful sim racing teams, with championships across Rallycross, IR-01 Grand Prix and Porsche Carrera Cup Esports, among others.
Based full time out of their bespoke setup in Corby, the Academy team will offer an opportunity for young, unproven talent to shine on a high-profile stage.
Mensah Racing,whose aim is to make the grid more inclusive and racially diverse, will make its first appearance on the grid. The Mensah Racing management team includes members of the Racial Diversity Sub Committee who support Motorsport UK’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.
Also joining the push for equality and inclusion is Prismatic Motorsports, a sim racing team put together to provide a space for transgender and non-binary people to have an entry point into the discipline. Their mission is to elevate trans talent within the industry, from sim racers to content creators and designers, and to advocate for greater inclusion within esports.
Kimura Performance, an organic sports and esports venture capital organisation, with the intent to expand its esports capabilities and operations, will join the grid alongside Munster Rugby Gaming.
Munster made their break into sim racing earlier this year in the SRO-organised Sprint Series and are likely to be a force to be reckoned with.
Up for grabs is a share of a £6,000 prize pool, an invite for the winner to the prestigious Night of Champions at the Royal Automobile Club, and many more prizes from the series’ partners, to be confirmed in due course.
The championship begins at a virtual Donington Park on Friday 14th October, streamed live on RaceSpot TV starting at 19:00 BST.