The World of Sim Racing: A New Era of Competition

It's nuts, it's pretty much exactly what you'd see in a McLaren GT3 car. When we made contact with McLaren, and they wanted us to make a wheel of them, so, they sent us the original cat files of the steering wheel, and the steering wheel is modeled one-to-one to it. The dimensions, the materials, the button pressure, everything is exactly like the original. And of course, the original one is made of fully carbon fiber, which drives the cost quite up a lot. But other than that, yeah. We came up with a replica, which is truly authentic, and gets you absolutely the same feeling.

Racing Sims and Sim Equipment: Getting More Life-Like

Racing sims and sim equipment is getting more life-like than ever before. But what does that mean for all us regular people? Well, with some practice, and I'll be frank, a ton of luck, sim racing could get you behind the wheel of a real racecar. And here's proof.

Back in 2008, Nissan and Polyphony Digital introduced the Gran Turismo Academy. It was a ranked competition, where you went against thousands of players all over the world, to get the best lap with a certain car at a certain track. If you finished within the top 20, you got flown out to compete with other racers. And if you got into the final round, you had a chance to race real cars to determine who would win the grand prize. A 100 percent legit racing contract with Nissan. And this wasn't some low-ball pat on the back, either.

GT Academy's First Winner: Lucas Ordonez

GT Academy's first winner, Lucas Ordonez, raced for Nissan's GT 14 in 2009 and went on to finish second in the LMP Two-class at Le Mans in 2011. Lucas was just a guy who loved playing Gran Turismo with the wheel, and he finishes second at the greatest race in the world three years later. I'm not lyin', man. Sim racing can make that kinda stuff happen.

Fanatec and Formula One: Bringing Sim Racers into the Spotlight

The reason why we are partnering with Formula One is basically, that our brand is pretty well known in the sim racing community. So, we thought, okay. We want to reach a broader audience, and at the same time, Formula One is high tech. I mean, it's all about the best, cutting-edge technology out there.

Fanatec and the FIA: Bringing Sim Drivers into the Pro Draft

This year's Formula One Esports series winner was Brenden Leigh. A 19-year-old dude from Banbury, Oxfordshire. He had been sim racing since he was 13 years old. And got to compete at the race of champions after winning last year's Esports series championship. Brenden had never driven a real car before getting to race in the same venue as racing greats like Hedder Solberg and David Coulthard.

The Rise of Sim Racing: A New Era for Competition

Stories like Lucas Ordonez and Brenden Leigh's, show that sim racing can be a legitimate starting point for a serious career in racing. Obstacles like a huge initial investment and connections in the sport, are no longer relevant if the raw talent is there. I think it's completely plausible that we'll see a Formula One great start their career with a controller in their bedroom, in our lifetimes. Someone judged solely on their skill behind the wheel, and not their pocketbook.

Conclusion

We got merch. We got new shirts. I want one, I don't even have one yet. What the hell? We have a lot more new shirts. That's at Donut Media.com

Thanks for watching Wheel House. We look at the stuff that affects you in the car world every week, so, hit that yellow subscribe button right there. If you wanna know more about racing games in general, we did an episode about that right here.

Check out this episode of Science Garage.

Follow me on Instagram @nolanjsykes. Follow Donut @donutmedia, we post a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff, so check it out.

