Fernando Alonso and Rubens Barrichello will be teaming up to race in next month’s Virtual Le Mans 24 Hours Esports competition, joining a large number of famous motor racing figures from around the world.

Following his retirement from Formula 1, Alonso was part of the Toyota LMP1 team that won the real-world event in 2018 and 2019.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have two victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the past two years,” Alonso commented. “But the level of competition for the virtual race could be even tougher!”

  • Le Mans 24 Hours pushed back to September 19-20

He and Barrichello will be joined by simracing stars Olli Pahkala and Jarl Teien racing in an entry partnered by simulator company Allinsports.

“I’m thrilled to team up with Rubens and delighted to add Olli and Jarl to our team,” Alonso added. ““Allinsports played a big role in getting both Rubens and I involved in sim racing, and we’re very excited to be working together.”

Alonso and Barrichello have both found new levels of success since switching to virtual racing during the coronavirus pandemic.

Barrichello won the first reserve grid race in the Legends Trophy back in April, while Alonso was late to sign up but has since exploded onto the scene with two consecutive weekends of clean sweeps.

Jenson Button won the latest Legends Trophy season on Saturday and will also be competing in the Le Mans event, which takes place on 13-14 June – the same weekend that the real event had originally been scheduled to take place.

© Motorsport Games, FIA, APO