FIRST

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23px-Flag of the United States.svg-1-.png FIRST-Ford
FIRST 2021 Small2.png
Full name FIRST Motorsport
Base Charlotte, North Carolina,
United States
Team
principal
Adam Blocker
Technical
director
Seth McCormick
Founder(s) Adam Blocker
Website TBC
2024 Formula Virtual World Championship
Race drivers 73. 22px-Flag of Brazil.svg-1-.png Enrique Ruiz
74. 23px-Flag of Australia.svg-1-.png Hunter Ryan
Reserve driver(s) 75. 23px-Flag of Austria.svg-1-.png Stefan Klien
Chassis Wood 24
Engine Ford DB180C
Tyres Goodyear
Formula Virtual World Championship career
First entry 2016 Australian V-Prix
Latest entry 2024 Australian V-Prix
Races Entered 136 (272 starts)
Constructors'
Championships
0
Drivers'
Championships
0
Race Victories 2
Podiums 17
Career points 890
Pole positions 0
Fastest laps 2
2023 position 9th (11 points)

This article is about the team competing in Formula Virtual. For the team that previously competed in the FV2 Series, please see FIRST Motorsport.

FIRST Motorsport is an American racing organization based in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States that made its Formula Virtual debut in 2016. The team was founded by Adam Blocker in late 2014, and previously competed in the FV2 series and FV2 Winter Series.

Origins

The team was co-founded by FIRST robotics and Adam Blocker with the intention of competing at the highest levels of virtual motorsport. The team aims to achieve the following while participating in motorsport:

  • Inspire youth around the world to pursue careers in STEM-related fields.
  • Help promote and develop the American automotive industry.
  • Develop young American drivers into Formula Virtual stars.
  • Participate in the Formula Virtual series.
  • Become a race-winning team in Formula Virtual

The team hopes to achieve these goals by partnering with the Ford Motor Company for technical advice and manufacturer support when possible. By basing its operations out of Charlotte, North Carolina, the team hopes to provide jobs to and help develop world-class American automotive engineers. The team plans to offer many internship opportunities to university students in an effort to accomplish this.

Ownership

FIRST Motorsport is co-owned by Blocker and the team's primary sponsor, FIRST robotics.

Team logo and identity

Ownership

Racing history - Formula Virtual

FIRST Motorsport applied for entry into the 2015 Formula Virtual season to replace Team 23, who decided to withdraw at the conclusion of the 2014 season. The team's entry was denied in favour of the Japanese outfit Formula Ocelot.

FIRST Motorsport applied for entry into the 2016 Formula Virtual season as a replacement for the Lucas team that folded five races into 2015. FIRST were accepted onto the grid for the 2016 season.

Ford engines (2016-present)

2016 season

FIRST competed in its maiden season of Formula Virtual in 2016, powered by Ford engines.

In the lead up to the 2015 Canadian V-Prix, Team Principal Adam Blocker confirmed that FIRST had signed Arden Hutchinson as the team's lead driver for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. It was also confirmed that the team would use Firestone tyres.

A couple of months later, after the 2015 Belgian V-Prix, Blocker and Technical Director Seth McCormick announced that FIRST had signed Douglas Bacon as the team's second race driver for the 2016 season. The team will therefore have an American driver, an American chassis, an American engine, and American tyres in 2016. During the announcement of Bacon, Blocker and McCormick also discussed the possibility of a satellite base in Europe and also stated that 2016 would be a building season where they hoped to score at least one point.

Jamie Gerrard, who drove for FIRST Motorsport in the 2015 FV2 Series season was later announced as the team's test driver for the 2016 season. Gerrard will participate in two free practice sessions at V-Prix weekends for the team as part of a loan deal with Meteor.

