Highly sophisticated racing simulators are increasingly common these days. What racing drivers can’t learn prior the race itself can be experienced and absorbed on these high-tech platforms. This allows drivers to be highly competitive regardless of the track they are going to face next.
Racing drivers aren’t always convinced these expensive systems offer a huge advantage over consumer-grade video games, though. Back in June, Lewis Hamilton said as much, claiming he could learn just as much on a PlayStation. It looks like Hamilton has a brother-in-arms in Matias Henkola, at least according to recent interview with Motorsport-Total (helpfully translated by GTPlanet member Roxanne).
Henkola took part in the 2016 24 Hours of Nurburgring in May. Alongside George Richardson, Max Sandritter and Kazunori Yamauchi, the team finished 18th in class and 22nd overall in the #101 BMW M6 GT3. The car itself was recently spotted in the Gamescom build of GT Sport.
In the interview, Henkola is asked specifically about the importance of racing simulators. He claims it’s much wiser to start a racing career in the virtual world these days:
“There are many talented drivers who start out on PlayStation. If I would begin with motorsports today, it would be wiser to buy good equipment and a simulator – such as PlayStation, Gran Turismo Sport or a steering wheel with pedals – instead of a Go-Kart or a small Formula car.”
Gran Turismo fans will be very familiar with that suggested career path: the GT Academy initiative has enabled numerous players to go from gamers to racers across the globe.
Henkola also admitted to using simulators to polish his driving skills and handle the usual training routine prior to each race. It’s particularly interesting to hear about the value of simulators from the financial side of motorsports:
“Yes, I have virtual free practice sessions each race weekend. It helps to feel the rhythm of the track and understand weight transfer in curves. (…) In motorsports, everything is really expensive! Everytime you go out on a track, it costs a pretty penny. With a simulator, you can explore different settings at first and – as long as they work – you can transfer them into the real car.”
As technology continues to improve in racing simulators, drivers will be able to drive digital recreations of circuits that are closer and closer to the real thing, down to the very last detail. Henkola suggests that’s exactly the case with GT Sport: during testing, the team found their lap times in game were within 1.5 seconds of the real world times.
It will be a while before players get a chance to try to match the team’s real-world lap times for themselves, however: GT Sport is now earmarked for a 2017 release date.
A big thank you to Roxanne for providing the translation! You can check out the entire interview in English in this forum thread.
See more articles on 2016 Nurburgring 24 Hours, BMW, Nurburgring Nordschleife, and Simulator.
….I dunno, it all sounds like he’s promoting GT:S to me.
Frankly, I think gaining a racing experience in a go-kart environment is better for a young driver-to-be. With a game, it’s impossible to feel the g-force, the tactile feedback not just through the steering wheel but the seat itself, and the vibrations and the noise and the atmosphere of the actual racing.
Surely, all of that are something you need to get used to in order to become truly competitive. Yeah, you can learn the layout of a foreign track via a simulator but then will you be able to learn its hidden bumps and changing conditions accurately?
I’m thinking, no.
Does anyone know where the ADULTS play Project Cars online. I am so tired of trying to have a decent race without some @#$%^&*ng idiot taking me out just for fun.
GT 7 cannot come quick enough …..will buy it just for the feature where it will get rid of the kids playing silly games…..AAAARGHH
Project Cars needs a serious update…. you have the starting grid with cars parked on other cars roofs…guys pulling away while the lights are still red…..at the moment it is absolute chaos….no fun playing at all…..
Just venting….
Adults play PCars online? Someone should write a news article about this!
It’s way too obvious this guy is affiliated with Gran Turismo / Sony / PD.
Also the statement is quite idiotic. What is the best preparation to become a race driver? Not karts/formula or games/simulators, it’s karts/formula AND games/simulators.
I think that is implied, tbh. It’s not as if they select the GT Academy TT winner, and just whack them straight in a race car, is it? GTA is specifically a combination of virtual, then real.
He’s also advocating playing with a wheel if you want a career in racing. Surprised none of the pad users aren’t in here raging about the injustice of it all…lol.
Hope this game fail and not coming out! Kaz, too much ideas and we need wait years…
Yes… And Hamilton winner of several F1 Championships states the opposite…
I believe him a bit better than this guy…
All silly advertisment for delayed forever GTS?
