So what exactly are the dedicated servers going to entail? Is it going be scheduled races in the style of iRacing or GT Sport? If so that would be pretty rad.
Dedicated servers are just servers used to host online content for games. What they do and how they do it is entirely down to whoever is running the server, which could be anybody. Once the tool is released it will allow communities to start hosting anything from individual races to whole leagues, same as they already do for other sims. If you're asking what Reiza specifically may do in terms of online racing, I don't know. They might host some events but I doubt it will be that extensive. Hosting requires servers, servers require constant payments. Most sims rely on the sim-racing community to provide the bulk of the online experience.
Personally, I would say that it's probably something to be released with v1.0, which is apparently about a month away. That is not official though, as I don't work for Reiza.
Its planned to be in V1.0 announced here: Automobilista 2 Early Access to be Updated Weekly - Dev Roadmap Overview - - - - - - - - - - MULTIPLAYER FEATURES Two common requested features for multiplayer should be integrated during Early Access: Multiplayer Rating System Dedicated Server Tool - - - - - - - - - - depends on how long the EA will be
They recently said we were "about halfway though" the EA period. It had been a month at the time, so perhaps another month before v1.0 can be expected. Barring any game-stopping issues, of course.
Can't wait for Dedi servers. However I do hope reiza make it so admins can set server restrictions on drivers ranking, similar to how it works for ACC.
I'm wondering how much function could dedicate server and spectate/broadcast mode do. I mentioned these together, because these two can have a very positive effect on information providing on the screen, such as speed and sector time side by side comparation. As a media person, I'm pretty happy on what rf2 1118 have done, it is very similar to our working flow of motorsports on TV. However the dedicate tool is very likely to make me confused. I'm looking forward to AMS2, as it can providing much better graphic.