5 ms·

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 o

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.
  - lozaning 7y ago
    I've heard that nascar drivers can lose up to 8 pounds in sweat over the course of a race. The constant forces on your body for that long have to take a physical toll on your body.
  - lttlrck 7y ago
    An hour of karting did that to me...
Someone 7y ago
I would think the physical aspects aren’t the largest barrier to entry. 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.
- joncrane 7y ago
  You still need thousands and thousands of dollars for a decent Sim racing setup, a stable internet connection, and a room to do it from. Sure, it's not formula racing, but there are still massive barriers to entry for sim racing.
  - reidjs 7y ago
    True but it’s at least an order of magnitude less money to do the e-sport than the real one
    - sokoloff 7y ago
      True and, further, those costs are almost the same whether you race for 1 hour or 1000 hours in the sim-world. Definitely not the case in the real-world racing series.
- kayoone 7y ago
  That's a bit harsh on F1 drivers tbh. Sure, ultimately you need money, but Senna started early in Karting and was already showing great talent there allowing him to get financial backing and support that helped him further his career. He went through a lot of Karting and open wheel racing until finally reaching F1. You don't get there just by money, at least the top5 guys have mostly won everything there is to win before entering F1.
  - 7y ago
usrusr 7y ago
And top e-sports drivers will likely have far more hours behind the virtual wheel than the real drivers have in reality and virtual combined. 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).
- nikofeyn 7y ago
  i have always wondered if society could get something useful out of gaming other than entertainment (not saying entertainment isn't good or not useful). gamers seem to have this uncanny ability to focus in on a game for hundreds, if not thousands, of hours, becoming skilled well beyond any of the developers' dreams. even when i was younger i could poor hours into games like that. it's pretty amazing, because i don't really feel like i see as many people doing that for other things.
sixothree 7y ago
Also the drivers are backed by huge teams. This is the part of the sport that makes it so much fun. The physical aspect of the pit stops & the strategy and the pains that causes.

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.
- lozaning 7y ago
  I've heard that nascar drivers can lose up to 8 pounds in sweat over the course of a race. The constant forces on your body for that long have to take a physical toll on your body.
- lttlrck 7y ago
  An hour of karting did that to me...

Someone 7y ago

I would think the physical aspects aren’t the largest barrier to entry. 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.

joncrane 7y ago
You still need thousands and thousands of dollars for a decent Sim racing setup, a stable internet connection, and a room to do it from. Sure, it's not formula racing, but there are still massive barriers to entry for sim racing.
- reidjs 7y ago
  True but it’s at least an order of magnitude less money to do the e-sport than the real one
  - sokoloff 7y ago
    True and, further, those costs are almost the same whether you race for 1 hour or 1000 hours in the sim-world. Definitely not the case in the real-world racing series.
kayoone 7y ago
That's a bit harsh on F1 drivers tbh. Sure, ultimately you need money, but Senna started early in Karting and was already showing great talent there allowing him to get financial backing and support that helped him further his career. He went through a lot of Karting and open wheel racing until finally reaching F1. You don't get there just by money, at least the top5 guys have mostly won everything there is to win before entering F1.
- 7y ago

usrusr 7y ago

And top e-sports drivers will likely have far more hours behind the virtual wheel than the real drivers have in reality and virtual combined. 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).

nikofeyn 7y ago
i have always wondered if society could get something useful out of gaming other than entertainment (not saying entertainment isn't good or not useful). gamers seem to have this uncanny ability to focus in on a game for hundreds, if not thousands, of hours, becoming skilled well beyond any of the developers' dreams. even when i was younger i could poor hours into games like that. it's pretty amazing, because i don't really feel like i see as many people doing that for other things.

sixothree 7y ago

Also the drivers are backed by huge teams. This is the part of the sport that makes it so much fun. The physical aspect of the pit stops & the strategy and the pains that causes.