Williams Esports finish seventh in F1 Sim Racing

Williams Esports completed a hugely positive F1 Sim Racing season yesterday. The team has made huge strides forward in performance since the previous campaign, and went into this year’s season finale in the fight for fifth in the team’s championship.

While the drivers weren’t able to get the results needed in the finale, and Williams ultimately finished seventh, the team still scored points in 11 out of the 12 races, including back-to-back podiums for rookie driver Ismael Fahssi.

With a contestable penalty depriving Alvaro Carreton of a second-placed finish at Interlagos, and a technical failure costing Fahssi more points in the final event, the team ends the season buoyant and capable of consistently competing at the front.

Ben Hawkins, Head Coach - “Firstly, thank you to everyone involved in making this season a success, we finished the F1 Sim Racing Championship in P7 in the constructors with a performance that warranted an even higher finish and Ismael securing P8 in the drivers standings, which shows clear progression despite multiple setbacks, highlighting this team's resilience and drive for excellence.

"Ismael's impressive point haul in his rookie season exemplifies the team's commitment to offering opportunities and developing young talent.

"Alvaro's experience and resilience were pivotal in securing valuable points, showcasing his leadership both in and out of the sim.

"Additionally, Will's debut season underscored the importance of teamwork, highlighting how collaboration drives success in the highly competitive world of F1 Sim Racing.

"I'm immensely proud of these three drivers and our entire team's dedication.

"As we invest in and develop more young talent within our Development and Academy rosters, the future shines even brighter. Together, we're forging a path towards sustained excellence.”

After a booming event two, the F1 Sim Racing World Championship returned for the season finale to another huge global audience, with more than 1.75 million views across F1’s YouTube and Twitch channels as the $750,000 prize pool was decided.

This week of on track action would be deemed as the best event so far with such a large amount of season long battles coming down to the wire, outstanding side-by-side racing and unpredictable moves & surprises on track across the whole grid.

Day 1 would see Alvaro spring right into the week and reach Q3 at Mexico and Brazil with Ismael barely missing Q3 by just a few hundredths in P11 and P12. In the race, Carreton gained four places at Mexico to finish P6 after taking his opportunities from the highly competitive title fight ahead whilst Fahssi retired the car from a technical problem that ended his race.

As for Brazil, the team knew there was a lot of pace and room for some big results by both! Interlagos had been a good track for Williams over the many years, and Alvaro, now in his sixth consecutive season and on his way to reaching 50 total career appearances, displayed an absolutely masterful drive to finish P2 and achieve his first podium since 2021 before being denied the position after a post-race penalty from the stewards was applied. Ismael had continued to chase down the top 10 and work hard to recover after his first retirement but came just short of points in P11.

Across the last few rounds, the duo both struggled for qualifying pace but gained in the race and kept themselves sensibly out of trouble for the top five championship fight, as Carreton charged from P17 - P8 in all three races, gaining 27 positions in total and showing a huge amount of consistency and raw determination.

Ismael didn’t manage to reach the points, but would play yet another valuable role in Alvaro and the team’s success, being a magnificent teamplayer across the penultimate and final rounds, holding off rival drivers and helping Alvaro through the field, but was regularly a contender for the top ten throughout and was once more, unfortunate in Abu Dhabi, on route to a double points finish before disconnecting and receiving an in-game penalty.

An understandably difficult week for Ismael after his super two events previously, but his efforts and ‘never give up’ attitude allowed himself, his teammate and Williams to achieve big targets and make such enormous progress forward as a rookie in his first full season.

Ismael kicked off his F1 Sim Racing career by storm as he achieved P8 and scored 4 points on debut at the DreamHack Jonkoping season opener around Bahrain back in November 2023, firmly putting his name on the list of ‘ones to watch’ to millions across the globe.

With the young Spaniard on incredible form heading into event two at the ESL Studio in Stockholm, Ismael was determined to continue his momentum and that he did with flying colours!

