Honestly not surprised, a good friend of mine did the red bull kart driver search and made it far. He has also won a few big Iracing tournaments. For the record, he is an amazing driver and started in karts at I believe age 3
good for that kid. wish him all the best. on another note the title of this thread made my stomach sink because i thought it was related to what schumacher is going through.
Very misleading title. Guy did the Gran Turismo academy thing, beating 60K odd drivers, and then they enter you in a race. He obviously did well, then went to F3 and is now signed on the RB young driver programme, and they entered him to GP3. RBYDP have a crap load of drivers in their portfolio. How many really made F1? Not that many. How many got to stay? Even fewer. I just wiki'd his results. Whilst finishing 6th overall in British F3 (1 podium), that's not very impressive as the standard of driving is not *that* high. In the same year he did FIA F3 euroseries and had no podiums and finished 21st overall. This series is quite competitive, so I don't see him do much better in GP3. In other words, he's most unlikely to be F1 material. Will he get a test? Won't surprise me but it'll stay at that. He doesn't have a mega money factory behind him, as Red Bull simply won't put him ahead of others for a race seat. They've got (much) quicker guys than him. In fairness, he finished 3rd in 24h Le Mans in the LMP2 class. Not a mean feat! ----- Yes simulators can be used to train cheaply. The late Sean Edwards used iRacing and Rfactor almost daily for practice the next track he was racing on.
+2 Dayum! I logged in & almost had a heart attack! Maybe the worst subject line I've ever seen! Good for him. I haven't even looked at Pete's link, but I see no problem with 'training' happening in the virtual world these days. Sims are far & away cheaper than track time..... An ability to beat ~60k others in the sim says he's at least worth a look. Will he make the big league? Probably not, but neither do 99% of other wannabes! even given a huge budget. Cheers, Ian PS, could a mod please change the title to something less scary? Thanks!
Does anybody find strange that nowadays plane pilots start in simulators instead of jumping right into a real plane? No? Then guess what´s probably going to happen in the future with motor racing. Anyway, the first guy who won this stuff of the Nissan GT academy, Lucas Ordóñez, already has raced in real cars (I think he got to F3 before he run out of money) before doing that videogame stuff. In the video game he was not vastly superior to the other drivers. It was in the final stage of the competiton with real cars when he wiped the floor with them because he was the only one who had serious track experience. So it´s not that these guys go straight from the Play Station to the real cars anyway. BTW, I´m not an expert in videogames, but a Play Station with Gran Turismo probably is not the best way of simulating a real car.
A thought provoking tale from Pitpass; May be a little 'tongue in cheek', but I like his rationale...... Also love his reference to being 'run off the road' by Lettuce... Cheers, Ian How the FIA can rid pay drivers from the F1 grid - Pitpass.com
sorry about the title. Didn't think of that! I unfortunately cannot change it now. Btw he was not training on a simulator he was selected based on it. I've played play stations and they are rubbish at car simulations. You can enter a corner all wrong and ... Just not right. Far worse than the way LH got into F1 ... Pete
Also had a lump in my throat! oh yes, definitely good on him! playstation GT academy selects the fastest online drivers who then get invited to some training thing and drive real life cars and expert judges rate and kick others out who will not make it. So he must be something right... (as we can see from his 3rd place finish in Le Mans LMP2!). Having played Gran Turismo, Forza and other (PC based) sims, I do not rate any of the console games highly at all. An hour on Live for Speed in a Formula BMW will teach you more about car control than a month on GT5. The day I switched to PC from console many years ago (GP3 era, with wheel) I never took console serious again. When I played GT or Forza it was to mess about with friends that came over. Console is mostly used for Grand Theft Auto or UFC games. Doesn't hold a candle to proper PC simulators. +1
You got late into that then, I remember the first Microprose Gran Prix game, about 1991 or 1992 IIRC. It was a shock! All those polygons, OMG!! Of course, it´s laughable now, but it was a quantum leap compared to what we had before.
So you get the same Field of Vision as if you're are in the race car itself. Also has headphones built in, but of less importance of course...
So I mentioned this to my father and here is his response: So here we are talking in this thread about a guy that has medocre talent but he and the rest of the grid were comprehensively blown away by Nick Cassidy and yet Nick cannot get a drive. I'm sorry the way they are selecting drivers is all wrong and must be related to their country of origin and sponsorship potential instead of real talent. F1 is undermining it's whole position due to the chase for the mightly dollar all the time. Pete
^ Frankly, there is lots of talent out there, so why not look beyond that to make decisions? As to the PS3 translating to RL, it really doesn't - however, the guys using the PS3 tend to understand that it doesn't, so they will "re-learn" when put in a real car, and may end up shining, whereas someone that came up through say, karting, will still try to apply what they know without being able to reset as easily. Its a tiny % of people that can race and adjust to different things, that is why in modern times you don't see a guy win a F1 title, then jump into the WRC or NASCAR and win a title in both of those.(Kimi) Using a PS3 to find new blood, takes the budget of the driver out of the equation, and so opens up to a larger pool of people to find drivers that are not "specialized", but generally talented instead. An example, NASCAR driver Carl Edwards wiped Michael Schumacher in FWD compacts, yet NASCAR driver Jimmy Johnson got wiped in that same FWD. Jimmy & Schumacher both have a style of liking to get on the throttle early and setting the car up to allow for it.(Telemetry shows this.) Carl's style is instead much smoother and less darty, clearly it worked in the FWD compact, yet Carl got skunked in the next round in a car that wasn't as smooth.
Why not give the guys that are proving their actual ability in real race cars a chance though? It all comes down to where you originate and sponsorship potential. No New Zealander/Fijian/Norwegian/I could go on has a chance, could win every championship and would still be over looked ... but a mediocre kid that's from England does alright in a video game gets the nod. Insane! Pete
While I understand what you're getting at, I still think that true talent will be found. Using your analogy, if you 'dominate' in the Kiwi, Fijian or Norwegian Formula Ford championships, someone will notice. You may have to fight a little harder than an English, French or German guy, but 'junior' jockeys have always had to do that, no matter where their origins. Firstly, you've got to get the $ together, and that's generally pretty difficult for most of them. Do that, move to the UK and win in F3, and you're on your way..... I don't think his nationality has much (if anything) to do with it in this case. He beat out 60K plus others on a sim (or game, depending on perspective). He could have hailed from anywhere, and still been noticed or picked up. A gimmick? Maybe. Let's see what, if anything, he manages to accomplish. But I'll say again, I don't think the fact that he's a Brit is significant at all. Cheers, Ian