When i started playing racing games back in 90s i Always thought it was a game and fun and now some random guy tell me that stupid things? Cmon!
Is that a peace sign or a f.off one lol
A simulator might teach you a track, or if you’re lucky some handling techniques, but it doesn’t teach you the consequences of your actions.
On a good day that might be a heroic lunge up the inside, but more typically it’ll be another racer shouting at you in the pit or nursing some bruising.. Karting and any actual race environments are going to give etiquette training you’ll never get in a sim.
A very biased article I think!
PD, I don’t know if you’re reading these comments but my PS3 broke a year ago and so I got a PS4 instead of another PS3. I was really looking forward to playing a GT Sport Demo while waiting for the game’s release, neither of which happened as promised. I’ve played Dirt Rally and Project Cars but have not liked either. I’m wondering now whether I should have gotten an Xbox One and a copy of Forza instead of my PS4.
I understand I’m free to spend my money somewhere else and that you’re free to take as long as you want to make a game. But you should also understand that even though I think you’ve made some of the greatest racing games ever, none have been perfect. So if you’re taking all this time to deliver something perfect, it will not happen. Making fans wait years and years and years and years just to play a game is just insane. Also, just the fact that I have taken this time to leave this comment shows that I still care. But if you fail to shake things up and change, there may come a time when I stop caring.
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I do agree. Just wait for another game if it comes out, another TXR would come to mind.
And when GT 7 or GT Sport ( what ever it is called ) gets released the existing wheels on the market will not work with it…….these guys ( PD ) has got everybody by the short and curly’s…GT Sport will come out with its own specially made wheel…..I am willing to bet my money on it. The focus in the SIM RACING world seems to be shifting towards the more rewarding driving experience and what better way to have the best experience than to have a game made with its own wheel……Just my thoughts.
Well they did preview that new Thrustmaster direct drive wheel at Copperbox.
The problem with using sim racing as a spring board is that it requires teams/manufacturers to first even pay attention and second actually have a program set up to help with the transition and further development. Plus you have to be 16-18 in most cases to even participate in the competitions.
Compare that to karting where by the time you reach 16 you are probably at least racing something like a Spec MX-5 or a similar entry level race class.
I do think sims can serve as a great tool for learning tracks though.
GT Sport looking good even with the delay.
This is for the kids, though. Us “old guys” won’t be able to make a career out of it…LOL
@johnnypenso. This is why I said “necessarily”, as I was explaining my opinion on the industry as a whole.
He also specifically said “With a simulator, you can explore different settings at first and – as long as they work – you can transfer them into the real car.” He, like I, was talking about the advantages of Sim racing as a whole as well..
Thousands upon thousands of race drivers produced through karting, including many World Champions over the past 40 or so years, and a handful of racers produced by sim racing. Methinks having Kaz on his team has introduced a little bias into his opinion…lol.
Probably because decent sims have only existed in the last <10 years, and karting has been around for 60.
Or because real racing is a better training ground than simulated racing.
This is true enough now, but the only way to judge this accurately will be to wait for another 35 years or so and judge how many successful racers have been produced by sim-racing when compared to kart-prepared racers now. If sim-racing produces a world champion by then, it’ll be a different story.
I know this seems unlikely now, but if you compare the F1 cars (for example) of 1975 with the F1 cars of today, the gulf between them makes the idea of a sim-racing prepared WC not altogether preposterous.
I will have to agree with Johnny on this. Having done quite a bit of gaming and lots of real world motorsports, The only thing that I feel that is transferred from gaming would be track layouts. The sense of speed and overall feel of the car just isn’t there. Somebody that is good in a real car will always beat somebody new to the seat.
I wouldn’t even say “a handful of racers produced by sim racing”. Produced? More like “found”. The people that have gone on to win GT Academy were born with the hand eye coordination and if they developed a desire to be a racer — a real love for motorsport — they would have been just as successful as if they went the traditional way, karting, small formula, etc. The problem is, it is so hard to get “discovered” because people don’t have the money involved to get involved with karting or any other type of real racing.
In fact, I would bet you that if it were possible to take all of the GT Academy winners thus far and transport them back to childhood, but now provide him with the resources to get involved with real racing, they would be even more successful than they are right now. There are some people born with certain skills that others are not born with. One of the biggest hurdles in life is finding out what you’re really good at.
