F1 Sim Racing India Open finals begin at Mumbai's NSCI Dome

Forty finalists, one week in Mumbai

The F1 Sim Racing India Open 2026 national finals are running at the NSCI Dome in Mumbai from 5 to 7 November, with 40 drivers on the grid. Twenty of them have come through the Open category and 20 through the Under-15 category, picked from about 300 entrants across 21 Indian cities who raced on the official F1 25 game through October.

The finalists went through practice from 21 to 23 October, junior qualifiers on 24 and 25 October and senior qualifiers on 26 and 27 October. Between 28 October and 2 November they got structured coaching from Track Titan, a UK-based AI driver coaching platform brought in to analyse their lap data, with sessions run by former sim racing world champions.

The championship is organised by Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited, India's Formula 2 and Formula 3 team, in partnership with Formula 1 and ESL FACEIT Group. It is the first time F1 has sanctioned a country-specific sim racing championship anywhere. "India has long been central to the global growth story of Formula 1," Narain Karthikeyan, India's first Formula 1 driver, said when the series launched in May. "With 78.8 million fans and a generation raised on F1 gaming, the time is right to introduce an official, competitive sim racing championship here."

The Cup of Nations and the money on the table

Once the Indian final wraps up on 7 November, the event moves straight into the Cup of Nations from 8 to 10 November. This pits India's top two finishers against 38 drivers from the F1 Sim Racing World Championship, representing 14 nations in all, on the same NSCI Dome rigs.

The prize pool for the Indian final is Rs 2 crore, split as Rs 1 crore each for the Open and Under-15 champions. On top of that, the overall India Open winner gets a place in Mumbai Falcons's "One in a Billion Hunt, Agla Star" talent programme, backed by a Rs 3 crore driver development fund.

That fund is the part worth watching closely. Mumbai Falcons says Agla Star is meant to move a sim racer through four-stroke karts, two-stroke karts and single seaters, the same ladder Indian karters already climb to reach Formula 4. A sim racing title alone has not put an Indian driver on that ladder before. Whether a fast lap at NSCI Dome actually buys a kart seat, and not just a cheque and a trophy, will only be clear once this year's winner is named and Mumbai Falcons publishes who gets picked for Agla Star.

How to watch

District by Zomato is the official ticketing partner for anyone who wants to watch the finals in person, with tickets sold through its app and website. The event is also live on the official YouTube channels of Formula 1 and Mumbai Falcons.

Sources

• India's fastest sim racers get specialist coaching as Mumbai Falcons Racing brings in Track Titan
• Kohima to host F1 Sim Racing India Open 2026 round
• India gets F1 Sim Racing championship launched by Mumbai Falcons
• F1 Sim Racing India Open 2026 strengthens fan access with District by Zomato pact