F1 esports champion Lucas Blakeley departs McLaren Shadow

The sim racing world is left heartbroken after F1 esports world champion Lucas Blakeley announced that he will be leaving McLaren Shadow.

The announcement was made on May 27th, where the champion shared he will be parting ways with the organisation after three seasons of competitive play.

In his official announcement, Blakeley said: “Today, I announce that I’m leaving McLaren Shadow. An honour of a lifetime to represent this team. To become world champion for who I grew up supporting is something I’ll forever be grateful I got the chance to accomplish.”

McLaren Shadow published a blog post about Blakeley’s departure. In it, the organisation highlighted how he joined the F1 Sim Racing team in 2022 and achieved a Drivers’ and Teams’ Championship double in his first season.

In the blog post, McLaren Shadow wrote: “The team would like to thank Lucas for his contribution over the last three seasons and wish him the best of luck for the future. We will confirm the McLaren Shadow F1 Sim Racing driver line-up in due course.”

The highlight of his career would be later in 2022 when Blakeley was crowned F1 Esports Series Champion, after a fourth-place finish in Abu Dhabi earned him enough points to secure the title.

Blakeley last competed in the 2025 F1 Sim Racing World Championship, which ran from January 14th to March 27th and had a prize pool of $750,000 (~£585,000). He placed 15th overall out of 27 racers.

In a follow up post online, Blakeley wrote: “I could write 100 pages and still feel I need more words, so trying to summarise this in a few posts is hard!

“I’m grateful for all the people I met along the way, the memories we’ve created and the good times we had. Thanks to each and every one of you who’ve supported me.”

The F1 champion didn’t share what he had planned next, but he has continued his live streaming and content creation efforts over on Twitch, which currently boasts over 39,000 followers.