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Aston Martin Racing – 24 Hour of Le Mans June 2012 Photo: Drew Gibson / Aston Martin Racing BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA – APRIL 04: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) (Editors note: This image was computer generated in-game) Simon Pagenaud, driver of the #22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet, races during the IndyCar iRacing Challenge Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at virtual Barber Motorsports Park on April 04, 2020 in Birmingham, Alabama.
Viewers expecting to see current and former F1 racers competing were disappointed to discover. Connection problems knocked out of qualifying and meant his car was driven by an AI for most of the race.Those glitches meant a lengthy delay between qualifying and the race, plus a shortening of the main event from 28 laps to 14. Unfortunately wasn’t made aware of this and ended up missing the race, his place also taken by an AI.Across those who did get to compete, the standard was variable at best.
Jun 25, 2019 - Explore amemahdavi1351's board 'F1' on Pinterest. See more ideas about Formula 1, Formula one and F1 racing. Jun 25, 2019 - Explore amemahdavi1351's board 'F1' on Pinterest. See more ideas about Formula 1, Formula one and F1 racing.
Sir Chris Hoy spun off at the first corner in qualifying. – the only F1 race winner on the grid – audaciously cut the first corner in a bid to take the lead and was penalised.Several drivers crashed on the first lap. Fortunately the damage model had been disabled or the field would have been depleted by more than just connection problems.Advert. While there was no shortage of action, quite a lot of it seemed to be overlooked. For those used to watching real-world racing, the lack of replays took some getting used to.The presenters did their best to keep on top of things, and if at first the approach felt a bit ‘took many cooks’, the impromptu round-table chat helped while away the extended pre-race interval. But at a time when most of us are being told to practice, the sight of four presenters crowded around one desk was troubling.Virtual victor Zhou passed real F1 race winner HerbertYet, for its faults, I suggest we give F1 a pass over its first attempt at a Virtual Grand Prix. The race was thrown together in little more than three days and involved remotely networking in drivers and personalities of varying skill levels.
The Virtual Bahrain Grand Prix couldn’t take itself too seriously and it didn’t.With no motor sport going on at the moment and the prospect of very little happening for the coming months, this race and the other Esports events which have been organised recently provided many people with much-needed relief from the increasingly grim reality we now share.That much was clear from the broadcast figures. According to F1’s head of Esports Julian Tan, the race attracted a peak of 400,000 viewers across its streaming platforms. Another 100,000 watched Norris’s Twitch stream, where he dialled up the likes of, George Russell, Carlos Sainz Jnr and his McLaren boss Zak Brown during the pre-race delay.Inviting ‘influencers’ and celebrities to the race may not appeal to those of us who are F1 fans first, but the rationale of doing so as a means to appeal to new viewers is hard to argue with. I may not be interested in watching Liam Payne drive a virtual racing car but how many of his combined 50 million Twitter and Instagram followers – more than twice as many as – were?But as the news reaches us this week that F1’s pre-season hiatus will be at least one week longer – and, likely, much more – F1 needs to think seriously about how to develop the concept beyond the slapdash race thrown together yesterday into something people will want to watch regularly. Particularly when it is being touted as a substitute for real races.F1 needs to appeal to both new fans discovering the sport through streamers and signers, and its core audience who want to enjoy quality racing. Splitting the event into a ‘Pro/Am’ format would allow this.
Have one race for celebrities and influencers who fancy a jolly, then a second ‘main event’ aimed at more serious players run to more demanding rules with no driving assistance allowed and realistic damage settings. The sport can have its cake and eat it by allowing F1 drivers to enter either or both.Inevitably F1 will prefer to continue using its official game for these events. That will mean it cannot take advantage of some the exciting options open to other championships, such as IndyCar, which is planning to take in some tracks the real-world series doesn’t race on for its iRacing-based series. This will hopefully give food for thought for the 2020 and future editions of Codemasters’ official series.F1 has run Esports events before, though not remotelyThe fact F1 was able to fall back on Esports to provide some kind of racing action last weekend is partly thanks to the effort Liberty Media has put into developing this area since it took over the sport. It’s hard to imagine anything like this taking place while Bernie Ecclestone was running the show.While the first Virtual Grand Prix was entertaining, the current format has room for improvement, and those running the show surely know it. “Next time we’ll see a much more measured race in general,” predicted BBC F1 radio commentator Jack Nichols, who has years of experience in talking about virtual racing, at the end of the broadcast.“The chaos down towards turn one where people were crashing at the start, it isn’t what we want to see, and I don’t think it’s what the drivers want to happen. But this is a fairly last-minute call-up for a lot of these guys.”This was a fair assessment.
While it’s never going to be a substitute for the real thing, F1’s Virtual Grand Prix has obvious potential to be a welcome form of racing-based entertainment while grinds on. Over to youDid you watch the Virtual Bahrain Grand Prix?
Do you think the format could be improved – and if so how? Have your say in the comments.Advert. – I think you’re mistaken, that’s the term for the people who slavishly follow ‘influencers’. I hate to admit it, but I have a small measure of “respect” might be too powerful a word, so, let’s say “wry admiration” for those influencers to have found a gullible audience. Snake oil salesmen wouldn’t be a thing if there weren’t people buying snake oil, would there?– instead, let’s call them the ‘flu’?
Can’t totally avoid it no matter how much social (media) distancing you follow, mostly annoying, occasionally dangerous (e.g. Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop). And they’re upon us like a veritable plague.
