The McLaren Formula 1 team just hired the World’s Fastest Gamer

Every day the world of "e" racing is getting more respect as the line between it being "just a video game" and the real thing gets ever thinner.

Article Here>>>> The McLaren Formula 1 team just hired the World’s Fastest Gamer

That's great for him! I don't think anyone who has been paying attention to Motorsports the last 10-15 years doesn't realize what an asset a great sim driver is.

I think it's a bit misleading to bill him primarily as a gamer...going from national-level karting champion to race car test driver (virtual or otherwise) isn't exactly an unorthodox career path. The only thing unusual about it is a bit of sim racing in between. There have been a number of "rags-to-riches" stories involving sim racers without zero IRL racing experience getting into racing careers though, I'm not saying it hasn't happened. One was featured on one of the GRM live streams a while back.

GameboyRMH said:

I think it's a bit misleading to bill him primarily as a gamer...going from national-level karting champion to race car test driver (virtual or otherwise) isn't exactly an unorthodox career path. The only thing unusual about it is a bit of sim racing in between. There have been a number of "rags-to-riches" stories involving sim racers without zero IRL racing experience getting into racing careers though, I'm not saying it hasn't happened. One was featured on one of the GRM live streams a while back.

10 years since, kind of a big deal.

Like all the RK fanbois getting wound up about him going back to Williams, he hasn't driven an F1 car in almost a decade. 

Time matter when considering the development pace of race cars. 

I really have never tried SIM racing, I have tried REAL Racing, I Totally Get How seeing all the Pretty Colors Flying By can seem like the same BUT Feeling the Physical side of it cannot be replicated,Some day I will give it a Shot when I get the chance.

I'm 33, grew up with video games, and I'm still waiting for it to 'mainstream'. Even in an era when billions of people now play electronic games on their phones, people don't make the connection that it's all under the same umbrella whether you're crushing candy or shooting monsters on a pc, etc. I play a game called Overwatch that's a competitive shooter. It's the only 'fix' i seem to need on an almost daily basis outside of my car activities (and GF). The game considers me 'Platinum' level which sounds good but doesn't feel good when i constantly run into bigger fish whose skill level far exceeds my own (after 20 years of shooter game experience, mind you!). The harsh reality is that at 33 i'm already past retirement age for E-sports. I can feel myself slowing down the last several years. It happens behind the wheel, too, and it's depressing. I think people who never engage 100% of their reflexes and hand-eye coordination can go a lot longer before realizing they're getting old, but in the gaming world I am well aware of it. I still have a ton of fun and can always transition to genres where two decades of experience doesn't get trumped by a decade less of age. 

I consider it beyond question that i became a better 'fast' driver due to video games. Reading every highly informative sidebar in Gran Turismo at age 14 was a great primer for high performance driving, and living in a low density area let me explore the performance envelope and relate the virtual experience to real world physics in a pretty safe manner. I never damaged a lick of anyone's property out there besides my own! I'm a pretty good driver, which comes out every time i turn a wheel at autocross but is most obvious to me by the fact that i can drive the way i do (hard to quantify to a reader) and have never hurt anyone or seriously wrecked a car while doing it for the last 19 years. Luckily, driving a car in anything but top leagues of vehicle capability and competition is massively less mentally demanding then competitive gaming. I still go circles around a city of lemmings 2 million deep. But, i can still detect that some of what i do behind the wheel is getting slightly more dangerous as my abilities fade. I catch myself in more little 'mistakes' of detection or judgment. At some point i'll have to make a call that driving the way i learned to when i was sharp is just not going to work anymore, and retire some of my antics to the racetrack only.  For safety. Due to age. 

WoW And I am 66 yo. but do keep an Eye out for someone that may have the Life Passion,  But will always feel they FIRST must turn a Faster Lap Than Myself.Lol

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GTXVette said:

 

I really have never tried SIM racing, I have tried REAL Racing, I Totally Get How seeing all the Pretty Colors Flying By can seem like the same BUT Feeling the Physical side of it cannot be replicated,Some day I will give it a Shot when I get the chance.

