Mercedes launches branded eSports team

Top international auto manufacturer Mercedes Benz has confirmed that it is launching its own eSports team, and has signed inaugural Formula 1 eSports champion Brendon Leigh (19) as the lead driver.

Leigh, who defeated Fabrizio Donoso Delgado and Sven Zurner in a controversial eSports final last year, will defend his drivers’ championship title.

Other members of the team include 2017 McLaren World’s Fastest Gamer finalist Harry Jacks; multiple-Polish sim racing champion Patryk Krutyi and Dani Bereznay, who was selected by the team in July’s Pro Draft.

The team will be based at Brackley alongside its real-life F1 team, and will use a “purpose-built eSports training centre, which will provide the team’s gamers with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment to develop their skills,” according to a Mercedes statement. The building houses the Mercedes F1 Driver in Loop Simulator.

“The eSports programme will benefit from transferable elements pertinent to optimising car set-up and honing racecraft,” the Mercedes press statement reveals, adding that it will focus on human performance and will give the eSports team members access to the on-site Performance Centre covering the core areas of nutrition, physical conditioning and wellbeing.”

Leigh’s team will start competing in October in the next stage of the F1 2018 eSports series as the Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport team.

Competitors include Red Bull Racing eSports, Renault Sport Team Vitality, eForce India, McLaren Shadow, Toro Rosso and Williams eSports.