Why motorsport’s governing body is making a step into online gaming

Three years ago the FIA signed a deal with Sony with a view to endorsing a driving simulator and began investigating ways in which to develop an officially sanctioned online competition.

In GT Sport, which features 137 cars - including exotic road cars such as LaFerrari and the Mercedes-AMG GT S and racing machines like the McLaren 650S GT3 - and 19 locations including tracks like the Nordschleife and Brands Hatch, the focus is very much on a multiplayer aspect with two global championships, categories for beginners and experienced game players and regional qualifiers, all based online.

From the FIA’s perspective it’s all about exposing as many people as possible to motorsport.

“I want to make sure that anybody and everybody who has got talent gets an opportunity just to taste the sport to see if they are any good, and things like this are a great step in the right direction,” the FIA’s deputy president Graham Stoker told us at last week’s Gran Turismo Sport launch.

“I’ll give you an example we have more than one billion people living in Africa and 5000 licence holders… we want to change that.

“We need to get back to the days when people could get into the sport easily and to my mind this does it. And what’s good about this now that the partnership with the FIA has come along, you have got to think about how this championship is going to grow.

“It’s proper regulated racing. It’s serious.”

Another aspect of GT Sport that engages the FIA is the introduction of an ‘E Licence’ that you can earn within the game. The FIA plans for it to be possible for gamers to translate that into a licence proper through engagement with national motor sports authorities. The details of this are still in development.

“The FIA Grand Turismo Digital license is something that we have discussed with more than 200 automobile clubs around the world and the FIA over the last three years,” says Gran Turismo founder Kazunori Yamauchi. “Gradually things have been moving forward and at the recent FIA World Motorsport Council there was a vote to actually allow this announcement.

“It’s not something that we’re rushing into. The licence is only granted once you go through a lot of different subjects within GT Sport that cover your manners on the track [and] safety issues. The behaviour of the player is judged from aspects that are required to be safe in real-life racing and only when you have cleared all those pre-requisites are you eligible for that online licence.”

The unfinished version of GT Sport unveiled to the world’s press last week looks gorgeous and plays fabulously, but there are some flaws in this FIA tie-up.

If the aim of the FIA is to reach as many people as possible, what about all those gamers who own an Xbox and play Forza, or the huge PC sim community that are into R-Factor, Project CARS and iRacing?