Jarno Opmeer
Jarno Opmeer is a Dutch esports driver and former racing driver who competes in the Formula One Esports Series for Red Bull Racing. Opmeer has won a record three Formula One Sim Racing World Championship titles, which he won in 2020, 2021, and 2025, and has won 15 races across six seasons.
Born in Dordrecht, Opmeer began competitive kart racing at an early age, winning several national titles before graduating to junior formulae in 2016. He finished runner-up to Richard Verschoor in the SMP F4 Championship that year with MP Motorsport, also achieving several podiums in [2016 2016 F4 Spanish Championship|F4 Spanish Championship|F4 Spanish]. He then progressed to the Renault Eurocup in 2017 with MP as part of the Renault Sport Academy, achieving a podium in the Northern European Cup, but was dropped by the team four rounds into the following season.
Opmeer moved into sim racing for the 2019 Formula One Esports Series with Renault, finishing fourth in his rookie season. He then moved to Alfa Romeo for 2020, winning his maiden championship. He defended his title with Mercedes in 2021. After three seasons with Mercedes, he moved to Red Bull for the 2025 season onwards, winning the title that year. Outside of Formula One Esports, he also competed in Formula E: Accelerate for Mercedes-EQ from 2021 to 2022. Opmeer also likes to play other racing games, or competes in league racing on F1, which he frequently streams on Twitch and posts videos on YouTube. He is the most popular F1 sim racer, having the most followers and subscribers on Social Media, and is seen by most as the best F1 sim racer ever, having won the most Esports and league racing titles.
Career
Formula 4
Opmeer graduated to single-seaters in 2016, participating in the SMP F4 Championship. He took seven victories and thirteen podiums in his debut year of F4, finishing second place in the championship to fellow countryman Richard Verschoor.Opmeer also participated in two race meetings of the Spanish F4 with MP Motorsport, taking five podiums out of six races.
Formula Renault
In 2017, Opmeer continued his collaboration with MP and joined the Eurocup championship. He had seven-point-scoring finishes including the fifth place in the penultimate race of the season at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. While in the standings he ended fifteenth, behind his teammates Richard Verschoor and Neil Verhagen.Formula One
In February 2017, Opmeer was inducted into the Renault Sport Academy.Formula One Esports
In April 2019, Opmeer was signed to Renault–Vitality Esports Team as a driver for the third season of the F1 Esports Series. The Dutchman finished his first season in the competition in fourth place and helped secure his team fourth place in the teams' championship.For the 2020 Formula One Esports Series, Opmeer moved to the Alfa Romeo Orlen Esports Team. He achieved 4 wins and 8 podiums and won the drivers championship by 22 points ahead of rival Frederik Rasmussen.
On 26 January 2021, Opmeer announced that he has signed with the Mercedes Formula One Esports team. On 16 December 2021, Opmeer won the 2021 Formula One Esports Series. He achieved four wins and seven podiums, edging out Frederik Rasmussen by eight points, with Mercedes also winning the teams' championship. At the race of China, Opmeer went from last place to first, calling it his best race ever.
The 2022 season proved to be much more difficult for Opmeer, as his struggles in qualifying heavily affected his race results. However, he won two races back-to-back and finished fifth overall in the championship.
Opmeer began the 2023–24 season by finishing second in Bahrain from P9 on the grid. With continued struggles in qualifying pace, he would only achieve a single win this season, at Silverstone, achieving fourth overall in the drivers championship. After the season, Opmeer left Mercedes.
As a free agent driver, Opmeer signed a multi-year deal with Red Bull Sim Racing on 21 August 2024, joining the 2023–24 drivers' champion Frederik Rasmussen at the team. He won his record-breaking third drivers' title in the 2025 season, winning three races, outscoring Ismael Fahssi by 19 points, with Red Bull also winning the teams' championship.
Formula One League Racing
Besides competing in the Esports championships, Opmeer also plays the F1 games by doing league races, career modes and open lobbies, which he posts on his YouTube and Twitch channels. The most predominant league is PSGL and Opmeer has also competed in WOR, ORL and Ironman League. He won more than half of the seasons he entered, among them: 8 PSGL titles, 3 WOR titles, 2 ORL titles and 1 Ironman League title.Opmeer went viral at the F1 25 PSGL S40 race at Silverstone when he won by driving through the pit lane. Even though there was no rule against this, Opmeer still got penalised, ending up in P4, marking PSGL stewards' usual antics to dish out penalties for made up rules and changing the rulebook afterwards. The same happened for example at France in S30 on F1 21 where Opmeer also managed to win but got unfairly demoted to P2.
