Will the next F1 star be a sim racer?

This question is silly and is another example in a long list of pieces where sim racers are so insecure about their hobby, they feel the need to constantly justify it's existence by linking it to the real thing.

First of all, multiple generations have now grown up playing video games as their primary means of entertainment. Saying William Byron (NASCAR) "got his start" playing iRacing, or that Max Verstappen was a sim racer before he became an F1 champion, and then awkwardly penning pieces like this where we pine for another one, is like saying every NFL player under the age of 45 "got their start" playing Madden - it's so common that it doesn't even matter anymore. It's not special. It's what literally everyone in the sport grew up playing. It would be harder for me to name someone I played high school football with, that didn't play Madden.

But I'll bite; the real answer to the question is that we've already had this mythical "sim racer to real life."

Twenty years ago.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

By his own admission, Dale was a terrible Late Model driver (this would be the equivalent to Formula 3 for you UK lads). The guy won something like 3 times in 170 starts. I mean he was no better than your average guy who owned a landscaping company and raced on weekends.

But Dale was a very early adopter of the Papyrus NASCAR titles with his brother Kerry. He's talked about this on his podcast on numerous occasions - the $400 phone bills that would come with racing online. This is all they'd d.

His 1998-1999 seasons were statistical anomalies given what he'd accomplished at the local level. This was when the Busch Series visited a variety of road courses and po-dunk tracks with wild surface abrasions. If you look at Dale's 98-99 seasons on RacingReference, he wins everywhere. Out-duels Ron Fellows at The Glen. Short tracks. Speedways. Even has a pole at Nazareth. All of the tracks people hate driving on in iRacing because they're too technical, Dale is sodomizing people on. Guy can barely get on podium at his local track, gets addicted to NASCAR Racing 2, emerges a completely different driver and wins back-to-back championships. You tell me what happened. There is a reason, that with his squillions of dollars, he still chooses to invest a bunch of his free time into helping out iRacing.

Also interesting is that his winless streak from 08-12 came during iRacing's first four years on the market but let's not get into that for today

Other examples are Jacques Villeneuve & Bobby Labonte, but both already had successful racing careers by the time sims went mainstream. Villeneuve simply used the F1 games to learn circuit layouts, and Labonte was really the first guy to directly assist developers with technical feedback.

Anyone else after those pioneers, there's nothing special about.

Antony Snook said:

I think the mental stress is there in sim racing. And some advanced rigs will do the movement and g force of a car. But a sim racer may be eratic as there is no risk to them or others. If you hit a wall at 200 mph in a sim you may get force feedback but you wont end up in hospital. Where a actual driver will.

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The "Mental Stress" is up to the person, F1 Drivers are capable of operating at their maximum performance for hours on end, even if the world championship is being contended.

G forces....that's simply a no. That is not physically simmable.
Moving rigs can't simulate the G Forces of even a kart, let alone a F1.

Damian Reed said:

I think you're missing the point.

No sim racer will ever jump from the sim to an F1 car direct, but sim racing could be a talent pool.

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I could see it taking up a spot similar to karting maybe, which is great because competititve karting is crazy expensive

Well, it is a misconception to have go-karts as the lowest reference point in relation to g-forces.

IRL I have driven both standard cars and even several supercars on motorsport tracks pedal to the metal (by renting on single set occations, cheapest way where insurance and variable costs are included), but in terms of g-forces, they have in no way been able to keep up with the g-force experience in just a Junior Kart on small twisted gokart tracks.
I could compare a couple of 2.4 hour "Mini Le Mans" go-kart experiences on demanding go-kart tracks with high competition level with a couple of experiences of similar duration on the Nordschleife in a tuned and ribbed standard car. The latter was a piece of cake compared to the former.

Only more demanding in terms of g-forces, I think I have tried IRL, was once an offer of testing in a Reynard 84SF (4 gear single seater Formula 2000 / 150bhp / 450kg) on a simple track with few sharp 180 degree turns. I was told "it's just the same as driving a go-kart", so I absolutely floored it for the mere 20 mins I tested it. Even though I was athletically 'fit' and had a career as both rower and cyclist behind me at the time, I had pain in my ribs and neck a whole week afterwards!

So even though I wrote "why not" further up in the thread, my starting point was not that with sim racing as a sofa koala you could wade directly into an F1 team. As I read the article on first hand, I read between the lines that the physical aspect and money (or rather access to money through the right contacts) was not an issue. But as I read the thread again it seems this important info has to be made clear:

- physical shape outstanding
- extremely determined, mental mindset for giving anything else up for racing at any time
- money is not an issue, or at least a talent for finding economical backup.

As others mention, it is not easy to get an overall overview of talents in different gokart classes, which are often "tuned" by team mechanics and parents for making marginal gains, which sometimes obscures the real talent picture. Whereas it is relatively easy to spot the raw "behind the wheel" talent via simracing.

Still, I'm of the opinion that it is a huge advantage to have had oil between the nails and to have a basic understanding of the mechanics of a race car

If the simracing basics are top standard and you have the full understanding of tuning every possible parameter and explain the effect of the outcome to a team - and want to start in a single seater not being a gokart: Here you could start in Formula 5, which must be the cheapest single seater class just above gokart with a direct food chain for the higher formula classes. Still, in my country, entry fee for a season is approx. € 8-9K, the race car itself approx. €13-15K, but then add travel costs and variable repairs.

BUT it could also be that OP thought a larger team in the lower formula ranks had a proper bag of money and would sponsor a simracing talent?

Not entirely impossible and as I have mentioned before, it has also happened before. My starting point, however, has always been that basic capabilities such as really good physical shape and a basic understanding of mechanical details as well as technical communication can be winged off.

Edit: Sorry my post is messy. Writing from new phone not getting used to it yet.

turbo86 said:

I hope not. Ever since F1 started accepting mediocre drivers the quality of racing haw gone down.

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So circa 1951 ?

Will the next John McLaughlin be a GuitarHero player?

I am really good at Big Rumble Boxing so imma go hop in the ring with Mayweather and show him how to do it right.

To be fair more chance of that, than a woman ever winning F1 ;-)

We can't be directly on top real sport but maybe liek with r3e challenge when you could get a seat on debut mid sport like gt4 - formule 4 or we can even get a new championship for new pro simracer startin a new categorie semi pro for a couple year before jumping on other categorie

The problem with gamers is they don't know how a racing car behaves as weight transfers therefore they cannot develop enough car control and car control is only develop after a deep basis in Karting beginning as younger as possible. Sims however are a great training tool if the physics are proper and racecraft could be improve. But even Ferrari with their E racing series is not serious enough allowing too much driving assisting in their models . The breach is still too big , gamers as Charles Leclerc can lose a F1 in different circumstances having endless hours of testing karts and lower formulae in his life, just imagine the mountain a gamer without Charles experience has to climb? I don't see it anytime soon, money and practice matters in the sport.