RACING SERIES TURN TOWARD VIRTUAL EVENTS
In the absence of the real thing, fans can get their fix online, David Booth says.
Motogp is still #Stayingathome. But like so many motorheads, in the absence of real racing, the stars of Motogp are jumping into the world of virtual racing.
Current Motogp champion Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi and his Yamaha teammate Maverick Vinales and rising stars Fabio Quatararo and Alex Rins will all be twisting digital throttles for the time being. Motogp’s organizer, Dorna, announced that the first Motogp race of the year would be virtual.
The “race” was held at — or simulated from — Italy’s Autodromo del Mugello on March 29, starting with a five-minute qualifying event followed by six digital laps of Italy’s most famous racing circuit. The entire event was free, Dorna waiving all subscription fees until the start of real racing.
Motorcycle racing ’s most famous riders are not the only ones taking to the sim world. Indeed, Formula One has taken things even farther, announcing on March 20 its inaugural Virtual Grand Prix Series. The virtual races will run in place of every postponed Grand Prix. The first event — a half-distance, 28-lap affair of the Sakhir racetrack in Bahrain — was held March 22. Broadcasts will be available on F1’s official Youtube, Twitch and Facebook channels, and are expected to run for 90 minutes.
In a most unusual step, as a result of the wide variety of gaming skill levels among real F1 drivers, the game’s settings will be configured in such a way to encourage competitive driving. Yes, folks, welcome to the world of handicapped F1 racing.
Unlike virtual Motogp racing, however, participation by
Formula One’s actual drivers was pretty minimal, only Lando Norris of Mclaren and Nicholas Latifi from Williams took part in the Virtual Bahrain Grand Prix, though Johnny Herbert and Nico Hulkenberg also put mouse to the metal. The race was won by Formula 2 racer Guanyu Zhou, though the real highlight was Mclaren’s Norris having to perform a last-minute avatar replacement and start at the back of the grid because of “technical issues.” Even in the virtual world, it seems, Mclaren can’t catch a break.
Online racing seems to be getting a warmer reception at NASCAR, which created the official ENASCAR iracing Pro Invitational Series — with TV sports giant Fox Sports airing the race from “Texas Motor Speedway.”
According to a report from The Verge, within minutes of Atlanta’s NASCAR race being cancelled, spotter TJ Majors — a team member who observes the race from a high vantage point and communicates to the team’s driver what competitors are in his immediate vicinity and what their tactics might be — was already planning a replacement esports race.
The inaugural race was called the Replacement 100, and even though Majors originally envisaged it as a way for crew members to stay connected, a few NASCAR racers — including two-time Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. — slipped onto the (virtual) grid.
Majors said there were more wrecks than usual (there’s less penalty for wayward driving in the sim world than on the actual high banking) and one racer was leading until his computer tried to force through an unexpected Windows update. Don’t drivers come up with the lamest excuses?
The race was watched by some 23,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch and, according to The Verge, had more than 70,000 unique viewers over the twohour broadcast.
Such success, minute as it may currently seem, does make one wonder if it’s really wise for established — that should read “old” — racing series to be flirting with technology that someday, probably someday soon, may be their direct competitors. As effective as this exercise in virtual racing replacement may be, one has to wonder who is likely to gain the most from these public relations exercises: an established and hugely popular racing series that already enjoys millions of loyal followers, or the fledgling upstarts suddenly given a stupendous amount of credibility from the very entertainment medium they will one day look to supplant?
Anyone reading this and imagining there isn’t a competition between the ethereal and physical worlds of sports hasn’t been paying attention.
It is already considered “old-fashioned” among a certain demographic — basically our iphone-addicted kids — to distinguish between the virtual and real worlds.
The most telling research I’ve seen of how the two can be conflated comes from Brynn Winegard, retail brainscience expert, the genius behind Cadillac Live, GM’S first virtual dealership showroom.
According to Winegard, electronic brain scans reveal that, while we boomers exercise one part of our cerebrum to control real-world activities and completely another to deal with things we see on screen, our continuously connected progeny actually access the very same portions of the cranium, whether they’re dealing with the real or virtual worlds.
Yes, the iphone has changed the way our brains work in less than two generations. That might not only go a long way in explaining why I personally suck at iracing, but also serve as a cautionary note about sleeping with enemies. Especially those with access to high-speed internet.