After a long wait, More Female Racers is coming back for the fifth time. This new edition of the championship brings a lot of changes, providing a nice refresh to the series. New car, the Mercedes-AMG GT4, new format and new rules. All designed to create more and more action on track, where female racers are going to be protagonists.
What is MFR?
For those who may not be familiar with it, More Female Racers is a SimGrid project. The main purpose of this championship series is to increase the involvement of female racers in the world of sim racing. The separation of the entry list means that everyone can have fun while learning, going wheel to wheel with other racers who have similar skill levels.
The campaign has proven itself successful throughout the years. MFR has become a rock-solid starting point in the sim world for a lot of female racers. The experience gained thanks to the on-track action and the help from veteran co-drivers has helped a lot of them in starting a successful career.
New car, new format
As we already mentioned, the first big change brought by Season 5 is the car. While in the past edition the championship was a Ferrari 488 GT3 spec-series, this time around racers will be behind the wheel of the Mercedes-AMG GT4. Drivers will get the chance to find their comfort with the new car on the qualification server. Running between the 10th and the 21st of October, this phase will also be useful to the organization in order to allocate drivers to the different categories.
Qualification will be held at Nurburgring, where the first green flag will drop. The inaugural round is scheduled for Monday 24th of October. Following a short qualifying session, drivers will face two 30-minutes races. The final order of the first heat will determine how cars will line up on the grid for the second race, meaning there will be no grid reversal.
The format change is designed to give more track time and responsibility to female racers. While in Season 4 they had to share the cockpit with a co-driver in a single race, this time around they are racing solo in two 30-minute races, with former teammates taking up the role of engineer.
Dynamic schedule spices things up
Those who followed Season 4 will surely remember the peculiarity of the final round, held at Donington Park. In fact, the last race venue was decided through a public vote. In the new edition, this special rule will be extended to the whole calendar.
Aside from the first round, the other four are yet to be determined and the public will have a crucial role in this. Make sure to subscribe to The SimGrid YouTube channel to not miss the action and to take part in the voting of the tracks. The championship will be organized on a bi-weekly basis, with the season finale being held on the 19th of December. Every round will start with the qualifying session at 20:40 CEST. Here is the full schedule:
- Round 1 – Nurburgring – 24th October
- Round 2 – Public voted track – 7th November
- Round 3 – Public voted track – 21st November
- Round 4 – Public voted track – 5th December
- Round 5 – Public voted track – 19th December
What happened in Season 4?
While many things will change in More Female Racers Season 5, it might still be worth taking a look at the results from one year ago. The past editions of the championship show how much this series has helped in promoting the development of female drivers. Many of the names we saw on the MFR grids went on to become SimGrid Endurance Cup Split 3 champions or to race in the SRO Esports series globally.
GTWR R8G Racing has certainly done a great job with its female division. They dominated the Pro class, with Sara Dove winning 5 out of 6 rounds with the help of her co-drivers. Silver has been no different story, as two of their teams finished tied for points in first place. Sophie Aeronwen and Matt Muirhead won the title over Esmeralda van der Naald and Stephane Greffet, by winning two more races. Luna Nera and Team Cake are the current champions respectively in Pro-Am and Am.
