It has been announced that F1 esports player Cem Bölükbaşı will compete in the next FIA F2 Championship season.
The Turkish racer made his mark in history as the first Formula racer to move from the world of esports to real life.
The rise of Cem Bölükbaşı to F2
Cem Bölükbaşı carried his successes on esports to the tracks after a successful esports career. He displayed great success in GT4 Europe and Euroformula Open series. The Turkish racer later competed in the F3 Asia Series, participated in the Formula 2 test drives with the Van Amersfoort Racing team before the 2022 season. The 23-year-old racer also managed to be among the ten most successful pilots in the test races held in Abu Dhabi, and reached an agreement with the Czech team Charouz Racing System before the new season.
Cem Bölükbaşı wants to continue to break new grounds
Cem Bölükbaşı said that this was one of his dreams after getting the right to compete in the F2 World Championship. He is very excited and happily waiting for the next season. The 23-year-old said that he had a perfect 2021, but that he wanted to continue breaking new grounds by having a much better year in 2022. He added that he wants to rise to Formula 1 by becoming successful in Formula 2.
Cem Bölükbaşı’s story
Cem Bölükbaşı will be the first Turkish racer to compete in Formula 2. He started motorsports with motocross when he was only 5 years old. He also participated in the Turkey Karting Championship in the 25 Little Men project organized by Petrol Ofisi in 2006. The Turkish driver would later participate in many karting races and test Formula 4 and Formula 3 vehicles, but the turning point for him would be esports races.
Cem Bölükbaşı participated in the esports organization organized by Formula 1 in 2017, passing many rivals. Cem Bölükbaşı, who managed to make it to the final of the organization, even won one of the final races. With this success, he first joined the esports team of Fernando Alonso and then Toro Rosso and Red Bull.
His success in the esports industry attracted the attention of the Turkish team Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport, and thus Cem Bölükbaşı had the chance to compete in the GT4 European series in 2019. Together with his experienced teammate İbrahim Okyay, they placed second in their own class while they were only in their second race. He also competed in the Formula Renault Eurocup in the same year.
Cem Bölükbaşı, who spent his first full season in the GT4 European Championship with Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport in 2020, finished second in the Pro-Am class together with his teammate Yağız Gedik. In 2021, he competed in the F3 Asian series. At the end of the season, he was 9th in the leaderboard and 2nd among rookie pilots.
Together with GT4 Europe, he started to compete with Van Amersfoort Racing in the Euroformula Open series. The Turkish racer won his first race in Hungaroring and attracted even more attention when he succeeded by winning his first race.
Cem Bölükbaşı's esports achievements
Cem Bölükbaşı won a total of $17,998 in 7 tournaments he participated in. He entered his first tournament in rFactor 2 at the age of 17. The third-placed racer earned $174 from this tournament.
After rFactor 2, he took part in a total of four tournaments in iRacing. Cem Bölükbaşı achieved his most important success in iRacing at iVRSGTWC 2018, winning a total of $1265 in these four tournaments.
The game where his star really shined was F1 2018. He placed second in F1 Esports 2018 and earned $13,333, making him one of the professionals with the highest earnings in the game.
Cem Bölükbaşı's fourth place in the V10-R League - Season 1 tournament of Assetto Corsa in 2020 was his last success in the esports industry. He won a prize of $3,225 from this tournament.
Finding himself in Formula 2 with such a magnificent rise, will Cem Bölükbaşı be successful in Formula 2 and achieve his Formula 1 dream?
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