Sim Racing: The Future Preserver of Motorsport
As fuel becomes more scarce and expensive, electric racing will become more prominent, but its lacking things we love as race fans.
Formula E is on the rise, and with the launch of the Jaguar I-Pace eTROPHY to run alongside it, electric racing is set to continue to rise as it becomes more relevant to modern motoring. This is all well and good, because racing has a long history of creating innovation that finds its way onto your car at home, but its lacking things we love about racing.
I say this as a big skeptic of electric racing, not because of the racing it produces but rather the ability it has to keep me interested. To me, its not something I ever see myself following as closely as I follow the WEC or Formula 1, for example.
Sound is superficial, but its a crucial component of what makes racing the spectacle it is. Obviously electric cars produce nothing more than a hum and tyre squeal and that doesn't really do it for me. Even Formula 1 has been struggling to win fans over with the sound of the V6, and its resulted in them becoming louder over the years, and soon becoming higher revving to produce something of the sound people immediately think of when they think of Formula 1. In my opinion, the pinnacle of sound in motorsport at the moment is the Porsche 911 RSR with the Le Mans exhaust. I could listen to that all day, and its made myself and many other people fall in love with the car.
Where am I going with this? As the price of fuel becomes more expensive and less relevant to the modern motoring world, it stands to reason that internal combustion engines in racing will become less relevant too. You only have to look at Audi and Porsche's move from LMP1 to Formula E to see that. Here's where I believe sim racing will become more relevant. We've already seen racers successfully go from the bedroom to the circuit so the skills are developed in these games, but where I see things growing in the future is the fact that this requires 0 fuel. The cars we know and love can be preserved forever online and championships can be broadcast to showcase the cars and the racing.
We're already seeing it happening, with live broadcasts of the Formula 1 championship final last year, arguably producing better racing (and more finger wagging) than the actual race the following day and in New Zealand, weekly Project CARS 2 races are broadcast live on Sky Sports! Is it any wonder that Fernando Alonso, Jean-Eric Vergne and Jean Alesi are all involved in racing eSports? This might be because they see it as a breeding ground for potential real world drivers, but it will increase interest in sim racing.
Where sim racing differs from a lot of other eSports is that it can attract a crossover audience. Not just gamers, but race fans can be interested in it and when it produces the racing that comes with a larger pool of potential drivers and can be set up so more of the cars are competitive, interest will soar.
Most importantly though, is that it will offer the nostalgia while simultaneously producing excellent racing. Is it an ideal solution to the decline of internal combustion racing? No way, but its a far better one than the hum of an electric motor.
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