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 to enhance his skills as a driver. That begs the question — if sim racing helped Verstappen taste so much success, why is it not working for others?
Toto Wolff answered, citing the example of his son Jack, who has just started his racing career in karting. The seven-year-old is an avid sim racer like Verstappen and 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 the kid 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. But he soon realized that the graphics on Jack’s sim-racing game were so good that he couldn’t refute the claim.
However, Wolff feels it is a platform that generally attracts and suits younger drivers.“It doesn’t work for everyone like it did for Max,” he added, citing difficulties the older drivers face while using it.
Verstappen swears by sim racing’s accuracy
From being a 1-Player video game to becoming a competitive arena supported by F1 teams, virtual racing has come a long way. Over the years, not just the graphics depicting real-life circuits have improved but also the haptic feedback a driver receives through the steering wheel. These advancements once led Verstappen to dub driving in sim races as “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.
However, Verstappen also explained the importance of real-world racing experience and how the transition can be a significant challenge for a sim racer.
“I’ve come across a lot of good sim drivers… They know how to go quick, but in real life the speed sensation, the G-forces and just the general force of hitting a brake pedal are different. I know you can train. You can get fit, but you miss the real experience,” he said in a Red Bull video.
While simulators serve as a valuable tool for skill development, they cannot fully replace the experience of real-life racing, and Verstappen knows that all too well. So does Wolff.