Roast me out, fam. Be nice, I'll see you next time.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(music and car sounds)- Professional sports, is the mostmeritocratic form of profession.The athletes on the field, the courts,or ice are there, causethey're the best in the world.That's the case in most sports.With one, glaring exception.Racing.That's a problem and here'show sim racing can solve it.(Wheel House theme)In most sports, greatnesscan be achieved by anyone.Basketball only needs a ball and hoop.Baseball needs a smaller ball and stick.And, soccer needs barefootkids with a ball and a dream.Pele, the greatest soccer player ever,learned the fundamentals by kicking a sockfilled with rags, downthe street as a kid.Conversely, motor sportsare prohibitive by nature.Prospective drivers need a carand thousands of dollars formaintenance, repairs, (soundof tools drowns out Nolan).Even at the lowest level, racingtakes a lot of money to get in to.Because of this, motorsports history has likelymissed out on oceans ofuntapped, natural talent.Simply, because the driver couldn'tafford to get behind the wheel.Of course, there's no way to prove this,but it is interesting to think about.Especially, when I imagine myself as thatuntapped potential, andI need Michael Shoemakerto win the 2005 FormulaOne Driving Championship.(dramatic music)That was pretty cool. (dramatic music)Good job, me.What was I talkin' about?Oh, yeah. Sports.In both racing today andpro sports of yesteryear,the roadblock is monetarybut in different ways.Back then, camping pro sports, unpaid,wasn't just for idealistic purposes.But a method of self-preservation as well.Most upper-crust athletesflat out didn't wantto play with working-classpeople because theysmelled like sweat, and that's gross.The rules different sportshad about what you had to wearon the field, and how youhad to conduct yourself outthere, were designed to keepworking-class people away.But, as more and moreworking-class athletesstarted participating,the argument over whetheror not to get paid got bigger and bigger.The concept of amateurism,not getting paid forplaying sports, was very important for theupper-class because thatkept poor people out.Meanwhile, the racingworld was in its infancyand taking a slightly different pathfrom the rest of the world of sports.(dramatic music and sounds)Early racers over inEurope, were a collection ofchampagne exporters, heirs tonobility, and industrialists.So, basically, rich guys.Because of the material nature of racing,it requires that youhave the money to do it.Not necessarily becausethe elite wanted to keepthe sport exclusive,but to be the fastest,you usually just haveto have the most money.There are of course examples ofunderfunded underdogsbeating the rich guys,but for the most part, money wins races.Because of this, thetransition from amateurplayers to paidprofessionals, didn't reallyhappen to racing likeit did to other sports.The act of being paid to playradically changed the world of sports.No longer did athletes have tocome from affluent backgrounds.Now, the best players in the game,could truly be the best at the game.And, they could come from anywhere.(dramatic music)Today, sports can be anavenue out of poverty andallow an individual tomake it out of a badsituation on physical ability alone.Don't believe me?Well, ask Lebron James.- There's no pressure.There's no pressure at all.- Love him or hate him,side note, you shouldprobably love him cause he's a great guy.James is legitimately one of thegreatest to ever play basketball.But, as you might know,Lebron didn't have an easy childhood.His mom was only 16 when she had him,and they had to move around all the time.To make things a little more stable,Lebron moved in with youthfootball coach Frank Walker,who showed Lebron how to playbasketball at nine years old.Honestly, the rest is history.I don't need to tell youhow good Bron Bron is.His nickname is literally King James.As I said at the top, racing is differentfrom other professional sports becauseit takes a lot of dough to get into.There's not that youth league,high school, college topro pipeline for racing likethere is for other sports.So, how can racingreach more working-classkids who dream of going to the pros?Well, I think sim racingcould be the answer.Sure, video games don'tmake you better at sports.It's not like you can play Madden '19or NBA 2k19, and get drafter to the pros.Believe me, I've tried.(beep and background chatter)(beep)Since the beginning of racing history,especially Formula One,motor sports have been a rich man's game.But sim racing manufacturers likeFanatec are trying to help change that.We talked to ThomasJackermeier to find out how.- Up till now, if you wantto be a good race driver,then you had to have money,or connections, or both.Now with sim racing, theteams, the car companies,they have access to ahuge pool of talents andskilled drivers, and to learn consistency,and good reaction, and all that.It's not, it's not that easy.It's much easier to pick oneof those skilled sim races,and make them physicallyfit, than getting asports guy and teaching him racing.So, I think that's a big chance.And we will ...See many more sim races advancingfrom virtual sport into the real one.- You don't hear that veryoften in other sports.Sim racing is unique because what youlearn using a force feedback wheel,actually helps you in real life.And that's not limited to amateur drivers.Pros do it too.