Esport – What is Simracing?

In recent years, we have seen the rise of virtual racing simulations. With the power of today's PCs and consoles, simracing is no longer just a simple video game pastime, but another way of hitting the track.

Simracing is a genre in its own right in the world of video games. Here, we don't send you into a virtual world, we try to transcribe reality via the virtual, which is fundamentally different. With the arrival of increasingly efficient steering wheels and pedals, dynamic chassis and ever more sophisticated games, developers are having a field day. For example, the Kunos Simulazioni studio, developer of Assetto Corsa Competizione, was in direct contact with the Blancpain GT Series (now GT World Challenge) teams to use the real data from each car. 

Today, developers travel to the circuits and use the laser scan technique to capture the subtlety of each track to, once again, be as close as possible to reality. Example: the famous Mirabeau bump is today integrated into all titles having the Monaco circuit.

As in real life

Many automobile simulations impose the rule of flags, penalties, compulsory pit stops or even safety cars. And to go even further, there is also the changing weather which allows events to be held under the sun, with a heavy downpour at a given moment, forcing players to choose between returning to the pits or staying on the track. . There can be up to five weather changes during a single event. Obviously, the day/night cycle also exists, as does the grip which varies when the track dries. 

Once in the race, the virtual driver can also act on Traction Control, brake distribution, ABS, radio, pit limiter, engine mapping and all other parameters via his steering wheel. Regarding the set-up, the games integrate all the specificities of a racing car. So if you know how to adjust tire pressure, aero load, springs, shock absorbers, anti-roll bars, etc., you will be able to make a basic setting that is ideal for going fast.

The revolution: online

Today, online competitions (networked on the Internet) are integrated into all games. From your living room, you can join all the simracers on the planet. There are different possibilities such as fast races where you have to do 2 qualifying laps and 5 racing laps against strangers, but also scheduled races with a crew of 3 real pilots for an endurance of 12 or 24 hours with all the real ones. rules of the test.

Believe us, even if it's virtual, when you have done a 30-minute qualifying session and you leave for 1 hour of racing, at 35 on the grid, your heart races like any other. real driver on a starting grid. Simracing also integrates notions of “rating ", that is to say the levels of driving skills (we will come back to this in a future article). Like a young pilot who starts in karting then in the promotion formula, you must learn your skills before playing for the first places. 

It is no coincidence that we find drivers like Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, Bruno Spengler, Romain Monti, Timo Glock and many others. Simracing opens a new path for motorsport lovers. During this period of confinement, try the experience!