The Formula One virtual race was watched by 350,000 spectators

Bahrain's grand prize had to be postponed, so F1 leaders agreed with drivers that they would take the virtual version of the race.

Last weekend, a virtual competition was held in F1 2019 to replace the cancellation of the real one. Although it was originally promised that virtual Formula 1 would be ridden by all drivers of the actual competition, it still did not happen. Of the Formula One active drivers, we could only see Land Norris and Nicolas Latifi. Along with them were some other names from the lower Formula and esport world rankings and former F1 drivers and other celebrities.

Mclaren driver Lando Norris shared this event on his Twitch profile. At one point, it had 104,000 viewers, and its visibility was regularly maintained at some one hundred thousand. Apart from it, live streaming was made possible by the official profiles of Formula One, Sky Sport and other driver-players. Overall, F1 2019 was watched by 350,000 people across all channels, making it one of the most watched video games of the day.

Bahrain's inaugural virtual Grand Prix was won by Guanyu Zhou. The Formula 2 driver competed for Renault and won the race very nicely. It should be noted that the race was not held at 50% of the total laps, but the organizers decided to halve that decision, so only 14 of the 28 originally planned had been driven.

Most reactions to the virtual race are positive, but it must be admitted that the Codemasters team has been a bit embarrassed. Various bugs and crashes have caused problems for many drivers. Lando Norris spent more time trying to start the game than driving the race.

Since the coronavirus situation is not waning, a new race is scheduled in two weeks. So on April 5th we will be able to enjoy the Grand Prix of Australia. We believe that at least twice as many Formula 1 drivers will be driving then in Bahrain.