Supercars target Aussie F1 star Daniel Ricciardo its Eseries competition
Following Formula One star Max Verstappen’s successful virtual Supercars debut, organisers plan to target more big international names for its Eseries, including Aussie superstar Daniel Ricciardo.
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Supercars will target more Formula One wildcards for its Eseries – including an invite to Australian Daniel Ricciardo – after the success of Red Bull star Max Verstappen’s virtual V8’s debut.
And Verstappen didn’t rule out a returning for another crack at the Supercars Eseries, which will head to the famous Mount Panorama circuit for the third round next week.
The Dutch superstar created plenty of buzz as a wildcard entry in Wednesday night’s second round in his virtual Red Bull Holden, finishing second in three of the four races.
His only blemish was his 18th placing in the second event after he was involved in early carnage in a reverse grid as his Red Bull online racing mate Shane van Gisbergen was named driver of the round after claiming the last two of the four virtual races held at the Silverstone and Barcelona circuits.
Supercars general manager of television and content Nathan Prendergast said it had been a coup for the series to get Verstappen involved and hoped to entice more international racing stars.
“We are expecting some more big names to be a part of this,” Prendergast said.
“We are certainly going to ask Daniel (Ricciardo), we would be silly not to. But it really comes down to whether or not people do this a lot in their normal lives as a training regime and I can’t answer whether Daniel is an iRacer or not.
“There is some easy pickings, (McLaren’s) Lando Norris does a lot of iRacing, he is in lots of series all around the world, so he would be someone we would be interested in approaching and of course Lando has a direct connection through the Walkinshaw Andretti United team (via McLaren chief executive officer and WAU part-owner Zak Brown).
“I’d like to think we may see the likes of Lando and, of course, there is the broader Ford universe through Ford Performance where we have racers in America, we have got NASCAR family, we have got IndyCar family so expect to see, hopefully, a lot more international faces popping up across the 10-round series.”
Supercars, like many international motorsport categories, has turned to virtual racing to fill a content void during the coronavirus shutdown of real world action.
Prendergast said Verstappen’s wildcard had been great exposure of the Supercars Eseries.
“We’re really lucky that Max Verstappen and Shane van Gisbergen are mates through the Red Bull family and they race online quite often,” Prendergast said.
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“To have him was a real coup … to go to Round 2 and get the likes of Max, who is not only one of the best real motor racers in the world, but one of the best iRacers in the world, is really fantastic for us.”
Verstappen did not rule out a return during the Eseries when asked if he would like to come back.
“Let’s see what is possible in the coming weeks, but tonight was a lot of fun,” Verstappen said.
DJR Team Penske star Scott McLaughlin maintained his position at the top of the Eseries championship leaderboard ahead of Tickford’s Cameron Waters with van Gisbergen moving up into third place.