The long-awaited GRL season three commences tonight. The reigning champion, AlecMilly has retired so that begs the question… will we have a new F122 king or will the season one champion, Jel9166 reclaim his throne? 20 drivers, 1 champion Who will come out victorious?
The GRL calendar will follow the Official Formula One Calendar for 2023, all 22 tracks seen in the real-life calendar will follow suit in the virtual. There will be two races each Thursday stemming from April 20th to June 29th. The races will be, one full qualifying with a 50% race and one short qualifying with a 25% race. Now the formalities are out of the way let’s meet the drivers!
Williams – Jel9166 x Jxe03
The season one Constructors Champions will be looking to return to the top after finishing in third last season. Jel9166 has picked a new teammate in Jxe03 who has consistently improved throughout his GRL tenure. The former Alpha Tauri man finished 13th in the inaugural season with 47 points, then improved to 11th with 51 points. Despite the numbers not appearing to be flattering, there were five fewer weeks of racing in season two in comparison to season one. The question is, can Jxe03 continue this upwards trajectory and support Jel9166 to push Williams back to the top of the pile? Jel9166 finished p3 in the driver’s standings last season, a couple of qualifying errors cost him vital track position in his quest to defend his title, if he wants to return to his spot as the cream of the crop, he’ll have to reduce the mistakes. There’s an exciting future ahead for Williams.
Red Bull – Lawal_16 x RoyalJukes
This is the third season Lawal_16 and RoyalJukes will partner as teammates in the Galaxy Racing League. On their first attempt, they finished fourth. On their second, they finished second. Can they go that one step higher and win the crown? Lawal_16 goes into this season as one of the favourites to win the driver’s championship. Second best last season with multiple chances squandered to close the gap to AlecMilly, he knows where what he needs to do this time to make sure he’s the clear number one. RoyalJukes is GRL’s Mr Consistent. A clean driver with good pace around all tracks. P9 then p7 in seasons one and two respectively with two race wins to his name can RJ be able to close the gap to the leading group and push his teammate in a potential inter-team title fight?
Ferrari – Wrezzza x Amz_S_M
A completely new look at Ferrari sees former Alpine and Mercedes man, Wrezzza partner up with the first-ever race winner in GRL history Amz. Wrezzza has finished p4 in both seasons with multiple podiums and a race win to his name. Always a good contender, he’ll be looking to make more of those near misses into wins in his bid to become the GRL champ. Despite his lightning start to GRL season 1, Amz’s fire quickly wilted. He secured a solid p2 in the Australian GP but failed to score afterwards, before having to leave the league for undisclosed reasons. Amz will be a driver the grid may want to pay close attention to, it’s yet to be known want Amz will show up but it creates a bit of suspense going into season three.
Alpha Tauri – Sn8kester x James
Season three paints a new beginning for Sn8kester, the former Ferrari man has moved to Alpha Tauri to join James, who burst onto the GRL scene last season, finishing 9th on 71 points. James had a couple of impressive races last season including a p2 at Miami, finishing the race with the fastest lap. It’ll be interesting to see how James fairs against Sn8kester who clear championship contender once more. P3 and P5 in both seasons so far, the Ghanaian, has always had the raw pace to compete at the top with five wins across both seasons. He will be looking to add more consistency this season to set his sights on GRL gold.
McLaren – Blecourt x NoLimitm10
A new look at McLaren sees former Alpine and Williams driver Blecourt team up with NoLimitm10. Blecourt is always the dark horse, on his day, he’s proved he can mix with the top drivers but sometimes has lacked the consistency to join the title talks. His move to McLaren and choice of teammate have been scrutinised by the grid, however. M10 has struggled in his GRL career, finishing p14 in season one and then being a reserve driver for season two, a new fresh team could give him the bolster he needs to push towards midtable. There are a lot of questions at McLaren yet to be answered.
Alpine – Edsoulchild x Skeezyy77
Alpine is another team that’s pressed the reset button and gone with two fresh faces. Skeezyy and Edsoulchild join forces after finishing 13th and 14th last season. Ed will be looking to return to the top half of the grid after a poor season two where he finished nine spots lower than season one. Skeezyy has been in around the midfield, throughout his GRL tenure but has never had a teammate to push him for an entire season. With both drivers finishing next to each other last season, we could potentially see some great fight for team supremacy in season three.
Aston Martin – Adam x SM
SM returns to GRL after being kicked out due to a series of unsafe driving complaints. He will be looking to turn a new leaf and prove he has the ability to be a top contender which he’s proved on raw pace he can do. His teammate Adam finished p12 last season but missed a fair few races which definitely lost him a fair few points. Both drivers are extremely skilled however can they find the consistency needed to compete across a 22-race calendar?
Alfa Romeo – Bayly06 x IsaacShilo
The only debutant for season three lands in Alfa Romeo alongside the polarising character of IsaacShilo. Bayly06 is the younger brother of Alpha Tauri’s James. He made it to GRL through his impressive performances in the MiniLeague last week where he finished p2 behind SM. The youngster showed great pace and ability to compete in the midfield of the grid. His teammate is a driver that’s always in the headlines. IsaacShilo is a good driver who has proved at certain tracks can compete but often lacks the consistency and racing cleanliness to push further up the grid. Pre-season testing has shown Mr Shilo may have taken the steps forward to compete further up the grid but we’ll see how he fairs over the course of the season.
Mercedes – Official_Klewis x MrKwakz
Klewis has always been a loved member of the GRL grid and before season one was tipped as one of the favourites but there have been several occasions where he’s been in brilliant positions amongst the top 10 but then lost the car or been caught up in an incident. Two p15 finishes may not be representative of his ultimate pace, which is definitely top 10 level but a testament to his lack of consistency. If he can erase the errors this time around he’ll definitely be looking at challenging for podiums here and there. His new teammate Mr Kwakz has struggled so far in GRL. Yet to score points and DNFing 7 times last season, he’s been working hard on improving his racecraft and will be looking to get that valuable point after two p11s last season.
Haas – CGM_Mikes x Lsuavo-26
Two drivers who’ve had troublesome experiences in GRL. Lsuavo-26 has finished p16 and p19 so far and could be fighting for his seat if things don’t improve this season. He’s had glimmers of promise in races such as Brazil where he was in the lofty heights of fifth before losing the changeable conditions on the exit of the pitlane. Mikes makes a return to GRL after missing the cut for season two. He scored seven points in his sole season, he will be looking to improve on that if he wants a seat for season four.
The Galaxy Racing League goes live on Youtube tonight at 9pm. Tune in to see who comes out victorious in the opening rounds!
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