F1 Sim Racing World Championship 2026 sees a dramatic finale of Abu Dhabi 2021 proportions

You couldn’t write it, they say when something unexpected happens in sports. But let’s say you could: how would you script a championship finale in F1? Drivers’ and constructors’ titles still undecided going into the last round. Team-mates gunning for each other. Some maverick tyre strategies, forceful overtakes and controversial stewarding?

Whether penned by motorsport’s cosmic ghostwriters or – more likely – simply the consequence of sim racing’s gung-ho nature, those were the exact story beats to the 2026 F1 Sim Racing World Championship finale at Abu Dhabi, and, listen, do you have a damp flannel and a quiet room, because our nerves are still shot from witnessing it.

Over at Formula One’s Media & Technology centre at Biggin Hill, where F1 broadcasts are also managed, it was Alpine’s Otis Lawrence who prevailed in the driver’s championship and Red Bull who took a record fourth constructor’s title. But the route to those results was drenched in drama.

We should all be watching more of this esports series. It’s full of incident and maverick decisions that suck you into its storylines. Each of F1’s teams except Audi and Cadillac (who are rather busy getting up to speed on the track) compete in the annual sim racing comp, in which their roster of esports drivers compete in EA Sports’ F1 game series and battle for a $750,000 prize pool.

Heading into the final round, Alpine’s Oscar Lawrence had a slim points advantage over Ferrari’s Ismael Fahssi, while the Alpine team itself had an even slimmer lead in the constructors’ over Red Bull, while Ferrari still had a mathematical chance of nabbing it.

You can, and should, watch how the final race played out here via the archived livestream. To call it entertaining is akin to saying Abu Dhabi 2021 is worth catching up on the highlights of, if you get a sec. Everything happened in that race.

Red Bull’s Fredrik Rasmussen qualified on pole, but with his veteran team-mate Jarno Opmeer lining up further back on the grid, while both Ferraris and Alpine’s Lawrence were in the top five, it was a tall order to bring back a fourth constructor’s title.

Making a bold play for the driver’s title, Ferrari’s Fahssi opted to start on the harder compound tyre – along with Opmeer – while most of the grid started on the medium. It paid off beautifully for the Spanish contender, whose aggressive opening lap put him behind Rasmussen in P2, and then into the lead moments after.

His Ferrari team-mate Bari Broumand fought like a lion for Fahssi, picking a sub-optimal strategy designed to let Fahssi work up a lead and make life hard for Lawrence by bunching up the pack.

After the first round of pitstops, it looked like a masterstroke from Ferrari’s esports engineers, with both Broumand and Fahssi cutting their way through those going longer on their first stint. Meanwhile Alpine split their drivers’ strategies, letting Lawrence play it conservatively by minimising Fahssi’s undercut potential while team-mate Dani Bereznay could work as an agent of chaos further back and fight for points in the constructors’.

Unfortunately for Alpine Bereznay’s charge was halted after he lost a wheel following an optimistic move into the last corner. Bereznay looked inconsolable after retiring, but will perhaps be reminded that this one mistake pales in comparison to the Hungarian’s many wins and podiums across his career.

Meanwhile wily tyre management specialist Opmeer had made an extremely long stint on the hard compound work for him, and was now in the top five. It was advantage Red Bull. And with Fahssi leading but Lawrence also in the top five, just where he needed to be, the WDC would be going the Welsh driver’s way.

With seven laps to go, though, everyone seemed to engage full send mode. There were more overtakes than one could keep track of. In-game time penalties doled out, which may or may not be scrubbed off later, and investigations opened by the human stewarding team on both Fahssi and Lawrence after they made contact during overtakes. The constructor’s champion-to-be seemed to change every lap.

The chequered flag fell with investigations still open on both drivers, and possible time penalties hanging in the air which could change the outcome of both titles. What followed was 30 minutes - thirty of them - of tension, while the stewards untangled a great big knot.

Once the dust settled, the fireworks could begin. It was Lawrence and Red Bull who emerged victorious after investigations were closed and penalties scrubbed off, and while the wait was an agonising one, the preceding race was absolutely vintage.