- Force feedback use in simulations,is actually showing a little bitmore than you get in a real car.Because the games mapsensations which were notexisting in real cars tobe on the wheel as well.So, for example, you can easily feelover steering, under steering.And that helps you a lot to feelexactly when the tires start slipping.When is ... I meanbasically, racing is allabout to drive as fastthat you're not losingthe contact betweenthe tires and the road.Right?So, if you feel that with astrong force feedback wheel,then you have a real goodadvantage because you knowyou can keep your caralways at that limit.- But sim racing wasn't always like this.It's come a pretty long way.The first racing game to beconsidered a racing simulationby gaming experts, isIndianapolis 500: The Simulation.Released in 1989, Indianapolis 500,featured sweet MS style graphicsand a rockin' Mideast soundtrack.What sets this simapart from games though,is that the developers actually wanted thecars to behave and handlelike the real thing.- We had some, it was some pixels.And, you can barely have anyidea of what you are doing there.We started with verysimple steering wheels,then came force feedback.Now, we are (mumbles) forcefeedback wheels with 25 mute meters.Full cockpits, triplescreens, motion simulators.So ...It's getting closer andcloser to the real thing.- Thomas wasn't lying.These things might as well be real.Check this thing out.It's the Fanatec CSL Elite McLaren GT3.And it's nuts.It's pretty much exactly whatyou'd see in a McLaren GT3 car.- When we made contact with McLaren,and they wanted us tomake a wheel of them,so, they sent us the originalcat files of the steeringwheel, and the steering wheelis modeled one-to-one to it.The dimensions, the materials,the button pressure,everything is exactly like the original.And of course the original oneis made of fully carbon fiber,which drives the cost quite up a lot.But other than that, yeah.We came up with a replica,which is truly authentic.And, gets you absolutely the same feeling.- Racing sims and sim equipment is gettingmore life-like than ever before.But what does that meanfor all us regular people?Well, with some practice,and I'll be frank,a ton of luck, sim racingcould get you behindthe wheel of a real racecar, and here's proof.(techno music)Back in 2008, Nissan and Polyphony Digitalintroduced the Gran Turismo Academy.It was a rankedcompetition, where you wentagainst thousands ofplayers all over the world,to get the best lap with acertain car at a certain track.If you finished within the top 20,you got flown out tocompete with other racers.And if you got into the final round,you had a chance to race real cars todetermine who would win the grand prize.A 100 percent legit, racingcontract with Nissan.And this wasn't some low-ballpat on the back, either.GT Academy's first winner, Lucas Ordonez,raced for Nissan's GT 14 in2009 then went on to finishsecond in the LMP Twoclass at La Mans in 2011.Lucas was just a guy who loved playingGran Turismo with the wheel,and he finishes secondat the greatest race in theworld three years later.I'm not lyin', man.Sim racing can makethat kinda stuff happen.Fanatec is partnered with the FIA.They're basically the highest racingorganizing body in the land.Fanatec and the FIA areworking together to bringmore sim racers into the Formula One fold,with the Formula One Esports series.The first half of the season,sees sim drivers from all over the worldcompete for a spot in the pro draft.Where real F1 teams choosethe drivers they wantto represent them in virtual competition.That's pretty rad.- The reason why we arepartering with Formula One,is basically, that our brand is prettywell known in the sim racing community.So, we thought, okay.We want to reach a broader audience,and, at the same time,Formula One is high tech.I mean, it's all about the best,cutting-edge technology out there.- This year's Formula oneEsports series winner,was Brenden Leigh.A 19 year old dude fromBanbury, Oxfordshire.He had been sim racingsince he was 13 years old.And got to compete atthe race of championsafter winning last year'sEsports series championship.Brenden had never driven a real carbefore getting to racein the same venue asracing greats like Heder Solbergand David Coulthard. (beep)Did I say that right?Coulthard.How do you pronounce David Coulthard?Couldtard--- Okay. I found this on the web forhow do you pronounce David Coulthard?- Sick (Nolan laughs)- Stories like LucusOrdonez and Brenden Leigh's,show that sim racing canbe a legitimate startingpoint dor a serious career in racing.Obstacles like a huge initial investmentand connections in thesport, are no longerrelevant if the raw talent is there.I think it's completelyplausible that we'll seea Formula One great,start their career with acontroller in theirbedroom, in our lifetimes.Someone judged solelyon their skill behindthe wheel, and not theirpocketbook. (snaps fingers)Done. (bleeps)We got merch.We got new shirts.I want one, I don't even have one yet.What the hell?We have a lot more new shirts.That's at donutmedia.comThanks for watchin' Wheel House.We look at the stuff that affectsyou in the car world every week,so, hit that yellowsubscribe button right there.If you wanna know more aboutracing games in general,we did an episode about that right here.Check out this episode of science garage.Follow me on Instagram @nolanjsykes.Follow Donut @donutmedia,we post a lotta behind the scenes stuff,so check it out.Roast me out, fam.Be nice, I'll see you next time.