Williams Esports and British Esports partnered together to bring the first Season of the UK held Student Racing League, culminating in a live LAN finale at the Williams Esports Lounge in Grove.
The Student Racing League had 3 tiers available and the 30 fastest education centres secured their spot in 1 of the 3 tiers. Each tier had a high quality battle all the way through their respective seasons with the final round for everyone being in-person for a title deciding last round at the Williams Experience Centre.
Williams Esports x British Esports Student Racing League 2023/24 Champions
Split 3 had the closest points finish, with just 7 points separating the top 2 schools - East Sussex & Sunderland College and Banbury & Bicester College. The winners, East Sussex & Sunderland College (2 education centres who teamed up together) took the lead in the final race of the season as they claimed victory for Silverstone Race 1 and continue to score a further 8 points in Race 2, whilst Banbury & Bicester College found themselves amongst the pressure to unfortunately lose their crown with just 2 points on the board throughout the day.
Split 2 saw a dominant performance from Barnsley College, with the title wrapped up in the penultimate online round before the live final. Barnsley College won all but 2 races in the season and only missed out on double points on 3 occasions, putting themselves firmly at the front of the grid as the team to beat.
Split 1 was yet another close battle right until the end. 3 schools were in a mathematical chance of taking the title entering the LAN - King’s School Grantham, Gower College Swansea and reigning Champions Loughborough College. With Wilmington Academy taking the first win of the day as Gower College finished P2, Loughborough P4 and King’s School Grantham P5 & P6, the fight was on for the very last round! Silverstone would wrap the season in an edge of the seat 26 lap race where Gower College, Swansea would take the win and Loughborough College in P4 & P9, securing some strong points, but in the end King’s School Grantham came out on top with a P5 & P8, making it enough to take the Championship with a 23 point gap after an incredible 6 months, scoring in every single race!
As the professional Esports team of Formula 1 Team Williams Racing, formed in 2018, and represented internationally across competitive SimRacing, Gaming and modern-day education, we aim to be a leading organisation in creating the most holistic, high-performance environment in Esports for our drivers and the wider team’s growth as well as the next generation of students and experts, with a success record to show for it.
Williams had enlisted support from the British Esports Federation to help students to utilise the benefits of crossover with a real-world sport.
Health & wellbeing – elite sim racing is physical and requires a combination of mind and body performance.
Coaching – training, not just in typical gameplay but in driving technique with real world application and logic
STEM – in-depth technology and innovation through race engineering and analysis
Teamwork – race drivers, test drivers, coaches and engineers combine to determine overall performance.
Education – bringing your esports studies to life through industry experience, linked to the Pearson and British Esports BTEC qualifications.
We are honoured to have provided the opportunity for Schools, Colleges and Students across the United Kingdom to compete, experience, enjoy and work & learn together as teams, with ourselves and British Esports this season and look forward to everyone again soon!
Thank you and well done to all students, education centres and additional members involved with the Student Racing League in 2023/24.