The lines between virtual and real-life motor-racing continue to blur with Alpine's plans for 2023 only serving to show just how serious a business Esports now is.A few years ago, Esports was very much in its embryonic stages, especially in terms of motorsport, but how things have changed since.Each F1 team is now fully immersed and invested in sim racing and Alpine are really pushing the boat out for 2023, with them recently announcing a host of new partners. A series of announcements were made at the Alpine Esports Sim Racing Expo. Kappa will provide team-ware, as it does the F1 team, whilst content creators PattyPatt, AnaonAir and Thomb are all signed up as ambassadors and will provide content to motorsport and Esports fans on social media.

“I’m proud of the incredible growth Alpine Esports has seen throughout the past year, and aim to make 2023 even bigger and better. We’re especially excited to work alongside an incredible charity like Special Effect to bring joy and gaming into the lives of as many people as possible," said Guillaume Vergnas, Head of Esports, Gaming & Web3 at Alpine.

"We give our absolute thanks to our fans and community who have allowed us to grow our brand, create new innovations, and bring together a talented team of drivers, ambassadors, and partners with the shared goal of elevating sim racing to the next level.”

As well as this, they have a talented driver line-up with Patrik Sipos, Luke Smith and Rubén Pedreño on the F1 side.

Collin Spork, meanwhile, stays as an endurance racer alongside Tom Lartilleux.

Indeed, Spork is one driver aiming to make it in real racing off of the back of his sim career, too, with him saying to GIVEMESPORT:

"My ambition and passion is still to actually drive a real car. I know that some drivers just want to do Esports but like I said, I love real racing. It's that feeling of racing that I want to do.

"My goals are to be an actual F1 simulator driver like at Red Bull with Sebastian Job.

"I know that I'm a hard worker, I've been a full time Esports driver for the past year and a half now and I've really enjoyed that. My goal is to race and be the best version of myself."

A big year ahead at Alpine Esports, then, and there's plenty to be excited about.