Virtual motors, real racing: The success story of esports

The official series helped draw in star names. While some, including Norris and Verstappen, regularly compete in esports, many were new to the discipline. Bruno Spengler, who usually races a works BMW M8 GTE, tried sim racing for the first time only last year. He now says that it “teaches real driving feeling”, adding: “Because the right racing line in the simulator is also the right racing line on the real race track, I can take many of my experiences in the simulator with me into the real racing car.” Thanks to television coverage, it’s not just drivers who have been given fresh exposure to esports. “I know a commentator who thought esports was stupid but covered one event and at the end said ‘wow, that was a proper race’,” says Nicholls. “Well, yeah. It’s virtual motor racing. The motors are virtual, but the racing is real.”

It almost looks real, too. Modern sim-racing software such as iRacing, rFactor 2 and F1 2019 features incredibly realistic graphics. With the likes of the F1, Formula E, Indycar and Nascar broadcasters using their regular commentators and graphics, the results were impressive. “The F1 Virtual Grand Prix series was the best example,” says Nicholls. “While the game itself isn’t the most realistic there is, when you’re watching Charles Leclerc and Alex Albon fight it out in the cars they really drive, it’s so close to watching reality.”

Esports has also allowed for ‘fantasy’ events. The Race Legends Trophy attracted incredible line-ups: one Indianapolis race featured Fernando Alonso, Mario Andretti, Jenson Button, Emerson Fittipaldi and Petter Solberg, among others.

“A lot of the time, esports is a reflection of the real world that’s not quite as good, which is a fair place to be, but something like the Legends Trophy is the sort of thing you’ve always wanted to see but will never be able to in real life,” adds Nicholls. “Commentating on all those names really was a career highlight, which is quite bizarre when you think about it.”

Esports has also allowed drivers to easily make guest appearances in other series. Verstappen contested a number of Australian Supercars events, while Norris took victory on an Indycar outing at Barber Motorsports Park. It didn’t always end well, mind you, with Norris’s follow-up appearance in a virtual Indianapolis race sparking a major inter-series row. Indycar champion Simon Pagenaud was angered when Norris overtook him in a move that would be dangerous in reality. He responded by deliberately taking out Norris to prevent him from winning.

There were other times when esports’ failure to totally reflect reality caused issues for viewers. Huge crashes can barely cause a stir, competitors occasionally disappear mid-race when their internet connection plays up and the hugely successful Le Mans Virtual event required two race stoppages while computer servers were reset. Such discrepancies can jolt viewers from reality, and the sheer visceral thrill of watching real motorsport is missing. Still, as an approximation of the real thing, it’s close – and people have watched.

The first official F1 esports event, the Virtual Bahrain Grand Prix, reportedly attracted a global TV audience of some 1.2 million (including more than 200,000 on Sky Sports in the UK) and 3.2 million online viewers. The eNascar iRacing Pro Invitational Series race ‘in Texas’ attracted 1.35 million TV viewers in the US – a new record for any esports event. The Formula E Race at Home Challenge was shown by the BBC. And Torque Esports says its Race All-Star Series gained 4.75 million worldwide TV viewers through coverage across 71 international networks, including ESPN in the US.

Such numbers do need to be taken in context; TV ratings dropped as virtual seasons went on, with the final eNascar event drawing just 688,000 viewers. And they’re dwarfed by what real racing achieves; when the Nascar season resumed last month, a peak of 6.32 million watched the first race.

But TV ratings alone don’t tell the full story. Esports is hugely popular on online streaming services, particularly Twitch. At times, Norris attracted more than 70,000 viewers to his personal video stream. “It’s really enjoyable,” he says. “Being able to speak [with fans] and answer questions is really nice. It allows people to see more of what I do. They get to see how I drive and how I act and react to spinning, doing well in qualifying and everything.”

In an age when drivers are frequently dismissed as dull, corporate mouthpieces, esports platforms have allowed them to showcase their fun sides. “Norris was known as a character when he got into F1, but for me Leclerc was the big one,” says Nicholls. “At Ferrari, he’s obviously closely looked after, so seeing an F1 title favourite with his guard down, racing dressed as a banana, has been quite mad. To see behind the scenes in a Ferrari driver’s house is a rare occurrence.”

Yes, Leclerc really did tackle a race wearing a banana costume. Dubious sartorial choices aside, most of the real drivers have taken their esports outings seriously – and when they haven’t, there have been consequences. Just ask Daniel Abt, who didn’t enjoy sim racing and struggled in the virtual Formula E races as a result. He roped in a professional sim racer to take his place for an event and, when the ruse was uncovered, the outcry led to Audi sacking him from his real job.