Motorsport Manager - My 2025 season

Nick Chu won the drivers championship in my 2025 season and I'm very proud of it. He did a great job and it didn't come easily. If our rivals were more consistent, they would have won.

Let's look at how it happened.

Pre-season testing went solidly, both cars in the top ten with Nick 5th and Stef 9th with an oil leak.

Round one was at Black Sea. It was a shocking start to the year with Nick 12th and Stef 19th in qualifying. The only change at the end of the race was Nick finished 15th.

We made a spectacular comeback to put Nick on Pole at Munich with Stef 2nd making it a front row lockout. It was a partly wet qualifying, but most of the field did do dry laps! Nearest rival was 3 seconds of Nick though. I started both drivers on medium tyres, Nick had an awful start to the race and dropped to last place. Stef stayed up around the front. Then it started to rain and I pitted them at the right time. Stef won with Nick 4th! 🏆 That put Stef 2nd in the standings, with Nick 8th. The team shot to the lead of the championship! I honestly didn't expect that to happen!

At Milan, Nick led Stef 8th and 9th in qualifying. Then we had really good race pace, and Nick finished 3rd and Stef 5th! 🏆 Nick shot to 2nd behind Stef in the drivers championship! We now led by 14 points in the teams championship! 

At Tondela, we had both cars qualify up the front again with Nick 5th and Stef 7th. They had great race pace, but I guess Stef's tyre wear ruined her race. Nick finished 2nd! 🏆 Stef was 11th. 

In between rounds, something happened to Nick and I was forced to sub Nassor Lorensen in. I was both excited to run Nassor but sad at the thought of risking the championship. Still, I needed Nick in peak physical condition. Ardennes was interesting for sure! Nassor led a front row lockout for the team! It was a partly wet qualifying session, but most people ran dry laps. Then would you freaking believe Nassor won the race!!! 🏆 Stef's tyre wear probably screwed her over as she finished 5th. Still, an amazing weekend for the team!It wasn't even a dry race! Nassor had got himself in the top ten of the championship, but of course it's always easy to do that at the start of the season. Still, 3 drivers in the top ten, and now we led the teams championship by 44 points! Weirdly, on a concerning front, Nassor's morale dropped after his domination as a reserve driver. Perhaps this was because of his status as a substitute and if I didn't sign him for next year or even immediately I was possibly going to lose him before the year was over!

 

Nick was back in the car for Munich 2. Stef was on Pole with Nick 3rd! This was fairly lucky due to clever strategy as half the field did dry laps in a half wet qualifying session. The race was dry and we had great race pace again! Nick led a double podium from 2nd with Stef 3rd! 🏆 We were now 1-2 in the championship with Nick in the lead, and leading the teams championships by 79 points!

At this point I should stress how we were not legitimately beating everyone, they seemed to be tripping over their own feet! At Guildford, Nick started from 13th and Stef 14th. Still, apparently we had insane race pace with Nick finishing 6th, Stef 16th. Nick continued to lead Stef 1-2 in the championship!

We returned to Tondela, Stef leading Nick 12th and 13th in qualifying. It was a tough race, Nick finished 9th and Stef 14th. Stef's tyre wear was really letting her down. Nick dropped to 2nd in the championship, Stef to 5th. Octane took a chunk out of our championship lead and we now led the teams championship by 49 points.

At the return to Milan, we had another half wet qualifying session and Nick got Pole Position with Stef 6th! The game also played it's hilarious social media glitches where it thinks that my reserve driver is going to win and always wins. We didn't have the race pace to win this one, and Nick stuffed up the first lap. Nick finished 7th and Stef 9th. Not a bad run. Nick dropped to 3rd in the championship, Stef now 6th. We retained our 49-point lead in the teams championship.

At Black Sea 2, we qualified 2nd and 3rd in another half wet session, Nick leading Stef. It was a wet to dry race. Stef's tyre wear again let her down as she finished 13th, but Nick finished 5th. Stef dropped to 8th in the drivers championship, Nick remaining in 3rd. Our teams championship lead was now 19 points. 

Pheonix wasn't all bad. Nick qualified 9th, but Stef was 19th. Nick finished 10th in a typically hot race in America, and god knows what happened to Stef but she was way down the order in 18th. Nick dropped to 4th in the championship, Stef still in 8th, and our teams points lead at 12.

At Doha, we didn't meet our sponsor objective to qualify 13th or higher. Nick started 15th and Stef 20th. But then Nick managed to fly up to 6th in the race, Stef 17th. Again it must be Stef's tyre wear versus Nick's consistency. Stef dropped to 11th in the standings, Nick in 4th. We still led the teams championship by 12 points.

Cape Town was another shocking qualifying session. We didn't meet the new sponsor objective of 10th or higher. Nick leading Stef 11th and 12th. Then the race was dry-wet-dry, and I think I screwed up the strategy. The pace was okay. Stef finished 11th, Nick 13th. I pitted Nick bang on time when it started to rain, Stef a lap earlier, and then put her on dries just before it was the right move, so Nick ended up in the lead of the race until a few laps from the end his tyres dropped off and Stef ended up passing him. Tough luck. Zampelli Engineering took the teams championship lead, us down to 2nd by 9 points. Stef's morale, which had dropped a lot over the last few races, shot back up to decent levels. 

Sydney was great. I don't know if I put a bunch of new parts on the cars, but suddenly we were as fast as anyone! Stef led Nick 3rd and 4th in an intermediate qualifying session. The media again thought Nassor was driving! The race started dry, the rain started around lap 2 or 3. At the second wet tyre pit stop, I might have timed it slightly off for Stef, so she ended up 4th while Nick did an amazing job to win the race! 🏆 He got a penalty for some reason. No idea what it would be as I always stay away from risky parts. Nick was now equal with Zampelli's Elisa Kahl in the championship lead. Stef was 11th, and we now led the teams championship by 9 points! Stef's morale was back to 100%.

At Beijing we had a shocking qualifying session. This was getting a little stressful for me when it came to the title fights. Even with a 100% setup on Nick's car, the best he could get was 16th in a dry session. Stef was 18th in qualifying. Stef had a bad time, while Nick was his consistent self and snagged 6th in the race. Stef was dead last. Nick was then bumped up to 5th after Ivanaldo Severo of Octane got a penalty. Nick was now the championship leader, Stef 11th. We led Zampelli by 7 points now! Stef's morale dropped down to 70-odd%. Elisa Kahl had a shocker and scored no points.

At Dubai, we weren't anything to write about in practice, and Nick qualified 9th. Stef was 17th. Our race pace was bad as well, Nick finished 12th and Stef 13th. We didn't get the sponsor objective for the race, and Nick didn't score any points. His 10 point lead was now... 4 POINTS!!! Stef dropped to 13th, but NICK CHU FOR ARCHER BMR WAS NOW THE 2025 EUROPEAN RACING SERIES CHAMPION!!! Zampelli beat us to the teams title by 26 points. 

I still can't believe it, and it was almost a year ago. I forgot how close the fight was. I remember not having full confidence in our competitiveness. Obviously there were great boosts for our team and driver stats, and I was wondering if we would move up to the Asia Pacific Cup, but that was only if we won the teams title. Still, the future looked so exciting! What a year!