Le Mans to Run a Virtual 24-Hour Race in Place of the Real Thing

[GlamFM]

And that´s it. Overall a really great event. Congrats to everyone involved.

This should give sim racing another boost.

 

[Firehound427]

SPOILER: Race winners below

Spoiler

Congratulations to the crews of the #1 Rebellion Williams eSport and #93 Porsche eSports Team cars for their success in the Virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans!

 

[Bloodytears]

Amazing, and very professional race. Didn't regret watching.

Interviews with Le Man legends were very cool addition!

 

[Fabr_123]

This was the best virtual race ever!

 

[MSZ]

This was the best virtual race ever!

The presentation is very good for what it is. Obviously though we would all prefer the real thing.

 

[Touring Mars]

A gripping finish to a great event - of course it didn't all go perfectly, but in the main it seems to have hit the spot.

Big congrats to the top finishers, but also to all of the organisers and competitors who brought together a very enjoyable event.

-

It is 6 years to the day since I was at Le Mans with the GTPlanet crew... very happy memories, loved it and would very much like to go back. One of the commentary team in the race last night said 'If you even get half a chance to visit the actual race, then take it...' - I'd definitely second that... while I may get to go back at some point, going with a bunch of fellow enthusiasts was a real treat.

 

[Nessy]

It's the first ever e-sport racing event I've ever watched, and i'm surprised by how good it actually was. I usually try and watch as much of the real thing on tv, and found myself doing the same with this. I think the commentary really helped give it an immersive feel, along with the stewarding.
Felt quite dynamic. 👍

 

[Morgoth_666]

It was quite fun. I wasn't really wanting to watch because of outside reasons but I kept getting drawn back to it. They had a few issues which are of course different than real-world issues and you'd like to see them worked on... but they certainly didn't have any more issues than you expect in the real thing. Or more safety car. It's too bad rFactor doesn't apparently have anything for LMP1 but it was of course nice not knowing who was going to win in advance, and there were several good battles right down to the end.

Commentary was good what I watched, the legend interviews gave it a "normal" feel and were entertaining even if I'm sure a few of them don't really "get" simracing(and they don't have to). They did a good job of doing sort-of-pit-lane interviews and even had a few people on that actually knew what's what in the sim world which was quite refreshing. I'm just not sure what the purpose of stopping to show a concert in the middle of it was, I know they always have one at the race but that's a diversion for those who are bored of the race or never cared about it in the first place. I'm not surprised they did it though.

 

[kjeldsen]

The Racing was a real as it gets, the computer and hardware issues at home, server problems and game code was the Le Mans Variable that added that extra spice that made everything unpredictable. Most of the time i was watching Jimmy Broadbent, it was a pleasure, as always.

And it gave a very real view of how Le Mans racing is from the pits and in the car.
Their team gave them bad info on tactics and driver change, they had to find it out for themselves, they had issues with hardware setup, and here for example, Jimmy isn't prepared to jump into the car as disaster strikes and they have to change driver..



It was great!

 

[Bloodytears]

I guess the star is a guy who changed a rig mid race. IMO, I'm not going to forget this for long. What a good laugh and an example of preparedness. He said he even tested this situation before the race, so this was so smooth. You never know! Especially at 24 hours race. So brilliant guy, but sorry, have forgot his name...

Found this moment!

 

[Dan Hill]

The Racing was a real as it gets, the computer and hardware issues at home, server problems and game code was the Le Mans Variable that added that extra spice that made everything unpredictable. Most of the time i was watching Jimmy Broadbent, it was a pleasure, as always.

And it gave a very real view of how Le Mans racing is from the pits and in the car.
Their team gave them bad info on tactics and driver change, they had to find it out for themselves, they had issues with hardware setup, and here for example, Jimmy isn't prepared to jump into the car as disaster strikes and they have to change driver..



It was great!

I watched Jimmy's stream too but missed about 8 hours when I slept (and missed most of Robert Wickens stints).

Jimmy had a birthday to remember. Hitting 500k subscribers on YouTube with half hour of his birthday to go, while also having to rush to replace Robert Wickens after his wheel issues. Fair play to Robert for dealing with 100% FFB twice especially one handed through the corners.

I have to say I was really impressed with the broadcast. It really did feel like watching a real world 24hrs of Le Mans and some good interviews as well with some legends.

 

[kjeldsen]

I watched Jimmy's stream too but missed about 8 hours when I slept (and missed most of Robert Wickens stints).

Jimmy had a birthday to remember. Hitting 500k subscribers on YouTube with half hour of his birthday to go, while also having to rush to replace Robert Wickens after his wheel issues. Fair play to Robert for dealing with 100% FFB twice especially one handed through the corners.

I have to say I was really impressed with the broadcast. It really did feel like watching a real world 24hrs of Le Mans and some good interviews as well with some legends.

Yeah, and then Robert did a 4xstint? during the night, because there weren't anyone to replace him.. crazy!

 

[Dan Hill]

Yeah, and then Robert did a 4xstint? during the night, because there weren't anyone to replace him.. crazy!

I missed his 4 stints as that was when I was sleeping. I saw Robert's first 2 attempts when he had the wheel issues but went to bed not too long after Jimmy took over from him.

 

[redhed17]

I watched a lot of the race, and had the official stream and Jimmy Broadbent's stream on at the same time for most of it. I was impressed with how the official stream took the whole thing as seriously as if it were the real life Le Mans.

