Klaas van Snelheid
Klaas van Snelheid
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Klaas van Snelheid (born 19 December 1997 in Rotterdam, South Holland, Netherlands) is a Dutch virtual racing driver and the 2023 Formula Virtual World Champion. He is currently competing in Formula Virtual for Downton. [1]
He has previously competed in and won the 2014 FV3 Series, 2015 VWRS and 2016 FV2 Series, making him the first driver in virtual motorsport to win multiple series titles.
van Snelheid won his first Formula Virtual race at the 2017 Japanese V-Prix, only his third start.
Personal life
van Snelheid was born on 19 December 1997 in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Early career (2014–2016)
FV3 Series (2014)
van Snelheid's first experience in a racing car was in pre-season testing for the 2014 FV3 Series, where he was fastest by seven tenths of a second for DeMarco Team. He later signed a contract with the team and duly took second place in his first race, before taking his maiden pole and win at the second round of the season in Spain. This prompted Formation Competition to spark interest in him and he switched teams ahead of the third round in Portugal, taking a further four victories - two of which were back-to-back wins at his home round in the Netherlands - on his way to a maiden title.
VWRS (2015)
van Snelheid's success saw Formation Competition promote him to the Virtual World Racing Series for 2015, where he endured a near season-long battle for the title with close friend Viktor Östberg. He once again scored a podium in his first race with his maiden victory coming in the first race of the second round. Seven more victories saw him with double that of Östberg come the seasons end and he claimed his second title with an eighty point advantage.
FV2 Series (2016)
Having won VWRS in his first season van Snelheid wanted a different challenge and switched to FV2, remaining with Formation Competition. He took pole for the opening round but once again couldn't pick up his maiden victory until the opening race of the second round in Spain. A further eight victories - including another impressive performance at his home round in the Netherlands where he took a double win - saw him claim an easy title, with nearly double the points of closest competitor Oleksandr Zozulya.
Formula Virtual career (2017-present)
Downton (2017-present)
Early in 2014, van Snelheid was spotted by Team 23 - the teams scouts eager to secure the young Dutchmans signature as a bid for home-grown talent - and he was duly signed up as the first member of their young driver academy. When Team 23 withdrew at the end of 2014, van Snelheid switched to Downton's young driver academy.
2017
On 18 August 2016, it was announced van Snelheid would make his Formula Virtual debut with Downton in 2017, [1] and he participated in practice for the 2016 Dutch V-Prix as a demonstration run. van Snelheid was fifth in his first race but retired while leading the 2017 Malaysian V-Prix, a fate with also later befell his team mate. As has become synonymous with his career though, van Snelheid took his maiden victory in the third race of the season at the 2017 Japanese V-Prix, with two fantastic late overtakes on DS Mathershaw drivers Allar Kangur and reigning champion Adrien Simon.
Helmet
van Snelheid's helmet (right, pictured in 2017) strongly shows his nationality, with the base colour being orange, the traditional color of the Dutch royal family, the House of Orange-Nassau. It features a variety of black and white shapes and has his name written in a broken white font on either side. When he joined Downton his helmet gained a black ribbon around the top to accompany the logo of the teams primary sponsor Monster.
In an interview where he was asked which designer he had used and where the inspiration for his design had come from, van Snelheid confirmed he had designed his helmet himself when he was just eleven years old by just drawing what he wanted and liked at the time. He has vowed never to change it throughout his career, except for possibly the odd race to commemorate an event. Since joining Formula Virtual as a race driver the Dutch flag is also featured on both front sides of the helmet in shapes that were originally white in colour, with van Snelheid claiming he hadn't realised until that point he hadn't included his national flag.
Racing record
Career Summary
Season | Series | Team Name | Races | Wins | Poles | F/Laps | Podiums | Points | Position |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | FV3 Series | DeMarco Team | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 48 | 1st |
Formation Competition | 14 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 146.5 | |||
Macau V-Prix | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | N/A | 8th | ||
2015 | VWRS | Formation Competition | 24 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 11 | 353 | 1st |
2016 | FV2 Series | Formation Competition | 24 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 13 | 343 | 1st |
2017 | Formula Virtual | Downton FV Team | 18 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 284 | 2nd |
2018 | Formula Virtual | Downton FV Team | 18 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 213 | 4th |
2019 | Formula Virtual | Downton FV Team | 17 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 11 | 236 | 2nd |
2020 | Formula Virtual | Downton FV Team | 16 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 214 | 3rd |
2021 | Formula Virtual | Downton FV Team | 16 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 200 | 2nd |
2022 | Formula Virtual | Downton FV Team | 16 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 12 | 255 | 2nd |
2023 | Formula Virtual | Downton FV Team | 16 | 7 | 9 | 2 | 13 | 290 | 1st |
2024 | Formula Virtual | Downton FV Team | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4* | 8th* |
* Season in progress.
Complete FV3 Series results
(results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Pos. | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | DeMarco Team | GBR FEA 2 |
GBR SPR 9 |
ESP FEA 1 |
ESP SPR Ret |
1st | 194.5 | ||||||||||||||
Formation Competition | POR FEA 1 |
POR SPR 10 |
FRA FEA 7 |
FRA SPR 2 |
GER FEA 3 |
GER SPR 3 |
AUT FEA 13 |
AUT SPR 1 |
NED FEA 1 |
NED SPR 1 |
BEL FEA Ret |
BEL SPR 14 |
ITA FEA Ret |
ITA SPR 2 |
Complete VWRS results
(results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | Pos. | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2015 | Formation Competition | AUS 1 3 |
AUS 2 Ret |
IND 1 1 |
IND 2 1 |
RUS 1 Ret |
RUS 2 4 |
FRA 1 1 |
FRA 2 4 |
MEX 1 1 |
MEX 2 7 |
USA 1 6 |
USA 2 4 |
BEL 1 2 |
BEL 2 Ret |
GBR 1 5 |
GBR 2 5 |
BRA 1 1 |
BRA 2 1 |
URU 1 Ret |
URU 2 5 |
SIN 1 1 |
SIN 2 10 |
ABU 1 1 |
ABU 2 2 |
1st | 353 |
Complete FV2 series results
(results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | Pos. | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2016 | Formation Competition | FRA FEA 2 |
FRA SPR 4 |
ESP FEA 1 |
ESP SPR 5 |
GBR FEA 1 |
GBR SPR 4 |
GER FEA 3 |
GER SPR 1 |
NED FEA 1 |
NED SPR 1 |
BEL FEA 4 |
BEL SPR Ret |
ITA FEA 1 |
ITA SPR Ret |
TUR FEA 1 |
TUR SPR 2 |
SWE FEA 4 |
SWE SPR 2 |
CAN FEA 1 |
CAN SPR Ret |
USA FEA Ret |
USA SPR 9 |
MEX FEA 1 |
MEX SPR 8 |
1st | 343 |
Complete Formula Virtual results
(results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
* Season in progress.