2017-I Race4Speed GP1 Season



The 2017-I Season of the R4S GP1 League was the 3rd GP1 Season by Race4Speed and started as rFactor series with 30 races on 10 weekends. The series started in Australia on 19 February and ended in Abu Dhabi on 02 July.

Marc Stwerka won the Drivers' Championship with two events to go and thus defended his Championship. His team, Repsol Swinegel Racing, defended the Constructors' Championship as well with 977 points after the seasons' finale.

The Series used the P-02C/17 chassis by 3D artist haunetal1990.

Driver changes
Joining GP1
 * Phil Novaes will join the series with TR Bluvos Motorsports.
 * After a one-year abstinence, Myles Dixon will re-join the series with SlipStream Racing.
 * Camilo Pino and Milton Martinez will join the series with Klebaa Racing Team.
 * Lucas Murno will make his debut with Unnamed's Motorsport.
 * Lorenzo De Ciutiis will join the series with his own team McLollo Racing Technology.
 * Felipe Calderon will re-join the series with Virtual Speed Racing Kartingroup.
 * Phillip Volland made his debut with Prototype Racing Academy at round four in Barcelona.
 * Jesus Marcano joined the series with Unnamed's Motorsport in Monaco.

Changing teams
 * Francisco Vazquez will switch from Argentina Racing Team to TR Bluvos Motorsports.
 * Jesús Chirinos will switch from Unnameds Racing Developments II to Unnamed's Race Team.
 * Simon Crain will change teams from SF Corse to SlipStream Racing.

Leaving GP1
 * David Hernández announced on Dec 5th 2016 that he'll retire from sim racing with immediate effect.
 * After taking over Team GM's entry, Ecodrom Prototype Racing hasn't extended the contract of Team GM's third driver Ricardo Mleziva, forcing him to leave the series.
 * As TR Bluvos Motorsports brought in an all-new line-up for 2017, the team's previous drivers Cristiano Bohessef, Xavi Ros Gomez, Darko Jovanovski and Zac Jones were forced to leave the series.

Mid-season changes
 * With only three race starts under his belt, Phillip Volland got promoted to the Prototype Racing main team from Monaco onwards, after regular driver Martin Jatzek left the series. However, Jatzek surprisingly returned to GP1 at the Red Bull Ring and thus pushed Volland back into his Prototype Racing Academy seat before finally making his debut for the main team at Paul Ricard.
 * After racing for the prestigious TR Bluvs Motorsports team in the first four events, Francisco Vazquez switched to the team's partners of Ecodrom Prototype Racing, joining their Academy team. However, before joining his new cockpit he substituted for the ill Phillip Volland in Monaco.
 * With the reorganization of Unnamed's Race Team and Unnamed's Motorsport, Julián Chirinos was forced to left the teams and opened his own squad, Chirinos Motorsport. At the same time, Carlos Garcia switched from Unnamed's Race Team to Unnamed's Motorsport in order to replace Julián Chirinos.

Team changes

 * Team GM announced on Jan. 16th that it will fusionate it's GP1 program with Prototype Racing in 2017 and thus rebranded it's entry as Ecodrom Prototype Racing. The team's management operation will also change to Prototype Racing, while sporting operation and the driver's line-up remain unchanged.
 * TR Motorsports announced on Jan. 21st that it will join the cooperation between Ecodrom Prototype Racing and Team GM as third team. However, they will still field two cars in competition with their partners under the name TR Bluvos Motorsports. Also, they'll switch their tyre manufacturer from Pirelli to Dunlop.
 * Unnameds Racing Development announced on Jan 26th that it'll rename it's entry to Unnamed's Race Team. The 2nd team (running as Unnameds Racing Developments II in 2016) was renamed to Unnamed's Motorsport.
 * SF Corse, Bruse GP, G.P. Latina Racing Team, F1 Online League Racing Team, Mysterio Racing and Random Racing have not signed up for a second or third season respectievly, leaving TR Bluvos Motorsports as the only team to compete in all GP1 seasons so far.
 * As Francisco Vazquez changed teams, Argentina Racing Team was left without any drivers at the beginning of the season and thus didn't enter for a second season.
 * SlipStream Racing will join the series.
 * Chirinos Motorsport will join the series after round five.

Race calendar and results
A provisional ten-round calendar was announced on 26 December 2016 and confirmed as final race calender on 24 January 2017.

Calendar changes

 * The Victoria GP in Melbourne is now known as the Australian Grand Prix.
 * The Florida GP in Sebring is now known as the American Grand Prix.
 * The Catalunya GP in Barcelona is now known as the Spanish Grand Prix.
 * Due to shortening the race calender the races in Curitiba, Sonoma, Mexico-City, Silverstone, Budapest, Stavelot, Monza, Valencia, Bathurst and Sao Paulo will not take part in the GP1 2017-I season.
 * The French Grand Prix will replace the race in Estoril, Portugal.
 * The Japanese Grand Prix will now take part at the Fuji Speedway instead of Suzuka.

General changes

 * The season length was shortened from covering a full calendar year to only half of a year.

Sporting regulations

 * The race length was changed from ~230km in distance to 15 minutes in time.
 * The formation lap was removed from the starting procedure. The races will now start directly after the time for driving into the grid expired.
 * After some curious situations during the qualifying procedure, the qualifying format was changed to one session, 10 minutes in length, where every driver can do as many laps as he wants.
 * There will be 30 races at all, 3 on 10 circuits, this season. The qualifying will form the starting grid for the first race. The second race will be started as a reverse grid refering to the race result of race 1. The third race will be started as a reverse grid refering to the drivers' championship standings after the second race of the same race weekend.
 * The Warm-Up-Session is shortened to 5 minutes in length.

Drivers' Championship
Bold – Pole (Race 1 only) Italics – Fastest Lap

Notes:
 * † — Drivers did not finish the race, but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

Teams' Championship
Bold – Pole (Race 1 only) Italics – Fastest Lap

Notes:
 * † — Drivers did not finish the race, but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.