It sadly may be a highpoint for sim racing that may not be replicated or bettered, as because of the global situation, and the effect on real life races around the world, there have been a lot of real life drivers doing sim racing for fun, but also from a business pov, I doubt many of these people will continue when race tracks open up, travelling becomes easier, and events start to happen again.

It was great to see Jimmy Broadbent hit 500k subscribers. He was around 4k down at the start of the event, and I'm not sure he he thought, but obviously hoped, it would happen. To do it at possibly the biggest sim race to date, and possibly ever, an iconic race too, and also coincidently on his birthday, must have made it almost perfect.

I say almost perfect because at the actual time it happened, he wasn't able to enjoy the moment, as there were problems with team mate Robert Wickens sim set up changing the wheels force feed back to 100% forcing him to quickly get ready to get back in the race after his stints. Whilst some drivers may have been been able to do a few laps, slowly, whilst a replacement driver got ready to take over, because Robert was driving at night, mostly with one hand, because of the accident which has left him paraplegic, there was an understandable rush to get him relieved as quickly as possible, and Jimmy was the only one of their three drivers available at that point. Sadly I didn't see how it worked out for him driving through the night.

I have to say that break in the game whilst understandable at an online event, was well timed after Rubens Barrichello seemingly pleaded with the organisers to let his team back into the race, after team mate Fernando Alonso ran out of fuel on track, and so had been disqualified. Yet they were let back in after the restart, and rather than being I think 60 laps down, were only six laps down, just behind the last LMP car. I'll leave that one there.

Kudos to IndyCar driver Simon Pagenaud for having the professionalism, and also the funds it has to be said, to have a second rig ready should any problems occur, and problems did occur.

At one point I was mainly watching the official stream during the night, there was one person spamming the chat asking for the commentators to shut up for a few laps which I found funny.

Overall a great event, and as I said earlier, possibly the highpoint for sim racing as world events change to allow real life racing events to start again. Fingers crossed a virtual Le Mans is maybe taken as seriously next year.

 

[gregc]

I watched a lot of the race, and had the official stream and Jimmy Broadbent's stream on at the same time for most of it. I was impressed with how the official stream took the whole thing as seriously as if it were the real life Le Mans.

It sadly may be a highpoint for sim racing that may not be replicated or bettered, as because of the global situation, and the effect on real life races around the world, there have been a lot of real life drivers doing sim racing for fun, but also from a business pov, I doubt many of these people will continue when race tracks open up, travelling becomes easier, and events start to happen again.

It was great to see Jimmy Broadbent hit 500k subscribers. He was around 4k down at the start of the event, and I'm not sure he he thought, but obviously hoped, it would happen. To do it at possibly the biggest sim race to date, and possibly ever, an iconic race too, and also coincidently on his birthday, must have made it almost perfect.

I say almost perfect because at the actual time it happened, he wasn't able to enjoy the moment, as there were problems with team mate Robert Wickens sim set up changing the wheels force feed back to 100% forcing him to quickly get ready to get back in the race after his stints. Whilst some drivers may have been been able to do a few laps, slowly, whilst a replacement driver got ready to take over, because Robert was driving at night, mostly with one hand, because of the accident which has left him paraplegic, there was an understandable rush to get him relieved as quickly as possible, and Jimmy was the only one of their three drivers available at that point. Sadly I didn't see how it worked out for him driving through the night.

I have to say that break in the game whilst understandable at an online event, was well timed after Rubens Barrichello seemingly pleaded with the organisers to let his team back into the race, after team mate Fernando Alonso ran out of fuel on track, and so had been disqualified. Yet they were let back in after the restart, and rather than being I think 60 laps down, were only six laps down, just behind the last LMP car. I'll leave that one there.

Kudos to IndyCar driver Simon Pagenaud for having the professionalism, and also the funds it has to be said, to have a second rig ready should any problems occur, and problems did occur.

At one point I was mainly watching the official stream during the night, there was one person spamming the chat asking for the commentators to shut up for a few laps which I found funny.

Overall a great event, and as I said earlier, possibly the highpoint for sim racing as world events change to allow real life racing events to start again. Fingers crossed a virtual Le Mans is maybe taken as seriously next year.

I watched and thoroughly enjoyed a lot of the race, like you both the official stream and Jimmy's. Just a couple of things to add a bit of context...

- the Barrichello/Alonso car wasn't the only one given the chance to rejoin behind the last placed LMP - all competitors who had dropped out of the race due to technical glitches (and Alonso ran out of fuel because of a glitch in the game that made him serve a penalty when he was already in the pits for fuel) were given the same opportunity at the end of the red flag periods.

- Absolutely kudos to Pagenaud for having a second rig ready to go (and to have practised hot swapping it too!) but it wasn't bought for the occasion - he mentioned in his interview that he'd borrowed it from a friend just in case.

You may well be right that this will be an all time high point for sim racing, however what this event (along with some of the other ongoing ones that have attracted big name drivers) has done for the profile of the whole thing shouldn't be underestimated, and I too hope that there is an appetite for doing it again next year, and going forward.

 

[Abyss1]

I’m watching it now and I gotta say the time duration effects are lovely...the night driving is perfect for me

Fernando being allowed back in was a good idea.

full rig swap in middle of game was amazing and made me laugh hysterically.

I was telling a friend that gt sport should do this with Nurburgring 24 a couple years ago, same concepts and everything...so happy to see this work