At the end of three action-packed days, Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing’s Frederik Rasmussen was crowned World Champion. Although it proved to be a difficult end to the season, Scuderia AlphaTauri Orlen Esports still finished in the points in three of the five races.
Joni Tormala’s experience proved vital in this last event as the Finn managed to make it into Q3 and then the points in both his races. His skill was particularly in evidence through the turns of Interlagos, where he qualified P8, before doing a brilliant job of converting that into P5 in the race, thanks to great pace and a perfect strategy. He was in the points again in Lusail in a chaotic race where he fought back to finish P10.
There were highs and lows for our English duo of Jed Norgrove and Tom Manley in what proved to be a complicated Event 3 for them. Jed never managed to finish in the points, but Tom got as high as P7 in Mexico. In Qatar he was in the fight for the win, but a mistake led to his retirement. And so a thrilling season came to a close with Scuderia AlphaTauri Orlen Esports finishing eighth in the Constructors’ championship, that title going to Ferrari Esports.
Joni Tormala
Round 9: P5
Round 11: P10
“For Brazil I had really good pace in practice, so I was expecting to be high up. However, I was very uncomfortable with the pedals I was using here but I still made it to Q3 which was very nice. I started the race from P8 and we absolutely nailed the strategy with me going long on the Softs before having a lot of pace towards the end on Mediums. And I ended up getting a Top 5 finish which was a great result. I think it’s my best result since 2021, so I’m really happy with that. Next was Qatar, which is also a strong track for me, so I was expecting another good result. But sadly, I messed up my final lap in Q3 when it was looking good for a top 5, but I had to settle for top 10. In the race, I had a difficult start and went backwards a bit and got caught up in some collisions. Once again, I had a really good second stint with the Mediums and finished P10. Summing up, Q3 twice, points twice, I can’t be disappointed with that.”
Tom Manley
Round 8: P7
Round 10: P20
Round 11: DNF
Round 12: DNF
“The event wasn’t ideal. We got points in Mexico but the other races didn’t go to plan, especially Qatar. I was fighting for the win but I made a mistake which resulted in a DNF. In Abu Dhabi, I pitted too early and it ended with another DNF. Not a great event, but we’ll bounce back next year. Looking at the season as a whole, we could have done a lot better than P8 and I think P5 should have been achievable. We’ll look to do better next season.”
Jed Norgrove
Round 8: P16
Round 9: P16
Round 10: P17
Round 12: P11
“Event 3 did not go quite as well as 1 and 2 for me. Qualifying for Mexico and Brazil did not go so well, but then we had two solid races but unfortunately, I finished outside the points which is disappointing. It was the same with Vegas, where I made a big mistake in quali. I looked set to get to Q2 but made a mistake in sector 3. Then the race was not as chaotic as we had expected. Abu Dhabi was probably the best race of all. We drove a really good race so to just miss out on points was frustrating, but we got P8 in the Constructors’ so I think that’s solid. Joni got some good points and so did Tom. I think all of us got some good results over the season. We can be happy with it.”