Old boy JP is right, of course, if we’re talking about the past, but the point here (snarky implied bias aside) is that this is for the future.
And @ALB123 – surely being discovered is much less complicated and reliant on finances (Hamilton’s old man had to remortgage the house) and other stuff in the virtual world, because you can do it at home (initially) and the times and wins are all that matter. It’s a democratisation of the process, and that can only be a good thing.
There’s no substitute for actual racing on an actual track with an actual vehicle and, IMO, success on the real race track in any discipline, will always be more highly valued by any team in the process of recruiting vs. virtual racing success, all else being equal. The experience of pushing buttons and turning in a toy steering wheel while sitting in the comfort of your living room is in almost no way comparable to actually being in a race vehicle, be it a kart of a car. The only reason we are even having this conversation is because of GTAcademy which shows that, with a lot of money, an entire team dedicated to their success and a specialized training program behind them, someone who is a good sim racer can make the transition to real cars. No one else offers that kind of package and, after 8 years of setting the example, no one else seems interested in the idea either. GTAcademy and it’s graduates seem much more the exception than the rule. When people en masse begin transitioning from the simulator to the race track successfully, on their own merits and without winning a contest, I’ll be a convert. The only person I would recommend this path to is someone who can’t afford to go race karts, in which case, they have no choice anyway.
I dunno man, I can see Ford/Forza getting in on this too at some point.
Anyway, it’s just another avenue for people to get into real race cars. If they’re good racers, who cares how they got there?
As I’ve said before, and should be plainly obvious: they do, funnily enough, still have to master the basics of actual cars!
And I think it’s cool for everyone who enjoys sim racing to see these GTA guys succeed. It should be applauded, in my opinion. Why put such a downer on it?
Sorry, not sure what you mean. I don’t view having a discussion about the merits of the news article and the information contained as a downer whether one agrees or disagrees.
I don’t think sim-racing “produced” racers too. Its more like found. Take a look at those finalist in GTAcademy. Majority of them had real racing experience just no platform to advance so they take their chances at GTAcademy. It is just a stepping stone for them. Nothing More. You can take flugplatz corner in nordschleife @ 200km/h, try doing it first hand IRL. I don’t think anyone can overcome the fear and the G
Yeah, nah. There’s a handful of drivers that have become successful at motorsport based largely on a single marketing campaign. And then there’s every other driver who has become successful at motorsport by starting at lower levels and working their way up.
Simulators may be a valid method, but statistically you’re better off just starting to race and gitting gud.
Change happens. This “new” process of becoming a professional driver doesn’t have enough history for the statistical proof, yet that doesn’t mean it will never become another (more affordable) gateway into professional racing.
@Imari. Oh no doubt, that the bulk of it is still the “conventional” road up. However, what he’s saying is to not necessarily, replace the traditional methods of aspiring to the top, but to accomadate it. Whose to say you couldn’t do both, especially for the people who can commit the traditional way in the first place.
Also, let’s not forget, the whole Sim Racing method is still at it’s infancy. It may have been around for years for guys like you, me, and the hardcore Simmers here on GTP but, I feel like this is getting bigger n bigger in general and can’t imagine where it will be in 10 years.
He specifically said, “it would be wiser to buy good equipment and a simulator – such as PlayStation, Gran Turismo Sport or a steering wheel with pedals – instead of a Go-Kart or a small Formula car.” Instead sounds an awful lot like replace to me.
It must be opposite day ;) what better way to learn how to drive and how the car is going to react in certain situations than to DRIVE THE FRIGGEN THING? I use a simulator when I want to have fun and screw around, not to teach me how to drive…
I learned how to drive with GT.
And I’m not talking about what Menkola says to the letter. I’m only talking about simulators and how they relate to teaching someone to drive on the track with and without competitors. We all know it’s a different story when you’re racing as opposed to hotlapping. Or are we only talking about cruising around a course at a set speed limit?
How many of these guys really came through gaming though? I bet some if not most already did Karting. I will never believe a race driver is created through a game. These people would have the same skill set having never touched a game. I think understanding racing lines comes from years of watching racing or playing all kinds of racing games growing up rather than one racing game. Of course im talking about people who have never been on a real track.
If Real Racing is subject in a textbook. I think simulator just guide you through chapter 1, the basic of understanding of how the car react and basic theory, while i think a most low end kart would probably last you till chapter 4-5.