F1 ace Niki Lauda's son Mathias to race for Delhi

Thirty international and local riders were picked up by six teams at the drivers’ draft for the franchise-based XI Racing League; Gaurav Gill to race for Delhi too.

Published : Nov 11, 2019 19:50 IST

The competition will start from November 30 at the Buddh International Circuit (in picture) at Greater Noida.

 

Mathias Lauda, son of iconic Formula One ace Niki Lauda, will race for Team Delhi at the inaugural XI Racing League.

Indians Gaurav Gill and Arjun Maini were picked up by Team Delhi and Team Bengaluru respectively.

Thirty international and local riders were picked up by six teams at the drivers’ draft for the franchise-based motorsports event, powered by JK Tyre Motorsports.

The competition will be conducted on November 30-December 1 (Buddh International Circuit, New Delhi), December 7-8 (Madras Motor Race Track, Chennai).

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Four drivers and two cars comprise each team.

Four drivers in each team will include one international male, one international female, one India international and one domestic racer. “All teams are equally balanced and look strong. As all the cars are of the same make, it will be up to the drivers to show their skills and win the race for their team. We can’t wait for racing to begin,” said Armaan Ebrahim, XI Racing co-founder.

Aditya Patel, another co-founder, said: “This is a chance for the domestic racers to get picked in the draft to make it to the next level and prove themselves against established international drivers.”

The league follows the X1 Racing eSports Racing season 1 model, a digital-simulator based racing competition which is currently being held in cities across India.

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The eSports competition was created in a bid to tap talent from different strata of society and it increased the fan following for motorsport in the country.

Team Hyderabad (Akhil Rabindra, Tonio Luizzi, Gosia Rdest, Arjun Narendran, Anindth Reddy). Team Bengaluru (Arjun Maini, Oliver James Webb, Michelle Gatting, Nayan Chatterjee, Vishnu Prasad). Team Mumbai (Kush Maini, Mikkel Jensen, Pippa Mann, Sohil Shah, Karthik Tharanisingh). Team Ahmedabad (Krishna Mahadik, Alex Yoong, Rahel Frey, Chittesh Mandody, Ameya Walavalkar). Team Delhi (Gaurav Gill, Mathias Lauda, Christina Neilsen, Raghul Rangaswamy, Ashwin Datta). Team Chennai (Narain Karthikeyan, Frankie Cheng, Alice Powell, Arjun Balu, Yash Aradhya).