FIRST started off the 2016 season as the strongest of the new teams, with Hutchinson finishing in 16th and 15th in Australia and Malaysia respectively. These results were particularly impressive as each of these races were low attrition races. In China, Douglas Bacon achieved the team's best qualifying result to date. Bacon qualified 8th in a qualifying that was held in heavy rain. From China onwards, however, new team rivals North Star had the edge on FIRST in terms of race pace at most circuits. Ultimately, the three new teams (FIRST, North Star, and Holmqvist) all fell off the pace of the others at the beginning of the European rounds. Most of the established teams brought major upgrades, while each of the new teams did not. For the rest of the season a FIRST driver did not finish ahead of a driver from an established team without help from incidents, unreliability, or strategy. FIRST generally did not fare too well against rivals North Star either. Of the 16 races after Malaysia, North Star was top of the new team battle 14 times. Holmqvist were the best team in Mexico, while FIRST were the best in Belgium.

Fortunately for FIRST, the Belgian V-Prix was filled with many crashes, such as a horrific crash for Puccio Giodano, and unreliability for competitiors. On the day, North Star had slightly more pace. However, North Star driver Judson Sikes was severely held up by the Giodano crash, losing almost a lap to everyone else. This made it a straight fight between Hutchinson, Bacon, and North Star's other driver Aleksy Nowosinki. Nowosinki was on Medium tyres, while the two FIRST drivers were on Softs. With less than ten laps to go, Hutchinson had a heavy crash at Fagnes that eliminated him from the race. This hurt FIRST's chances of a good finish as Hutchinson had been ahead of Bacon at the time and appeared to be on track to take the fight to Nowosinki. Nowosinki suffered from a long pit stop that meant he rejoined the race just behind Bacon with a few laps to go. Nowosinki ended up passing Bacon down the Kemmel Straight, but Bacon heroically retook the position down the pit straight on the next lap by cleverly using blue flags to his advantage. He managed to hold his position (14th) for the remaining two laps and took FIRST's best result of the season and the best result of any of the new teams in 2016, effectively earning FIRST 11th place in the constructors'. Bacon was later promoted to 13th after the disqualification of Johan Halvosen and FIRST held onto 11th in the constructors' for the rest of the season, despite North Star coming close to equaling their best finish in Bahrain.

2017 season

After Douglas Bacon's heroic 13th place in Belgium in 2016, FIRST announced that he would return in 2017, alongside Arden Hutchinson. It was later announced that FIRST youth academy driver Oleksandr Zozulya would be promoted to fill the test and reserve driver role in 2017, after finishing 2nd in the 2016 FV2 Series season.

2018 season

2019 season

2020 season

2021 season

2022 season

2023 season

2024 season

Sponsorship

FIRST Motorsport is primarily sponsored by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Mathematics) robotics. FIRST partnered with Adam Blocker to found the team and currently own 50% of the team.

FIRST Motorsport is also sponsored by 3M, Ford Motor Company, LEGO, NASA, Solidworks, Rockwell Collins, Delphi and Valvoline.

