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Is the game a good enough simulator? Should real drivers be the best F1 streamers with a good wheel setup? This is really pushing the notion of work from home.

w-m 7y ago
In the Netflix series, Drive to Survive, you could see one of the younger drivers (I don't recall who it was) play the Codemasters game at home. It didn't look like exposition or product placement, but rather like something that they regularly did to train.
- dennismp 7y ago
  Both Max Verstappen and Lando Norris does this regularly. Lando also stream at times.
- tentboy 7y ago
  I think they showed Max or Alex but I don't remember for sure - but that was certainly product placement/he was just playing it for fun. Lando and Max play alot of iRacing which is the most comprehensive and realistic simulator which can actually help you train for motorsports (I use it to learn tracks before I race in a miata) and I think they recently got Carlos and Alex into playing. Besides, all the teams have their own non commercial simulators miles ahead of what you can play at home
- codysc 7y ago
  I think that's mostly to build familiarity with the tracks. Many games have done excellent jobs of mapping the tracks to high precision including the backgrounds. So, all the visual cues will translate well to real life. 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.
- omegabravo 7y ago
  Season 2 - Episode 5, they showed Pierre Gasly with his basic home setup. ~25min
- wmeredith 7y ago
  Playing video games isn’t a good way to practice F1 racing, but it’s probably a great to memorize a track layout.
joncrane 7y ago
No. In the less formal event last Sunday, the e-sports drivers dominated the race and the highest finishing "real" F1 driver was in 8th, and incredibly proud of that achievement. 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.
- sprsquish 7y ago
  I think your point about not feeling the car is a big part of what makes driving a simulator so difficult. Every part of a real car is giving the driver direct feedback into various parts of their body. How hard they are on the brake and throttle. Small changes in lateral g-force let them know how close to the edge of traction they are. The screen isn't going to be the same as the real world. The only feedback you get from an (affordable) at-home sim is through the screen and wheel. It requires you to tune into different sensations. 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."
  - C1sc0cat 7y ago
    Its the shear physical impact on the driver - I recall seeing drivers having difficulty at the end of the race getting out of the car.
    - sjm-lbm 7y ago
      This is correct - Top Gear did a test years ago where they put a very good sim racer in a real race car (https://www.topgear.com/car-news/gaming/geek-rebooted https://www.topgear.com/car-news/gaming/geek-rebooted). 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.
torbital 7y ago
I'm surprised they didn't go with a more mainstream title like Forza, which has surprisingly accurate physics in it. It's not specifically built for F1, but maybe they could do a DLC for this. The other huge benefit is that players can put themselves in the same setups as the drivers and compare speeds. That would be awesome.
- notatoad 7y ago
  You're surprised they're using their own-branded game instead of a third party game?
magila 7y ago
Compared to other racing simulators the official F1 games are, to put it kindly, not the highest fidelity. Their design is geared towards mass market accessibility, not accuracy. 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.
- coldpie 7y ago
  Yeah, I was surprised to see they're going with F1 instead of iRacing. I guess it makes sense for branding/licensing deals, but iRacing is the far better sim.
- skunkworker 7y ago
  They should really just do F3 with iRacing, or add a significantly better model for the F1 and give all drivers direct drive setups.

w-m 7y ago

In the Netflix series, Drive to Survive, you could see one of the younger drivers (I don't recall who it was) play the Codemasters game at home. It didn't look like exposition or product placement, but rather like something that they regularly did to train.

dennismp 7y ago
Both Max Verstappen and Lando Norris does this regularly. Lando also stream at times.
tentboy 7y ago
I think they showed Max or Alex but I don't remember for sure - but that was certainly product placement/he was just playing it for fun. Lando and Max play alot of iRacing which is the most comprehensive and realistic simulator which can actually help you train for motorsports (I use it to learn tracks before I race in a miata) and I think they recently got Carlos and Alex into playing. Besides, all the teams have their own non commercial simulators miles ahead of what you can play at home
codysc 7y ago
I think that's mostly to build familiarity with the tracks. Many games have done excellent jobs of mapping the tracks to high precision including the backgrounds. So, all the visual cues will translate well to real life. 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.
omegabravo 7y ago
Season 2 - Episode 5, they showed Pierre Gasly with his basic home setup. ~25min
wmeredith 7y ago
Playing video games isn’t a good way to practice F1 racing, but it’s probably a great to memorize a track layout.

joncrane 7y ago

No. In the less formal event last Sunday, the e-sports drivers dominated the race and the highest finishing "real" F1 driver was in 8th, and incredibly proud of that achievement. 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.

sprsquish 7y ago
I think your point about not feeling the car is a big part of what makes driving a simulator so difficult. Every part of a real car is giving the driver direct feedback into various parts of their body. How hard they are on the brake and throttle. Small changes in lateral g-force let them know how close to the edge of traction they are. The screen isn't going to be the same as the real world. The only feedback you get from an (affordable) at-home sim is through the screen and wheel. It requires you to tune into different sensations. 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."
- C1sc0cat 7y ago
  Its the shear physical impact on the driver - I recall seeing drivers having difficulty at the end of the race getting out of the car.
  - sjm-lbm 7y ago
    This is correct - Top Gear did a test years ago where they put a very good sim racer in a real race car (https://www.topgear.com/car-news/gaming/geek-rebooted https://www.topgear.com/car-news/gaming/geek-rebooted). 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.

torbital 7y ago

I'm surprised they didn't go with a more mainstream title like Forza, which has surprisingly accurate physics in it. It's not specifically built for F1, but maybe they could do a DLC for this. The other huge benefit is that players can put themselves in the same setups as the drivers and compare speeds. That would be awesome.

notatoad 7y ago
You're surprised they're using their own-branded game instead of a third party game?

magila 7y ago

Compared to other racing simulators the official F1 games are, to put it kindly, not the highest fidelity. Their design is geared towards mass market accessibility, not accuracy. 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.

coldpie 7y ago
Yeah, I was surprised to see they're going with F1 instead of iRacing. I guess it makes sense for branding/licensing deals, but iRacing is the far better sim.
skunkworker 7y ago
They should really just do F3 with iRacing, or add a significantly better model for the F1 and give all drivers direct drive setups.