Getting to the top of the simracing mountain is a hard thing to do. What is the "simracing mountain" exactly? Well, it's that place where you're considered one of the best. That place where you're so blindingly fast that other drivers stop and say, "Wow, how did that guy get up there?" That's the mountain. And the road up the mountain is a rough one, often putting a driver through years of training and hard tests. You have to find the right game, the right site, the right leagues... It's almost too much to handle. However, when you finally get the skill to drive in the FSR World Championship, you're pretty high on that mountain, by anyone's standard. With thousands of fans and followers, you just won't find many sim-leagues that give a driver that type of exposure. Win the thing, and you're name is immediately etched in the minds of simracers across the globe. Before you know it, they're all looking up at you wondering just how you got up so high.
Today RaceDepartment was able to get in touch with such a driver. We are joined by none other then the reigning
FSR World Champion,
Bono Huis. We sit down with him to discuss his success as a driver, and the upcoming 2011 season.
RaceDepartment: Hello Bono. First off, thanks for joining us today. And as for the first question, how does it feel to win such a world renowned championship like FSR at such a young age?
Bono: Obviously it feels fantastic to win the FSR World Championship. Surely it’s one of the best leagues in the world, if not the best. Winning at my age doesn’t really matter to me, it doesn’t make me view my achievement any better or worse. In fact, there has been an even younger champion in FSR--Joshua Lyon was a few months younger than me when he won the title in 2003.
RaceDepartment: You dominated the World Championship like few before you have, pulling off a string of wins and pole positions that the series hasn’t seen since the likes of Greger Huttu himself. Greger started on sims like GPL. Where did you first start developing your remarkable driving skill?
Bono: I started driving with Grand Prix 4, but soon switched to F1 Challenge and after a lot of driving offline I decided to join a Dutch league in 2005. I was a front-runner there and was improving every year, until I joined FSR in the summer of 2007. I really learned a lot in FSR and became better and better, becoming a front-runner in the last few races of 2009. In 2010 I joined the best team in FSR, Precision Motorsports, and that was a crucial move to ultimately win the title.
RaceDepartment: There has been a lot made of the fact that the team you drive for, Precision Motorsports, is considered to have the best engineers working within the team, and therefore they provide the best setups. Some have even speculated that this is the reason why you won this past season. Others contend that such accusations are unfounded, sighting the fact that you also bested your Precision counter-parts by quite a wide margin. Still, does this type of criticism provide any extra motivation going into the 2011 season?
Bono: For sure Precision Motorsports had the best setups over the entire year and that helped me a lot to win the title. But still, like you said, I beat all of my teammates with a nice margin so I must have done something right. But people can think whatever they want, I don’t care that much, it just adds motivation for the next season.
RaceDepartment: Reports are in that [FONT="]Mikko Puumalainen [/FONT]has signed on with Precision. He is obviously an exceptional driver in his own right. What are your thoughts on him joining the team? Do you see you and him getting along like Jenson and Lewis, or will you two be more of a Vettel vs Webber pairing?
Bono: Definitly more like Jenson and Lewis. Mikko has just joined the team recently, but already has blended in quite nicely, he’s a good guy and certainly will be important for our team.
RaceDepartment: Going into last year, Bruno Marques was the favorite to win the championship, having won an astounding 3 titles. Now many consider you the favorite going into the 2011 campaign. How will you cope with the pressure that this distinction brings?
Bono: I don’t think it adds pressure. I’m the world champion now, I’ve showed what I can do. For me, the pressure is off for 2011.
RaceDepartment: With Marques and other top drivers like Dennis Hirrle retiring from FSR, is there one driver in particular you feel will threaten your assault at repeating?
Bono: Certainly my teammates will be fast, like Jaakko Mikkonen, who had quite a disappointing season in 2010 because the mod didn’t suit him. I expect him to be really fast and fighting for wins every race in 2011. The whole team will be really fast in 2011, so that’s nice because surely they will be pushing me to go faster. And also we should never underestimate Twister, they have a pretty strong line-up and will definitely be strong.
RaceDepartment: Finally, do you have any thoughts about the 2011 mod? Recently the ISR President announced that its development is already in full swing and a beta is expected in only a few short weeks.
Bono: Yes, I am in the mod testing team actually. There’s quite a lot of work going on behind the scenes, it’s really looking good and I’m very happy with the progress we have made compared to 2010.
RaceDepartment would like to thank Bono for taking the time to answer our questions. We wish him the best of luck on the grid next season in his effort to win back-to-back FSR titles.
If racing in one the world's premier online simracing leagues interests you, head over to
http://www.formula-simracing.net/ and learn more about the championship. The 2011 season is scheduled to start this April!
FSR's final round of the 2010 season at Abu Dhabi.