Back-to-back podiums in the first two Grand Prix of the week and a further four consecutive point scoring finishes meant Ismael would push himself to fourth in the Drivers’ standings with 53 points gained and the event two mini championship victory, winning by one point over two-time F1 Sim Racing World Champion Jarno Opmeer and Ferrari’s Nicolas Longuet!

In the third and final event of the season, Fahssi found himself in a rollercoaster of misfortune after a few technical issues and in-game penalties, denying his chances of scoring another podium and more points. Ismael sadly struggled throughout the three days despite his amazing efforts as always and pace he had, but saw a dip in form, finishing the season on the 53 points he had claimed in the two events prior.

The hype for Fahssi had skyrocketed throughout Spain and the rest of the world nevertheless as a star of the future, watching the 17-year-old rookie fight amongst the best of the best at the top of the field. He and Williams would remain in the spotlight and would become a regularly mentioned topic amongst the grid’s chatter as well as the live broadcasts and esports news outlets.

Ismael Fahssi - “Overall, I’d say it's been a good season and as a rookie, I’m pleased.

"I’m not happy with event three of course, because of all of the difficult problems I faced and the potential to score big again but sometimes it goes like that, you win some and lose some.

"Event two was a much better week for me and where I showed my talent to everyone and even surprised myself on a few occasions!

"Hopefully next season I can fight for the podium again and who knows, maybe the win and the Championship too!”

Alvaro had a tricky start to his 2023/24 season. A crash out of his control with another car in Round 1 ruined his chances of turning a Q3 appearance into a top 10, but showed his resilience as he fought back through the field to gain a few positions.

Pushing onto the next 6 races in event two, the veteran’s bad luck persisted as he narrowly missed out on points in 11th place for round two and due to illness, sat out of round three and four, where reserve driver Will Lewis, 18, made his official F1 Sim Racing debut in replacement.

Showing his class & experience to bounce back from adversity, Carre would turn his week around to finish P6 in the final race of event two at COTA, claiming his first points of the season and would go on to continue this run all the way through event three, finishing in the top 10, four out of five races, the only non scoring result being a post-race penalty from the stewards that dropped him from P2 in Brazil. At the end of the 12 rounds, Alvaro would finish with 28 total points and sit P12 in the Drivers’ Standings.

Alvaro Carreton - “On my side, the second half of the season went quite well for me as I managed to score points in every race, bar Brazil after our unfortunate penalty.

"My results helped me to come back to a P12 in Drivers’ Standings after having a very poor and unlucky first 6 races in the event before, missing on a lot of points due to incidents and poor timed VSC’s out of my control, as well as missing Round 4 and Round 5 because of illness.

"More importantly, on the team side, we had a bittersweet season as we just missed P5 in Constructors’ which again was out of our hands. 7th at the end isn't what we wanted overall and it was a situation of what if’s but we need to be proud of our work as a team together this season and the steps we’ve made forward from where we were before.

"It’s been an immense year for us overall and I look forward to our next campaign as I’m confident we can go further!”

P1 - Scuderia Ferrari Esports - 253 P2 - Kick F1 Sim Racing - 213 P3 - Red Bull Sim Racing - 209 P4 - Mercedes Esports - 197 P5 - HAAS F1 Esports - 116 P6 - McLaren Shadow - 83 P7 - Williams Esports - 81 P8 - AlphaTauri Orlen Esports - 51 P9 - Aston Martin Esports - 22 P10 - Alpine Esports - 11

P8 - Ismael Fahssi - 53 P12 - Alvaro Carreton - 28 P26 - Will Lewis - 0

Williams share a huge thank you to all the fans' support and a well deserved applause for all the team and our drivers Ismael, Alvaro and Will in their amazing efforts throughout the whole 2023/24 F1 Sim Racing season!

The team will return stronger and cannot wait to be back on track again soon!