FIRST Driver Academy

Complete Formula Virtual results

(results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Chassis Engine Tyres No. Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Points WCC
2016 Inspire 16 Ford
Zephyr
146
F AUS MAL CHN JPN FRA ESP GBR GER NED BEL ITA TUR BHR CAN USA MEX POR BRA 0 11th
73 23px-Flag of Austria.svg-1-.png Arden Hutchinson 16 15 22 22 19 17 21 20 21 Ret Ret 22 19 20 20 22 Ret 19
74 23px-Flag of the United States.svg-1-.png Douglas Bacon 22 Ret Ret 19 22 18 22 Ret DSQ 13 20 Ret 17 21 19 23 22 20
2017 Transform
17
Ford
Zephyr
168
G AUS MAL JPN CHN FRA ESP GER AUT GBR BEL ITA POR TUR BHR CAN USA MEX BRA 175 5th
73 23px-Flag of Austria.svg-1-.png Arden Hutchinson 14 7 10 3 9 3 5 4 9 5 11 Ret 8 12 9 12 6 4
74 23px-Flag of the United States.svg-1-.png Douglas Bacon Ret 11 13 Ret
23px-Flag of Ukraine.svg-1-.png Oleksandr Zozulya 8 19 DSQ 2 10 7 3 7 13 8 13 9 9 2
2018 Kamen 18 Ford
Wildebeest
FV
G AUS JPN CHN MAL GBR FRA ESP AUT GER SVK CAN USA BHR TUR BEL ITA MEX BRA 7 10th
73 23px-Flag of Mexico.svg-1-.png Felix Pérez Ret 21 19 101 20 Ret 14 23 Ret 17 Ret 16 16 Ret 20 18 Ret 19
74 23px-Flag of Ukraine.svg-1-.png Oleksandr Zozulya 20 22 21 7 19 14 18 22 13 16 18 13 14 Ret 16 16 Ret 21
2019 Yunick 19 Ford SVT
183 V10
G AUS JPN CHN MAL GBR FRA ESP CAN USA AUT GER BHR TUR ITA BEL MEX BRA 196 4th
73 23px-Flag of Mexico.svg-1-.png Felix Pérez Ret 5 Ret 4 6 8 Ret 6 3 Ret Ret 5 6 4 6 6 Ret
74 23px-Flag of Ukraine.svg-1-.png Oleksandr Zozulya 4 8 5 5 Ret 6 7 6 7 Ret 23 7 3 Ret 7 9
23px-Flag of the United Kingdom.svg-1-.png Will Hoskins 12
2020 Copp 20 Ford SVT
183B
G JPN MAL AUS RSA GBR FRA ESP GER USA CAN BHR TUR BEL ITA MEX BRA 304 3rd
73 23px-Flag of Mexico.svg-1-.png Felix Pérez 5 Ret 4 8 1 4 2 5 4 5 7 5 Ret 11 Ret 5
74 23px-Flag of the United Kingdom.svg-1-.png Will Hoskins 7 2 7 4 2 2 22 6 1 4 5 Ret 4 10 8 3
2021 Roush 21 Ford
SVT 183C
G JPN MAL AUS RSA GBR FRA ESP GER UAE TUR BEL ITA CAN USA MEX BRA 136 6th
73 23px-Flag of Mexico.svg-1-.png Felix Pérez 5 19 Ret 6 18 Ret 6 3 6 10 15 7 5 4 3 24
74 23px-Flag of the United Kingdom.svg-1-.png Will Hoskins 18 5 18 26 2 11 10 Ret 11 Ret 18 Ret Ret 8 7 8
2022 Offenhauser 22 Ford
FV 180A
G JPN AUS MAL RSA FRA GBR GER CZE TUR UAE BEL ITA CAN USA BRA MEX 49 7th
73 23px-Flag of Mexico.svg-1-.png Felix Pérez 17 13 9 20 17 24 Ret 9 19 10 7 6 17 6 6 15
74 23px-Flag of Austria.svg-1-.png Stefan Klien 23 Ret 19 12 21 14 17 Ret 14 8 5 Ret 13 17 Ret 16
2023 Duckworth 23 Ford
FV 180B
G AUS MAL JPN RSA UAE FRA GBR GER BEL ITA TUR CAN USA MEX ARG BRA 11* 9th*
73 23px-Flag of Mexico.svg-1-.png Felix Pérez 18 Ret 8 20 9 15 14 20 16 20 12 12 21 21 21 8
74 23px-Flag of Austria.svg-1-.png Stefan Klien 19 10 13 15 17 13 19 14 17 Ret 23 17 Ret 22 18 15
2024 Wood 24 Ford
DB180C
G AUS MAL SIN JPN FRA GBR GER NED BEL ITA KWT CAN USA MEX ARG BRA 12* 5th*
73 22px-Flag of Brazil.svg-1-.png Enrique Ruiz 5
74 23px-Flag of Australia.svg-1-.png Hunter Ryan 9

* Season in progress.

1 Felix Pérez completed more than 90% of the race distance of the Malaysian V-Prix and so was credited as classified in tenth and was awarded the point that accompanied this position.