Jarno Opmeer leaves Renault Vitality

It’s not only in what is known as classic Formula 1 that transfers take place. Indeed, contract renewals or driver departures are also a significant aspect of F1 Esports. After the departure of Cedric Thome and Simon Weigang from Renault Sport Team Vitality, it’s now the turn of star driver Jarno Opmeer to leave the diamond brand. A surprising departure considering the strong alliance between the French team and the Dutch driver, which led to a fierce battle for the title, although it ultimately only rewarded them with a fourth-place finish.

The fact that Renault had a smaller form after Monza surely made it clear that the French team might never be fully capable of winning the championship. A defeat all the more humiliating when you consider that they were beaten notably by Ferrari, which only scored points thanks to David Tonizza while the driver and the team were making their big debut in the virtual world.

Leaving Renault is one thing, but where to go? All the seats at Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, Haas, Williams are already taken. We can even partially exclude Racing Point and AlphaTauri. For the former, the driver choice seems to have already been made, even if nothing is official yet, while for the latter it is hard to imagine Red Bull signing another driver when it’s not even sure that all its current sim racers will be able to race this season. That leaves McLaren and Alfa Romeo, but the likelihood of seeing the Dutchman with the Swiss team is very slim as the second seat is likely to be taken by James Baldwin unless something unexpected happens. McLaren is the most logical choice because, even though the Shadow McLaren esports branch hasn’t shown many results yet, it is heavily involved and would greatly benefit from a driver of this caliber to help the team improve.

The last possibility for Jarno Opmeer is to see him at the Pro Draft, but it’s not certain that a driver of his caliber would accept being on the bench for most races.

The Dutch driver stated this on social media: « As some of you have noticed, I am currently not participating in the exhibition races of the F1 Esport Pro Series. I am no longer part of the Renault Sport Team Vitality and therefore will not be racing for them this 2020 season. I wanted to thank Guillaume Vergnas, Cedric Thome, Simon Weigang, and James Doherty for making 2019 an incredible year! »

Before becoming the talented sim racer we know today, Jarno Opmeer was a driver in promotional formulas. Unfortunately, he was less successful there, with his best result being a second-place finish in the SMP F4 championship in 2016, followed by mid-pack positions in other championships he participated in from 2017 to 2018. He is also a talented league racer, having won the Ziggo Ebattle Pro League championship and, most notably, season 18 of AOR with almost a 100-point lead, and season 25 of PSGLF1 also with a considerable lead over the second place.