Williams Esports finishes P4 in the ESL R1 Spring Season at the Esports World Cup

The finale of the ESL R1 Spring Season saw Williams encounter the soaring highs and deep lows of sim racing

Published

03 SEP 2024

Est. reading time

4 min

At the 2024 Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Williams Esports competed in the finals of the ESL R1 Spring Season – taking home P4 in the teams' championship, with Williams driver Dáire McCormack taking home P5 in the drivers’ championship.

The event began on the 22nd, with the Drivers Championship – which saw 9 races completed, across 6 different circuits. This first stage of the competition saw the top 12 drivers across the online season (and a last-chance qualifier) compete against one another for a top prize of $25,000.

In an event dominated by a strong balance of power in favour of the BMW teams, Dáire charged forward taking home the only win, pole and fastest lap for any Mercedes driver that day.

The championship itself went down to the wire, going through all 9 possible races, with Sebastian Job and Kevin Siggy battling right to the very last lap – with Kevin ultimately taking the top prize. Our driver, Dáire, came home P5 in the championship, netting his $7,500 share of the prize pool – a fantastic result given that he had started the day in P9 following the online season.

For the next three days, the Teams’ Championship took the forefront, with Dom, Dennis and Daniel getting their chance to take part. In this first stage of the competition, the goal was to finish in the top 4, as those teams would automatically qualify for Sunday’s final, with P5 – 10 sent to a ‘last chance qualifier’ on Saturday for the last 2 spots in the final.

Ultimately, it was to be a mixed day characterised by s a mentality battle for all drivers involved. In the end, it came down to the very last race, which saw our position in the top 4 hang in the balance. However, a spirited drive from James Baldwin saw him finish in a podium position to drag Guild Esports into the top 4 and ultimately push us into the Last Chance Qualifier by a margin of only 2 points.

The Saturday format saw the remaining 6 teams split into two groups, who would battle with all 4 drivers from each team on track. We shared the track with G2 Esports, and Team Falcons, to battle for that all-important group-winning position.

The events of the previous day must have inspired our drivers, as in the first outing at Daytona, the team qualified 2,3,4, and 5, behind only Isaac Price, who must have been panicking seeing a blue wave in his mirrors, as the boys slid past the G2 driver to take home a dominant 1, 2, 3, 4 finish – setting a dominant tone that continued for the rest of the day. The team finished the other races fantastically and ended the day almost 100 points clear of Falcons, and qualified for the Sunday finale.

Maintaining the momentum, our team came out swinging on Sunday. We had set our eyes on a podium finish – a tricky mountain to climb, with Guild Esports, Porsche Coanda, Team Redline, and Team Vitality starting ahead of us in points.

However, the main story of the day was the dominance of Redline, which saw the team advance to finalist mode in Race 4. Despite this, Dáire, Dennis, Dominik, and Daniel battled valiantly, taking home a couple of podium finishes, and an impressive chunk of points.

The fifth and final race of the day came, with the end in sight for all teams – and we found ourselves amid a fierce battle for 3rd with Mouz and Porsche Coanda, with only 5 points separating the three teams.

Ultimately, slow down penalties for Dáire and Dennis in qualifying meant we qualified much lower than planned, leaving Benecke to carry Mouz out of reach – leaving us to battle Porsche Coanda for fourth.

A thrilling battle ensued at Monza, with our drivers dicing with one another for those last valuable points. Thankfully, the end result was a rewarding P4 in the championship standings, ahead of Porsche Coanda, and leapfrogging Guild Esports.

The team ended the day in high spirits, perhaps dismayed at narrowly missing out on 3rd, but still pleased with maintaining quality and bringing home $35,000 for the team.

Race Engineer, Michael Preston said “Heading into the event we prepared really well, despite several last-minute changes to formats, vehicle handling and BoP.

"This preparation level allowed us to bounce back from a less than straightforward teams group stage, to win our second chance qualifier comfortably.

“We carried that momentum into the final day and jumped from 5th to 4th overall while fighting for 3rd the entire day.

“The drivers brought a very good level and increased this throughout. In the end, we come away with Daire claiming P5 in the drivers’ championship, a first win for Dominik and multiple podiums across the board that secured P4 in the teams' championship.”

Please join us in congratulating the team for their fantastic performance in this challenging event. We as a team are exceptionally proud of their performance.

Williams Esports would also like to extend our congratulations to Team Redline, and Kevin Siggy for their championship titles. We are motivated and excited for the future of ESL R1, and we will return to challenge for a title next season.

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