An all-new champion was crowned in the 2025 Porsche Esports Supercup by iRacing, as Cooper Webster secured the title after a commanding season with five race wins.
His victory earns him $50,000 from the $200,000 total prize pot, and makes him the fifth different driver to win the championship.
Defending champion and team-mate Sebastian Job wasn’t able to replicate his past successes, but still placed a respectable fifth in the championship.
The pair were first and second in the points standings after the first three rounds on 178 and 149 points respectively.
However their places at the top soon came under threat in the second half of the season, especially with the punishing, one-off format of the fourth round.
Round 4 - Sachsenring mid-season tournament
The fourth round deviated from the usual sprint and main race format. Instead, drivers were split into heats with six drivers per heat, and the top two in each heat progressed to the feature race. The rest took part in the lower points-scoring consolation race.
2023 champion Jordan Caruso excelled in this round, and sailed through to the feature race with a pole position and race win in his heat.
By contrast, Job wasn’t able to set a lap time in the qualifying session, which hampered his progress throughout the tournament.
Last place in his heat meant he was only able to make the consolation race and his lack of qualifying time hurt him again as he had to start from 17th on an 18 car grid.
The two-time champion was able to finish seventh, gaining an average of more than one place per lap across the eight lap consolation.
Points leader Webster made the feature race with second in his heat, but only ninth on the grid meant he had an uphill battle, and ultimately was only able to make up one position to finish eighth.
Pole and a race win for Caruso netted him $4000 as the tournament winner, but more importantly it shot him up the table to second in the points standings and 34 behind Webster.
Round 5 - Thruxton
In the following round at Thruxton, Caruso was able to maintain his strong run of form with second place in both qualifying and the sprint race.
It was a less successful time for the Red Bull Sim Racing drivers, as Job qualified 12th and on the second lap of the sprint race span at the final chicane to drop to 15th.
His luck got even worse when, as he was charging back up the order, he was tagged from behind at the same sequence of corners and dropped to the tailend of the pack to eventually finish 25th.
His team-mate Webster qualified ninth for the sprint but was able to make up a place to get into the all important top eight. Eighth place for him in the sprint race became a pole position start in the main race which he would go on to win.
In an almost complete reversal, Caruso started seventh but lost two places to finish ninth.
Leaving Thruxton, Webster’s points lead had shrunk to 25 points, as the battle had now firmly become a two-horse race between him and Team Indian Racing Festival driver Caruso.
Round 6 - Fuji Speedway
Qualifying for the penultimate round had set up a tantalising prospect, with Caruso starting the wet weather sprint race from pole position and points leader Webster alongside him on the front row.
Lining up directly behind them in the second row were their team-mates Mitchell DeJong and Sebastian Job.
A poor getaway off the grid for Webster allowed DeJong to overtake him on the run to Turn 1 and drop to third.
A clean first half of the race ensured Caruso and DeJong maintained their 1-2 until DeJong went late on the brakes into Turn 1 and dropped behind the Red Bull Sim Racing pair.
This gave Webster the opportunity to go after Caruso which he promptly did, getting a better exit from the Turn 6 hairpin and pulling alongside Caruso under braking for Turn 10. They were still side by side until Webster held the inside at Turn 11 and forced Caruso out wide, allowing his team-mate Job past Caruso as well to give Red Bull Sim Racing a 1-2.
Things went from bad to worse for the Team Indian Racing Festival pair when Gustavo Ariel of Team Redline made an aggressive move into Turn 1, bumping Caruso into DeJong and causing DeJong to spin out and drop down to an eventual finishing position of 11th.
First place for Webster with Job second, Ariel third and Caruso fourth swung the championship very much in the favour of Webster.
Even despite having to start the main race from eighth as the sprint winner, Webster still finished only one place behind Caruso, with the pair crossing the line in seventh and sixth respectively.
With a maximum of 85 points available in the final round, only Caruso - who trailed by 40 - and DeJong by 75 had a mathematical chance of knocking Webster from the top of the table.
Round 7 - Le Mans
With only an outside chance of securing the title, Caruso needed a perfect weekend at the Circuit de la Sarthe. Unfortunately for him, despite placing third on the grid for the sprint, he was pipped to the front row by Webster and polesitter Job.
On the first of three laps, on the run down to Indianapolis, Webster slipstreamed past Job to take the lead of the race. The pair then worked together to fend off those behind them as the long straights made overtaking much easier than at other circuits on the calendar.
Caruso ended up losing out as he slid down to fifth place which, combined with a race victory for Webster, meant the Red Bull Sim Racing driver secured the championship win even before the main race.
It turned out to be fortunate that Webster already had both hands on the trophy as he was caught up the opening lap carnage with both Red Bull Sim Racing drivers coming together on the exit of the Dunlop chicane and spinning around. Webster ultimately finished in 20th with Job 21st.
A consolation podium for Caruso topped off a strong title charge but in the end the 2023 champion ended 19 points behind current title holder Webster.
Though the Porsche Esports Supercup by iRacing has now finished for this year, fans can get stuck into more action with the R1 championship.
The next race, Round 5, takes place on April 25 at Jeddah, with another race at the same circuit on May 2. The action continues into May before the Spring Major finale in June.
All the R1 rounds will be streamed live on the
