© Tom Morley2026 F1 Sim Racing Championship - Event 1 ReportOpening 2026 with a DreamHack Podium!
RacingBullsSimRacingTeamkickedoffthe2026F1SimRacingWorldChampionshipseasonatDreamHackBirmingham,withthethree-dayliveeventdeliveringpodiums,technicaldramaandapromisingstarttothecampaign.
Held in front of a packed audience at one of the UK’s biggest gaming festivals, the opening event featured one race per day across the weekend. Racing Bulls rotated its driver line-up throughout the event, with Tom Manley competing in all three races, Ulas Ozyildirim driving Races 1 and 3, and Joni Törmälä stepping in for Race 2.
The season began in style for Racing Bulls as Ozyildirim secured his first-ever F1 Sim Racing podium.
Starting from P2 on the grid at the Shanghai International Circuit, Ozyildirim stayed close to race leader Frederik Rasmussen throughout the race, carefully managing tyre wear while maintaining a strong pace.
A small mistake on the final lap prevented a late challenge for victory, but the Turkish driver still crossed the line in P2 to claim Racing Bulls’ first podium of the 2026 season.
“I just wanted to follow Fred from the start, not overtake him, so I could save my tyres,” explained Ozyildirim after the race. “Then at the end I had a lot better tyres, but I made a mistake in the final lap when going onto the straight.”
“I used all my ERS to get some speed in, but I couldn’t. But I am still very happy with my first podium, obviously.”
“I have been doing two seasons now, but this is starting off very well. This is one of my best tracks, so I feel very good.”
The result continued Ozyildirim’s strong history at the circuit after he claimed pole position there during the 2025 season.
Joni, Joyful As Always© Tom Morley
For the second race of the weekend, Törmälä replaced Ozyildirim in the line-up. Wet qualifying conditions made the session especially difficult, with Törmälä suffering a costly invalidated lap during Q1.
“It’s really frustrating to invalidate the lap like that, but I knew it was going to be very tight, so I had to try something,” said Törmälä afterwards.
“I was really confident, especially in the warmup, I was feeling great, and then in my head I should have gone into Q2 easily, but yeah it happens.”
Despite the difficult qualifying, Törmälä remained focused on contributing to the overall team result following Racing Bulls’ strong opening race.
“I would say it’s less pressure for me because we got such good points in Race 1. I just care about the team.”
The race itself proved challenging for both Racing Bulls drivers, with neither car able to fight for major points positions.
The final day of Event 1 began with Racing Bulls race engineer Lucas Bloom appearing live on stage for a Q&A session alongside Williams Gaming Team Principal Ben Hawkins and host Tom Deacon.
Bloom joined Racing Bulls ahead of the 2026 season after previously engineering within McLaren’s sim racing programme and spoke about the role of a sim racing engineer, as well as his working relationship with Manley.
On track, Ozyildirim once again delivered a strong qualifying performance, securing P4 on the grid. An aggressive overtake on Red Bull Sim Racing’s Frederik Rasmussen quickly became one of the highlights of the event and had the DreamHack crowd reacting loudly from the grandstands.
Unfortunately, the race soon turned chaotic after an in-game lag incident caused contact with a McLaren before a difficult rejoin led to further contact with a Ferrari. Two penalties followed, dropping Ozyildirim to P13 by the finish.
Manley also suffered technical frustration after experiencing a game crash, which left him classified P18.
The Overviewers© Tom Morley
- Team Standings: P8 - 18 points
- Ulas Ozyildirim: P9 – 18 points
- Tom Manley: P19 – 0 points
- Joni Törmälä: P17 – 0 points
Despite technical setbacks and difficult races later in the weekend, Racing Bulls left DreamHack Birmingham with a strong opening points haul thanks to Ulas’s podium finish in China.
