Sim Racer Makes Another F1 Upset by Defeating Valtteri Bottas & Mika Hakkinen; Sebastian Vettel Was Victim Last Time

Tanish Chachra | 28/01/2023
Sim Racer Defeats Valtteri Bottas & Mika Hakkinen in The Race Of Champions Round To Eliminate Finland

Valtteri Bottas appeared for Finland in the current edition of the Race of Champions. The event organized in Sweden has been joined by multiple sides to compete. Many big names have joined the competition alongside the Alfa Romeo driver.

Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher joined forces to represent Germany. On the other hand, it’s not only conventional racers who are participating in the event.

Even a set of sim racers joined the event to do the real-time racing. And unexpectedly, they are getting some big success against the top most racers in history.

Also read: Christian Horner Thinks Andretti Does Not Deserve $32 Million Profit if They Enter F1

Valtteri Bottas and Mika Hakkinen got defeated by sim racers

The winner of the sim racing contest of the Race of The Champions, Lukas Blakeley, entered the real competition this year, and while teaming up with fellow sim racer Jarno Opmeer, defeated F1’s only face this year, Bottas, along with two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen.

With this win, Blakeley and Opmeer entered the competition’s quarter-finals. Moreover, it’s not the first time Blakeley has made shockwaves against the F1 drivers.

In 2022, he got famous for defeating Vettel in the same competition. Though, this year, that didn’t repeat as Vettel defeated him in the next round by a comfortable margin.

Can Sim racers have a shot in F1?

Virtual racing is getting as authentic as actual racing, as claimed by Max Verstappen before 24 hours of Le Mans virtual. He admits that sim racers can make it big in real-life racing.

With sim racers now consistently beating in of-season contests, there can be at least a dialogue for them to join. They could be phased in with teams sponsoring them in the feeder series, and if they gain success, they could be given testing and free practice sessions before getting the F1 shot.

While Verstappen claims that sim racers are acquiring equal skills to real-life racers, fitness level is a huge key difference. He claims that a person who is excellent in sim racing can be unfit as per an athlete’s standards, but an F1 driver can’t afford to be unfit.

Therefore, for sim racers to make it big in real-life racing, has to follow an athlete’s fitness regime to tolerate the G forces on the tracks. But surely it can happen.

Also read: Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur Promises to ‘Fight Like Hell’ With Toto Wolff

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Alfa Romeo Mika Hakkinen Valtteri Bottas

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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