IT’S VIRTUAL F1
Sportsmail gets down with the kids as Esports take over
WEll, I thought I would spend yesterday telling you how lewis Hamilton had won the Bahrain Grand Prix. And then on to a gin and tonic the size of an Olympic swimming pool with a few pals in the British Airways lounge en route back to Blighty.
But, as we all know since the world fell off its axis, lewis didn’t win, the Bahrain Grand Prix was off, the Olympics is teetering and BA is staring at a bailout.
So where to turn for live sport to find some light relief?
The answer was to be found in Esports. And if that leaves you perplexed, I know how you feel.
This 40-something luddite was more likely to master Homeric Greek than tune in to this phenomenon, before you-know-what struck.
Back from Sainsbury’s, where people were wearing those ghastly masks as they scooped up a month’s supply of pasta, I logged in to see what it is all about.
You had to when you learned that there is no Formula One for even longer than we have been told — the Azerbaijan Grand
Prix, the first possible race, on June 7, was postponed. Canada a week later is now the earliest possibility. let’s see about that.
Basically Esports involves players linking up via the internet to take part in a virtual race or game — self-isolation before it became de rigueur. If you’re young enough, it is seemingly quite the rage.
Indeed, it is a business worth some $ 1billion. Several gambling firms, particularly the online variety, are open for bets. F1 drivers are at it with a vengeance. Two different ‘ grand prix’ were staged yesterday to fill the void in what most of us might call real sport.
I thought I’d give it a chance and become one of the massive horde of spectators who view it through live streaming, watching it on platforms such as Twitch.
Which one to watch? The Veloce Esports ‘Not the Bahrain Grand Prix’, or Formula One’s official Virtual Racing Series?
Both had big names involved. The first race starred Briton lando Norris of Mclaren, Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and golf’s petrolhead Ian Poulter, as well as F1 drivers Nicholas latifi, Hulkenberg, Stoffel Vandoorne and Esteban Gutierrez.
No Hamilton, but this is not his metier. To be embarrassed by some house-bound devotee? I think not.
Now to the action, at a pseudoBahrain track, with the lights on. Norris was involved in a first-lap scrape. He finished 10th, among the full-time gamers and the rest. A chap calling himself FormulaDani won, real name Daniel Bereznay, a 19-year-old from Hungary.
latifi, who would have made his F1 debut in Australia last weekend but for this virus crisis, finished fifth. Courtois was 13th, Hulkenberg 16th and Poulter 18th, which gave him hope for the reverse grid race to follow.
But the Daily Mail presses were about to roll so we’ll never know how that ended up. And, heavens, good fun though it was, where’s that G&T?