Formula 1 launches Virtual Grand Prix Series to replace postponed races
formula1.com
formula1.com
"Due to the wide variety of gaming skill levels amongst the drivers, game settings will be configured in such a way to encourage competitive and entertaining racing. This includes running equal car performance with fixed setups, reduced vehicle damage, and optional anti-lock brakes and traction control for those less familiar with the game."
More like a "So You Think You Can Dance" celebrity edition than anything else.
A much higher level event which also includes some IRL drivers from multiple series is: The Race All-Star Esports Battle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a_RV5UY8mk) Higher level mostly because they race in rFactor2 which is a better simulator than F1 2019 and there are no driver aids. Also because everyone on the grid are long-ish time sim racers, even if some of them also happen to be IRL drivers (Max Verstappen, Felix Rosenqvist, Antonio Felix da Costa, a few others)
Here's a good list of motorsports eSports events for the next few days: https://the-race.com/esports/the-complete-motorsport-esports...
I don't even watch F1 but this has me addicted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPxqKmqjP6c
So fun, and the commentary is so good.
This is really pushing the notion of work from home.
Besides, all the teams have their own non commercial simulators miles ahead of what you can play at home
I've done this myself for some track days (not races) and can tell you it absolutely helps even at my tragically amateurish skill level.
Edit: this is for a variety of reasons. The greatest of which is that when you're actually going 200 MPH and risking hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage, and moreso your own life and limb and those of your competitors, your risk aversion is higher than when it's a video game.
Secondly, the drivers train massively to withstand the physical forces that F1 racing causes on the body. Take away those physical aspects and a) the barrier to entry is much lower and b) the drivers are probably used to being able to feel what the car is doing, and that tactile connection is completely broken in a video game.
On the last stream Lando Norris (McLaren F1 driver) was asked if it felt like the real thing. He was response was something like, "Not at all. Nothing is like driving an F1 car."
TLDR: he did OK, but was nowhere up to the physical challenge of staying in that car for full race distance. And, for the record, that car won't be on the same planet as an F1 car in terms of physical forces put on a driver.
As one could bluntly state it: because it takes a lot of money and connections to even be considered as a driver, it is statistically highly unlikely that, talent-wise, the current F1 drivers are in the top 1% or even top 25% of the world.
If Senna were born in tropical Africa, or even if he hadn’t had wealthy parents, he probably wouldn’t ever have raced a F1 car.
It’s way more likely for a talented soccer player from a similar background to make it into a top team.
Sure, it's not formula racing, but there are still massive barriers to entry for sim racing.
The money and connections are useful for getting drivers into the sport, but they're not going to succeed in it if they can't develop the necessary skill.
Yes, but for many of them, to a much lesser degree. I specifically mentioned soccer because it is extremely cheap to start playing it. All you need is a somewhat level playing area, anything that can mark the locations of the imaginary goal posts (coats, garbage cans, or just heaps of mud), and something resembling a ball (say a few crumpled newspapers tied together with tape or thread will work, if needed)
You don’t need grass, inflatable balls, side line markers, real goal posts, team uniforms, or even shoes.
Long distance running is another example at the other end of the range, as is cricket (for which you only need a few sticks, one bat, a hard ball, and a fairly hard surface), and, where sandy beaches are available, beach volleyball (for which the only expensive item is the ball. A rope can substitute for the net, if needed)
That’s why you see don’t see kids in favelas race karts, but see them play soccer or cricket (and, in Brazil, play beach volleyball)
”You can't just grab some random person from tropical Africa and have him play some sport alongside trained and experienced veterans and expect him to win”
I didn’t claim that. What I said is that, likely, there are kids in Africa who, if they were given the same opportunities as Senna, would have turned out to be better F1 drivers than him.
Yes, it is likely, just given the sheer numbers. But F1 driving is a sport requiring lots of skill and training and that opportunity just isn't available to many people due to the expenses involved. So I don't know why you're even bringing this up, unless you're trying to bash race car driving or the fact that not everyone in the world has equal opportunities, and I don't see how that's productive here.
they didn't say the drivers didn't need skill and only need money. they only said money was an additional and the larger barrier to entry. of course they need skill, but you'll never know if you have skill or not if you don't have money. nearly any type of racing is incredibly expensive.
I used to do online ww2 combat flight sim as a hobby and one day I realized that all those virtual aces had not only the skill advantage of virtual death trial and error, most had also been flying virtual ww2 planes for longer than than the entire duration of the original war (in years, not in stick-hours).
The other huge benefit is that players can put themselves in the same setups as the drivers and compare speeds. That would be awesome.
For more serious sim racing, iRacing is usually the game of choice. Some of the younger F1 drivers play iRacing in their (now quite copious) spare time and they generally do quite well.
There's a great tradition of video games in Japan, surely if Formula 1 can do it, they can do it for the Olympics, too?