May 16, 2016

 

After six rounds of the season, a third of the way through the Championship, we take a look at the standings and at what we can draw from the results so far.

The Drivers' Championship is looking to be as close a battle as it has been for the past few years. Currently, rookie Eros Masciulli leads the way with two wins to his name, an even more impressive result considering he has missed round one. Masciulli is known in the simracing world to be very fast but I still think some are surprised that he actually currently tops the standings; the question on everyone's lips is - can he keep up the pace and can his car support him all the way to the title?

"Mr Consistent" David Fidock is only one point behind though, himself having one win and two podium finishes. Fidock, as a previous Superleague World Champion, knows what it takes to win and is always a challenge. The new partnership at Nordsjoen with Florian Geier seems to have hit the ground running and, unlike Masciulli and Edonis, we know that Nordsjoen can definitely back him with the car to do it. Both Eros and David haven't finished lower than eighth in any race so far and it's been the constant points scoring that gives them the lead in the standings so far.

It has been a story of inconsistencies, bad luck and maybe a curse for the guys behind the front two. It says a lot for the quality and closeness of this year's racing that people still consider drivers in the standings as low as seventh and eighth to be in the title running.

In third, 16 points behind Masciulli, we find Lewis Redshaw, now in the Woods and with two second places this year - is he maybe cursed not to win a race though? Still, some impressive driving has again seen him score in all races this season. Redshaw is very much the lone Woods competing for points, something that could potentially hamper him later in the season as the lack of a rear-gunner leaves him exposed.

In fourth is Torrent driver Mindaugas Klumbis who has shown himself to have impressive speed. He finds himself currently just over one win off the top (26 points) but has already shown a win is possible, crossing the line first in Bahrain. Questions unfortunately always arise over Torrent's participation of the full season; for the Lithuanian, however, the only blip remains a DNF in Russia in a season that otherwise has never seen him finishing lower than eighth - that's the same standard as the top two!

In fifth sixth, tied on points, are Michael Francesconi and Emanuel Gaczella. Francesoni is slowly becoming the Edonis second driver in the wake of Masciulli's championship challenge but that doesn't allow anyone to discount him either. Another rookie to the Superleague, he's taking a little longer to get used to the league's car: he struggled to break the top 10 in the first few races, but since then fourth, sixth and then second in Monaco show that, come the end of the year, he could be right up there. Gaczella is a veteran of the league and a race winner, but with his own outfit, Storm Racing, new to the Superleague in 2016 any realistic title challenge will depend on the team keeping the development going, a big ask for a brand new team. Results have been impressive if not spectacular, with a highest finish of fifth but also lowest of seventh in all six races so far; he is up there in the standings on merit and not a one off race.

Normally, I wouldn't go as low as seventh and eighth in the standings, even at this early stage of the season. A gap of 32 and 34 points from the championship leader is a lot to come back from, but if anyone can do it then it is the two guys we find here.

Seventh is Rudy van Buren, who has arguably shown himself to be the class of the field. After running off into the distance in race one, who would have thought he would find himself this low in the standings! Van Buren has proved again his speed by winning Monaco, but as amazing as his speed is, that sadly is not the story of his season so far. Missing the race event at Turkey added to the misery of two DNF through a disconnection and a crash in Bahrain and Russia in race winning positions. Van Buren has the speed and quality to win all the races coming up if motivation and luck are on his side, but the question mark and doubt over errors / connection issues will always be there; still, don't count him out just yet.

Eighth is current world drivers champion Phillip Puschke, who has missed two rounds this season due to ill health. The questions are there on whether his title challenge is finished already. Missing two rounds is a lot to catch up on, however he has shown in the four races he has done that he still has the skill to bring home three podiums in a Vod:Bul that isn't as dominant over the field as it was this time last year.

So what have we learnt? We have a very talented field taking part in the 2016 Stormcharge Superleague - even below these top eight, we find names as De Vos, Geier, Cooper, Canapino, Parker, all of which could be or arguably should be in the title hunt.

The next three races will be crucial in the run in for the title, as this is traditionally where some teams' development can pull away from others. Couple that with the fast flowing Canadian, British and Austrian races and we can't wait to see what happens next!