Formula E: Accelerate
In 2021, Opmeer was signed to the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team to compete in the esport series Formula E: Accelerate. In his first year he finished fifth overall in the standings, scoring his debut podium for double points in the final round set in Rome.In the double-header London Open in 2022, Opmeer finished second overall.
Racing record
Racing career summary
† – As Opmeer had not competed in the required number of rounds, he was ineligible for a championship position.Complete SMP F4 Championship results
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | Pos | Points |
| 2016 | MP Motorsport | SOC 1 2 | SOC 2 1 | ZAN1 1 3 | ZAN1 2 1 | ZAN1 3 1 | ZAN2 1 1 | ZAN2 2 1 | ZAN2 3 3 | MSC1 1 5 | MSC1 2 2 | MSC1 3 3 | MSC2 1 10 | MSC2 2 16 | MSC2 3 2 | AND 1 5 | AND 2 9 | AND 3 12 | AHV 1 1 | AHV 2 1 | AHV 3 4 | 2nd | 270 |
Complete F4 Spanish Championship results
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | Pos | Points |
| 2016 | MP Motorsport | NAV 1 3 | NAV 2 3 | NAV 3 4 | ALC 1 2 | ALC 2 3 | ALC 3 3 | ALG 1 | ALG 2 | ALG 3 | VAL 1 | VAL 2 | VAL 3 | CAT 1 | CAT 2 | JAR 1 | JAR 2 | JAR 3 | JER 1 | JER 2 | JER 3 | NC† | 0 |
† – As Opmeer had not competed in the required number of rounds, he was ineligible for a championship position.
Complete Formula Renault NEC results
| Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | DC | Points |
| 2017 | MP Motorsport | MNZ 1 | MNZ 2 | ASS 1 4 | ASS 2 3 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | SPA 1 11 | SPA 2 10 | SPA 3 6 | HOC 1 7 | HOC 2 4 | 10th | 68 | |
| 2018 | MP Motorsport | PAU 1 | PAU 2 | MNZ 1 | MNZ 2 | SPA 1 12 | SPA 2 24 | HUN 1 | HUN 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | HOC 1 | HOC 2 | NC† | 0 |
† As Opmeer was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points
Sim racing record
Complete Formula One Esports Series results
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Pos | Points |
| 2019 | Renault–Vitality | BHR 2 | CHN 5 | AZE 14 | CAN 3 | AUT 3 | GBR 10 | GER 1 | BEL 3 | ITA 8 | JPN 6 | USA 4 | BRA 12 | 4th | 123 |
| 2020 | Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen Esports Team | BHR 1 | VIE 3 | CHN 1 | NED 2 | CAN 1 | AUT 3 | GBR 9 | BEL 5 | ITA 2 | JPN 4 | MEX 1 | BRA 7 | 1st | 196 |
| 2021 | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Esports Team | BHR 4 | CHN 1 | AUT 1 | GBR 9 | ITA 2 | BEL 2 | POR 7 | NED 6 | USA 1 | EMI 2 | MEX 1 | BRA 4 | 1st | 195 |
| 2022 | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Esports Team | BHR 2 | EMI 11 | GBR 5 | AUT 4 | BEL 6 | NED 4 | ITA 18 | MEX 1 | USA 1 | JPN Ret | BRA 8 | UAE 6 | 5th | 122 |
| 2023–24 | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Esports Team | BHR 2 | SAU 7 | AUT Ret | GBR 1 | BEL 5 | NED 7 | USA 7 | MXC 9 | SAP 3 | LVG 3 | QAT 6 | ABU 6 | 4th | 122 |
| 2025 | Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing | AUS 4 | CHN 1 | BHR 12 | SAU 2 | GBR 9 | BEL 6 | NLD 7 | USA 3 | MEX 1 | BRA 1 | QAT 5 | ABU 7 | 1st | 154 |