Without live racing, pro drivers flock to esports
The pause on motorsport is the furthest thing from the minds of people dealing directly with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, of course. But for many of us, the only contribution we can make at the moment is to contain the spread by staying home. And with top-level racing being cancelled worldwide until at least May, that includes a whole bunch of professional race-car drivers.
The result: there’s racing to watch after all — it’s just all online.
Some efforts are more organized than others, but the end result is that drivers from disciplines around the world are taking part in esports right now in phenomenal numbers, sometimes alongside well-known e-racers.
iracing is proving to be a very popular platform.
Canadian sports-car racer Daniel Morad has been streaming his own iracing sessions on Twitch alongside competitors such as Formula One’s Max Verstappen, sports-car drivers Andre Lotterer and Richard Westbrook, and others. Meanwhile, videos are appearing on Youtube from Veloce esports, featuring events that include “Not the Aus GP,” featuring drivers such as F1 racer Lando Norris and Formula E’s Stoffel Vandoorne.
(Adding a level of intrigue: the race was won by a regular online competitor, Daniel Bereznay.)
Whether this unfortunate global situation will spell the beginning of an even bigger boom for esports is anyone’s guess. But in the meantime, for as long as it’s all we have, it’s reasonably entertaining — and the graphics truly are phenomenal.