My predictions for the next GP Explorer

Let's recap for those who don't know what is the GP Explorer. The GP Explorer or Grand Prix Explorer was a Formula 4 car competition bringing together 22 Internet personalities organized by the French YouTuber Squeezie. The first edition was held on October 8, 2022 in Le Mans. The second edition was held in September 2023. The live broadcast live on Twitch became the most viewed French Twitch stream on the first edition, it was since beaten by a football event organized by AmineMaTue. On the second edition it reached around 1,3 million viewers.

There was no GP Explorer in 2024 but who knows, 2025 could be the year of the return!

If a 3rd edition of the GP Explorer were to happen (much to my delight), here are my predictions (or rather, how I'd organize it/my wishlist for this edition):

My theory is that it would be a European competition, along the lines of championships such as FRECA (Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine). Why would that be?

1. To have a European scope. The GP Explorer 2 attracted over 1.3 million viewers on Twitch, reaching only the French-speaking community of Squeezie and the drivers. Imagine the reach if there were, say, 3 simultaneous lives with 3 hosts: 1 French-speaking, 1 English-speaking and 1 Spanish-speaking. It could also open the door for Bump (Squeezie's agency that organizes the GP Explorer) to expand into Europe and sign contracts with european influencers.

2. To showcase Internet talent from all over Europe who are experts in Formula 1 and motorsports. Imagine having very talented sim drivers or mechanics on the grid? Imagine the driving skills and how exciting the race would be? It would make the presence of content creators who are all passionate about motorsports more legitimate than content creators with large communities but no particular connection with motorsport.

To help you picture it I drew up a grid that could take part in this 3rd and probably final edition.

• Team 1 : Squeezie & Clara Marz - team France

• Team 2 : Depielo & Etienne Moustache - team France

• Team 3 :  Seb Delanney & Victor (LeDriviste) - team France

• Team 4 :  Aarav & Haydon Gullis - team UK

• Team 5 : Lissie Mackintosh & Blake Hinsey - team UK

• Team 6: Maxime MXM & Jarno Opmeer - team Netherlands

• Team 7 : Victor Abad & ElReyGuiri - team Spain

• Team 8 : Tonio Mazarella & Silvia Parodi - team Italy

• Team 9 : Formulaoneboss & Stefanie Dechant - team Germany

• Team 10 : nutsaboutf1 & Liam Kalevi - team Scandinavia

The teams (not including Squeezie, who is breaking all the records) are bringing together 4.2M subscribers on insta, 4M on Youtube, 565K on Twitch and 3.1M on TikTok.

And for the live hosts, we'd need 1 host per language/country, I imagine:

• France/Francophone: Idreau and Alexandre Khaldi creators of Off Track

• UK: Matt Gallagher & Tom Bellingham from Matt & Tommy P1 

• Spain/Spanish: Noemi de Miguel

• Netherlands: Thom

• Italy: Giulia Toninelli

In terms of main sponsors, either car manufacturers or sim racing sponsors (sometimes both):

1. Alpine

2. Red Bull

3. McLaren

4. Aston Martin

5. Mercedes

6. Quadrant

7. Gentle Mates

8. Alpha Tauri

9. Honda

10. Peugeot

Of course, each team will probably have other secondary sponsors such as LEC (why not?), Tiktok, Deezer, Air'up, Nord VPN and so on. The advantage of opening up the GP Europe-wide is that it also allows us to cast a wider net in terms of sponsors, raise more funds and do even crazier things in terms of on-site experience.

I think that for this edition of the circuit there would be more spectators, at least 100,000, or even the full capacity of the circuit (260,000 people) and the event could take place over 2 days.

• Saturday: practice and qualifying

• Sunday: Race

For on-site activities / happenings, anything is possible:

• We'd obviously have concerts, and I think we could imagine big names like SCH, Big Flo et Oli or other talents close to the content creators. Maybe even European names like Rosalia or Maneskin?

• F1 demonstrations by current or former F1 drivers like Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon and Lando Norris.

• More on-site competitions, e.g. hotlaps in safety cars or race cars to be won in contests on the social media or on-site.

• SIM racing set-ups where the fastest time can be spotted by a SIM racing team, as well as devices to test drivers' reflexes

Finally, for merchandise (the part I'm reallyyyyy interested in) we'd have 3 types:

1. Team merch, each with its own artistic direction according to the main sponsor (with sweater, t-shirt, cap, socks)

2. Special merchandise for drivers to keep as souvenirs: a varsity jacket or bomber or a leather jacket

3. Event merchandise, ideally designed in collaboration with an artist or brand (by pure chance, Sunday Collective...), why not via a competition on social media? I would imagine sweaters, t-shirts, caps and socks.

For example, here's what I'd do if I were asked to draw things (yes, nobody asked me, but I deliver anyway):

(logo of the main sponsors on the sleeves, GP explorer embroidered on the back with v3 for the 3rd edition. Jersey material like football jerseys. A little Sunday Collective logo on top of the GP explorer one, all black and grey with touches of the "Sunday neon green")

So, what do you think? Do you project yourself? Because I do, maybe even a little too much. If the GP Explorer 3 doesn't turn out to be anything like this, I'm launching a crowdfunding campaign to organize this European version, which could be CRAZY.