2011 was a demolition by Huis with 368 pts to 186 for second. There were 16 races and he won 14 of them and came 2nd in Silverstone despite a Back of Grid penalty. Finnish drivers Mikko Puumalainen was 2nd in the title chase and Jaakko Mikkonen 3rd. The only other victories were Kerkoff in Silverstone (Huis BOG) and Morgan Morand won in Japan. What it lacked in a title fight it overwhelmed with arrival of other future talents on the scene. Other interesting names arrive in that years standings; Mohammed Patel from the UK, a certain Belgian called Stoffel Van Dorne who would later drive for McLaren in Formula one, Peter Brljak and future Worlds Fastest Gamer winner Rudy Van Buren. Round 1 in 2011 saw the first YouTube full length race stream. It has 10,000 views. FSR was housed within the structures of the Race Department web site. 2012 Huis won again with 316 to 191 points but a new challenger in Morgan Morand won 4 races. Jeffrey Rietveld was 3rd. Outside Huis and Morand the only other race winner was Estonian driver Ivar Kalamees. Consequential new arrivals included Jernej Simoncic from Slovenia with three top ten results. Stoffel Van Dorne racing in between real life racing commitments would podium 3 times in this season. 2013 would be the last in RFactor. It was again Huis for the 4th time followed by Ivar Kalamees and Englishman Jack Keithly. Morand was absent for the last 6 rounds and it is thought he may be training on the potential new simulation for FSR, RFactor2. Simoncic scores his first podium. Scott Woodwiss takes over the highlights videos. Scott would go on to become the media boss at the British Racing and Sports Car Club (BRSCC). 2014 The championship was moved to the newer and more advanced simulation RFactor2 by the same parent company ISI. Amongst higher fidelity to real life physics than even RFactor it will require much better tyre management and features wet weather. The car was the stock Formula ISI, a replica of a 2012 F1 car along with DRS like the real world version. 14 continents are represented. It was a clash of the titans. Morand in his fifth year was back and firing on all cylinders. He won the first 3 rounds and with Gosbee taking rd 4 Huis was winless until round 5. Morand would beat Huis in rounds 7,8 and 9 with Huis scoring his second victory only in round 10. The final race round 12 in COTA arrived and Huis had not so far led the championship. Morand took pole and only needed to come 4th to win his first World Drivers Championship. Morand had it covered until a "double tap" on his pit lane speed limiter put him further behind with a drive thru. Huis would win only 3 races that season but win the title for the 5th time. It was a cliff hanger. Morand was 2nd and Ivar Kalamees 3rd. Huis in 2021 still rates Morand as the toughest competitor he ever faced. 2015 Formula SimRacing introduced live real world weather including the chance of rain. It added a depth of preparation and uncertainty to the racing. With Bono Huis retired and Morand appearing only part time it was an opportunity for a new World Champion. Nobody had prepared better than Croatian Petar Brljak. Now in his 5th season Brljak had warmed up by winning the Div 3 title in 2012 and Div 2 title in 2013. Petar had joined the World Championship in 2014 and scored two podiums. He would be a clear winner in the title chase in 2015 with 12 podiums including 6 wins and a worst result of 4th place. Brljak now had the complete set! He had drivers championship titles in Divisions 1, 2 and 3. Patel was in second and showing his class with 8 podiums including 2 wins. In 3rd was a Polish driver called Kuba Brzezinski, Kuba contested only a handful of races in Div 3 in 2013 and such was his dominance that he was parachuted straight in to the World Championship competition for 2014. Morgan Morand contested only two rounds for a 5th and an 8th, the new talent was strong and the RF2 simulation was now well understood by the drivers. Turkish racer Cem Bolukbasi competed for 4 of the final rounds in that year. He would move into real world racing by 2019 and compete in European GT4 and Formula Renault and at the time of writing (2021) is racing in the Asian F3 championship. YouTube loved round 1 at Albert Park and saw 17,000 views across the 3 series and 85,000 views for the whole season. 2016 A new "Hybrid" power plant was implemented. It was the turn of Dutchman Jeroen Kweekel in only his 3rd season in FSR. He had dominated Div 3 the previous season. He scored 5 victories, Jernej Simoncic was second, Daniel Kiss was 3rd. Muhammed Patel scored 5 podiums and 2 wins. It was decided to move out from under the Race Department umbrella to reinforce and promote FSRs own unique identity. Nikodem Wisniewski the joint winner with Kuba Brzezinski of the 24 hrs of Lemans Virtual in 2020 appeared in World Championship briefly after a season in Div 3 in 2015. 2017 Muhammed Patel now in his 8th season with FSR delivered on the promise from 2016 and 2016. 8 wins and 12 podiums. But he was chased down hard by Jernej Simoncic, 5 wins of 10 podiums. The points were 276 vs 242. Martin Gosbee was 3rd. In other simracing news on Jan 10th Bono Huis entered the richest E-Sports race in history, the Visa Vegas e-Race and took home US$225,000 of the total US$1 million prize pool. Other FSR alumni featuring were Huttu (6th) and Greco (15th) 2018 A variety of fuel mixes was implemented and certain teams optimised their use. Michele D'Alessandro would prevail in his 4th season in FSR with 5 wins and 8 podiums. Jernej Simoncic in second and Brljak 3rd. 2019 saw Jerni Simoncic, now in his ninth season in FSR, achieve a dominance last seen with Huis in his prime. 14 rounds, 8 wins and 13 podiums. Martin Gosbee in second with 5 wins, Petar Brljak in 3rd with one. These three would share all the victories. 2020 FSR decides to become the "Official" premier open wheeler league in RF2 but that deal means only official S397 tracks can be used. Crowd and driver favourites like Albert Park and Monza were out as were Spa, Hungary, China, Baku, Singapore. Real world weather is not used and races are held at 29 deg C and dry. Only 10 rounds would be contested instead of the usual 14 to 16. Simoncic seals a second title in a row with 5 wins and 7 podiums out of only 10 rounds. He becomes the only driver since Bono Huis and along with Marques, Kolbe and Huis one of only four drivers ever to take more than one title. Petar Brljak in second with 2 wins and 6 podiums. Michi Hoyer would seal 3rd and score his first ever World Championship race victory. Five drivers won races in 2020. YouTube views were down to 37,000. In other E-sports events "The Race" championship that grew overnight during the Covid lockdown using RFactor2 and featured a who's who of real world stars and champions raced. In the end the top FSR champions Huis and Simoncic would take it to the line and Kuba Brzezinski would be in third prior to the finals. The FSR Champions were showing that they were the best in the world. On 13th June 2020 the 24 hrs of LeMans virtual was held. If Visa Vegas was the richest, the Lemans event was the biggest, most star studded and most watched in history with 22.8 million viewers. No fewer than seven FSR drivers would take honours in the race. It was won by two FSR stars Brzezinski and Wisniewski with their real world team mates Louis Delétraz and Raffaele Marciello. Jerni Simoncic would take pole and P2 in the event. Jack Keithley, Alex Siebel, Dennis Jordan and Michi Hoyer would all feature in the top ten after 24 hrs of racing. A high water mark for RFactor2 and for the FSR grid.