Sim racing is not real racing but it is a fantastic substitute.  The brain can be tricked in to feeling things that don’t exist. Simple shifts of center of mass while “driving” a sim will trick the brain in to feeling g forces around a corner.  I have done both and by far prefer the real thing but sim racing is great fun. Accept it for what it is and not for what it is not and a whole world of fun is out there for you.  

Our own Spoolpigion has said that he was getting back in n to sim racing as he noticed that it kept him sharp. About six months later he was national champion at the run offs. The opposite of that is Matt aka Sauce on ps3. He is an active autocross driver and will take cars that I tune in GT6 and run two seconds faster than me.  

I think it is hard for people to accept that sim racing and real racing complement each other. Both help each other be better in both. 

McLaren putting a sim driver on staff for testing purposes is a very public acknowledgement Of sim racing’s potential benefits.  

and I know you are right there is no way I am as Sharp as I once was, Hard to admit,  But I left a Key word out of my last post so the truth is, yea, I do want My car to be the best Possible       even If I'm Just watching.

As my 96 year old god father told me recently. 

Getting old is not for the young.  

I am in my 50s and I can feel my reactions fading a bit.  Sucks.  

Vigo said:

The harsh reality is that at 33 i'm already past retirement age for E-sports. I can feel myself slowing down the last several years. It happens behind the wheel, too, and it's depressing. I think people who never engage 100% of their reflexes and hand-eye coordination can go a lot longer before realizing they're getting old, but in the gaming world I am well aware of it. I

This. In my 40's now. In my early 20's I was a force to be reckoned with. Now I play CS:GO and pubg daily and am completely outmatched. I am painfully aware of how much slower my reflexes and eyesight have become :(

So my understanding of driving sims... especially "fixed base" ones... force the driver to "catch" acceleration cues visually, since you don't have the g-loading to "feel".

Backing this out to look solely at the "GRMer"... I wonder if this gives two benefits.  The first might be that once the brain is "taught to see (or focus?)" on acceleration cues, it's able to detect them an integrate them faster then processing the same signal through body & inner ear motion?  This would be similar to "being ahead of the car" in the 'common racer vernacular"

The other benefit I could see is honing in on getting the mind clear of other thoughts, and focused one the task at hand.... I.e aiding in entering a state of "flow"... since the sim environment could help reduce the number of distractions, and encourage that focus... which once strengthened carried over to the track?

I also seem a lot of the benefits of having a superior sim/test driver for an F1 team... where they're out there trying to find "edge/corner cases" to optimize past their competitions within a "traditional spending budget"

Then again, the team needs to spend a pretty penny to have worthwhile data to back up that simulation.  

Yes sim racing is much more visual. I like to say your eyes get you to the corner and your a$$ gets you through the corner. 

Ya Know It could be Kids Now days Stay in the House Playing Games Instead of Outside Exploring the world  and Catching Snakes or watching Andy Griffin.

Or how 'bout doing all of the above?

my oldest was out digging in the dirt in Mount Airy just yesterday, after playing an iPad part of the way down from D.C.  

In reply to Armitage :

The older I get, the faster I was.

True story:  

My niece: "Poppo, Eric and I are getting engaged."

My dad: "That's great. What's is it you said Eric does?"

My niece: "He's a professional athlete."

My dad: "What's his sport?"

My niece: "He's a gamer" 

There is a sense in which mental athleticism is ultimately more sustainable then physical athleticism.  It's a slightly mind-bending concept and it may deserve a new word, but professional gamers are often working just as diligently, tediously and self-disparagingly as any other type of 'athlete'. 

sleepyhead said:

Or how 'bout doing all of the above?

my oldest was out digging in the dirt in Mount Airy just yesterday, after playing an iPad part of the way down from D.C.  

 That is Better Than  'ARE WE THERE YET'

A 401 CJ said:

True story:  

My niece: "Poppo, Eric and I are getting engaged."

My dad: "That's great. What's is it you said Eric does?"

My niece: "He's a professional athlete."

My dad: "What's his sport?"

My niece: "He's a gamer" 

True story: I watched a popular twitch streamer get a $100 donation last week for going to take a dump in the middle of a match.

Gamers are hilarious. There is almost no PC ruleset in being a 'streamer' until you start working for someone elses team.