I don’t share that sentiment. Having watched quite a lot of the e-sports events during the weekend I’d say it was the pro racers who caused the most amount of carnage on track because they don’t take it seriously at all. The racing influencers did a good job and treated the event with respect. For some real racers it was almost a joke. Just look at what johnny herbert did.
What the event needs is pre-qualifiers so the johnny herberts can’t get through to the main event. Whether influencers should be part of it well you need people on track if all f1 drivers are not going to enter and there needs to be some kind of system to select who gets in. Assuming all real f1 drivers (who would do it) get a free pass.The pro-am division sounds nice but who is pro and who is amateur? Because the top racers of these games will easily beat any and all real drivers in that game so you’d have situation where amateurs would dominate. Sim racers and pro racers might work out better as different classes but the event still needs to make sure that those who get in are quick enough and take it seriously. In one word: pre-qualifiers!
Otherwise it is just a joke of an event with people crashing out all the time. But I doubt if the pro racers and even the organizers have the patience or guts to leave out verstappen or norris if they did not make it to the final. After all those are the drivers people come to watch. Yet, for its faults, I suggest we give F1 a pass over its first attempt at a Virtual Grand Prix. The race was thrown together in little more than three days and involved remotely networking in drivers and personalities of varying skill levels.well, that’s the main problem, isn’t it?
Other championships have experience doing this, or they are taking the time to do it properly.F1 announced on a Wednesday that F1 drivers would take part in a virtual race on Sunday, then sort of found most of them either didn’t have the game, had not played it before, or weren’t interested in taking part. F1 racers “not having a copy” (or a simulator setup to play it on) is a BS excuse.
Your telling me Lewis Hamilton couldn’t find a loaner gaming rig, and log into steam? BS!He didn’t participate because he’s an adult, and races f1 cars for real, and doesn’t wanna play games with Johnny Herbert and some kid living in his moms shed.Esports is nothing more than vidya. No differant than fortnight or Minecraft.
![Redline F1 Racer Pictures Redline F1 Racer Pictures](http://i.imgur.com/0jwZQr8.jpg)
You can take anything seriously, that doesn’t change what it is. I literally cringe watching proper media outlets use a gamers handle instead of his name you guys are embarassing yourselves to pander to millennials. How difficult would it be to organise a championship with all the current drivers, with sky commentators and make it seem real.?? I don’t think anyone is busy right now anyway.Honestly I doubt we will see a real race this year the way it is going. This might be the only thing we could watch.The first race esport race was really badly organised and run ( I mean, not even able to show replays) but surely F1 with all it’s money can do better than this.I’m sure if it’s done right it could even charge for the races. I would pay if it would be done well and everyone was in.Seriously does not seem that impossible.
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So having been very dubious about all this going into the weekend, I went and watched both the Veloce Esports and F1 races on Sunday (both F1 2019), plus Monday night’s Team Redline event (iRacing).Monday night’s racing was 100% better, both in terms of racing, entertainment and pool of talent. A field of 40 F3 cars around Spa. At least 30 names were legitimate racers from all fields (F1, F2, F3, FE, WEC, DTM, FR).
The presentation (replays, etc) was infinitely better too.I don’t think F1 fully understands what it has got with Verstappen and Norris. They have such infectious personalities.
Lando’s twitch feed was hilarious at the same time as the race was compelling, which is crazy really. In Monday’s 2nd race they were effectively having a laugh – they were bump drafting each other along the Kemmel Straight (unrealistic I know in an F3 car – damage had been disabled deliberately as they had opened up to many drivers with little experience – like Nelson Piquet Jr who was pretty awful, lol). Yet they were doing this while leading the pack and putting in exceptional lap times. And hearing the two of them live egging each other on was hilarious. Also Felix da Costa’s comments on Tom Dillmann were fully uncensored!I think I might have found one series that I might genuinely follow thru these testing times.Its also persuaded me to get my (albeit basic) rig out and return to rFactor (I don’t think I can really afford the financial commitment to iRacing). I liked the race too! Especially because Lando streams, with all his joking and laughing it adds more atmosphere.
The ‘normal’ broadcast can be boring, alas. I switched between Lando and Jimmy Broadbent, he was in the back, so you can see him fighting in the midfield, while Lando and Max are in the front. I love the commentary between them and the other top-drivers, they give some tips, and yell at each other. The problem with the ‘real’ F1 drivers, is that most of them don’t race in sims, and have no interest in driving at the back. Max and Lando are very experienced E-sports drivers, but are regularly beaten by the likes of Rudy van Buren or Max Benecke.
These guys are so much better, and really competitive, the race on Saturday showed the complete top 10 within 0.4 seconds!Wednesday is the next race, with GTE I think. IRacing is really difficult, but if you want some serious racing, you can try Rfactor2, very good sim, and completely Open, so you can download lots of tracks and cars! It wasn’t too bad to watch to be honest. Without any F1, it at least filled a bit of a void left by the lack of racing. The main problem is the game itself, while it looks great, it has a number of bugs in it (as seen in qualifying where the Ferrari spent an AI lap hitting the back of a Toro Rosso).
With a Lack of polish to the game, its hard to take it seriously.The other thing which would dramatically improve it for the fans, is having a webcam set up in each of the drivers houses. Being able to see them and their reactions would add so much more. Jonny Herbert skipping the first corner would have been a million times better if you could see his reaction as he did it.
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