After five brake failures in just a month and a half, two-time F1 Esports Series world champ, Jarno Opmeer, might be racing toward the exit.
In a major hiccup during Round 3 of Premier Sim Gaming Leagues (PSGL) on July 6, Opmeer’s Fanatec CSL Elite V2 LC pedals, the compulsory gear for F1 Esports players since 2018, fell apart, quite literally, in the middle of his qualifying run.
This shocking incident sparked an outcry within the F1 23 Esports community and led to Opmeer’s contemplation of retirement from the F1 Esports Series.
The F1 Esports Series, the pinnacle tournament of the F1 franchise where Opmeer has amassed an impressive $222k over the past four years, is all set to rev up later this year. Whether Opmeer will be on the starting grid, however, is now a burning question.
Context: brake pedal snapped in half. https://t.co/Bb2Ry0AVMW pic.twitter.com/tIfSQ3f39a
— Jarno Opmeer (@jarno_opmeer) July 5, 2023
With the irate Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS driver streaming the entire incident live, Opmeer vented, “Uh, I’ve bent my entire brake pedal… Five broken pedals in like one and a half months. This is a joke.”
His frustration at the equipment he’s forced to use due to Fanatec’s official F1 Esports sponsorship is palpable, driving him to question, “How can you drive F1 Esports with this?… You cannot run an F1 Esports World Championship on brake pedals that can’t even f***ing handle half of a normal braking force.”
His discontentment intensified as he confessed, “This kind of stuff makes me want to stop with F1 Esports because it’s so unfair… You cannot run a championship with this bulls***.”
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After the incident, Opmeer took to Twitter to express his frustrations, stating cryptically, “If I say what I think I will be banned.”
This tweet further ignited the heated conversation about the quality of mandatory equipment in the F1 Esports Series.
Reddit user ‘zOOssss’ mirrored Opmeer’s concerns, asking, “Why don’t they have the highest level equipment in terms of input devices in F1 Esports?”
Other users, like Gunner253, questioned Fanatec’s build quality, saying, “These pedals are specifically being used for pro sim racing at the highest level so why are they not built better?”
With the upcoming 2023 F1 Esports season looming, it’s clear that the question of equipment quality and reliability has been brought to the forefront.
Fanatec is yet to issue a statement amid the backlash. Dexerto has reached out to the racing sim hardware manufacturer for comment.