Max Verstappen made his F1 debut at the tender age of 17, and just a year later, registered his first-ever race win with Red Bull. Since then, he has continuously improved by engaging in sim-racing outside of the sport to enhance his skills as a driver. That begs the question. If sim-racing helped Verstappen taste so much success, what is stopping others from following suit?
Toto Wolff answered through the example of his son Jack, who has just started his motor racing career through karting. Seven years old, Jack, who is also an avid sim racer like Verstappen, uses the platform to familiarize himself with different tracks.
“My son is seven years old. He has a kart simulator at home. He races against other drivers online. There are four relevant tracks in Italy. He had never driven on one of them before, but he knew it from the simulator. Then we took part in a race there. He goes onto the track and is immediately the fastest,” Wolff told Auto Motor und Sport.
jarmo opmeer to formule1:
“max is kind of the founder in F1 in terms of sim racing. If they want to get to his level, they don’t have any other choice [but to get into simracing], otherwise you won’t get good enough.
I think everyone will agree with me that Max has just a… pic.twitter.com/H9RvcK8LOL
— nini (@SCUDERIAFEMBOY) December 13, 2024
Wolff recalled a conversation with Jack, where Jack mentioned how he ‘knew’ a particular track, despite never having been there before. The Mercedes Team Principal tried to correct him, stating that he only knew it from the virtual world. However, he soon realized that the graphics on Jack’s sim-racing game were so good that he couldn’t refute the claims, which were backed by real-life results.
Unfortunately, Wolff admitted it is a platform that generally only attracts and suits younger drivers. Citing the difficulty older drivers face in taking up sim racing, he confessed that “it doesn’t work for everyone like it did for Max.”
Max Verstappen swears by sim racing’s accuracy
From once being a 1-Player video game to competitive motorsport supported by F1 teams, virtual racing has come a long way. With passing time, not only have the graphics depicting real-life circuits improved but also has the haptic feedback a driver receives through the steering wheel. These advancements once led to Verstappen dubbing sim races ’90 percent accurate’ to real racing.
“You really do miss the G-force. And in real racing, a lot relies on what you feel through the wheel. I must say, though, that simulators are getting quite accurate — I would say it’s now 90 percent accurate to a real racecar,” he told the Washington Post.
Given the comparability, the Dutchman believes a sim racer can jump into a real F1 car and be competitive. While he admits it would be tough to match his seasoned counterparts given the physicality of the sport, getting there is still possible.
