IndyCar iRacing Challenge Ends in Collisions and Controversy

As a non Indy follower, seeing lando’s move was fine with me as he made the corner with absolutely no issues. I get that some are saying this wouldn’t happen in real life, but why race a real life line in a sim if another line is just as good? You exploit to the best you can. Hence the gtsport lap leaderboards too.

The one who actually over reacted was Rahal who just flies under the radar here completely!

But to see pagenaud act like this is just ridiculous. To put his hand up and say he was pitting? Get over yourself my guy you just stated you were going to take him out. Lando went on to say how much effort he has put in. May be no physical injury but the time wasted thanks to a salty man child who can’t stand being beaten by a young talented driver is just awful.
 
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What’s wrong with Lando’s move? he caught him in the slipstream because he was intentionally?? trying to slow him down into the corner to make a mistake, Lando even backed out of the move to avoid touching, there was miles of room for the over two to keep racing around the corner.
 
GTPorsche
Except the money for the TV broadcast, the money the sponsors put into it, the money spent on betting on it.

Yeah, not really much at all if you ignore the money.

Or the time spent practicing.
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There wouldn't be any money if real drivers weren't taking part.

And if we're getting in to money, do we know how much the drivers are getting for taking part in these events?

And lastly, I don't feel sorry for anyone that's betting on iRacing events. Sounds more like someone with a gambling problem. Plus with the amount of people that have lost their jobs in the past months, I don't think gamblers need anyone's remorse right now.
 
Kevstah2004
What’s wrong with Lando’s move? he caught him in the slipstream because he was intentionally?? trying to slow him down into the corner to make a mistake, Lando even backed out of the move to avoid touching, there was miles of room for the over two to keep racing around the corner.
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From a sim perspective none, but in real you wouldn't do that as it's likely going to end in death.
I had no issue with the move, but what happened after wasn't a good look.
 
mustafur
From a sim perspective none, but in real you wouldn't do that as it's likely going to end in death.
I had no issue with the move, but what happened after wasn't a good look.
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Be interesting to see the guys onboard, I bet you anything he deliberately turned right to cause the 1st crash.
 
Very poor sportsmanship by Pagenaud and his spotter. Yup it was intentional. They even gloated about it afterwards.
I expect there'll be repercussions from this.
 
mustafur
From a sim perspective none, but in real you wouldn't do that as it's likely going to end in death.
I had no issue with the move, but what happened after wasn't a good look.
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If Norris had done a real race on a oval I doubt he would have done that. But that's experience that's hard to get without following the sport or driving a real car.
 
B.O.B
What a **** show.
But that’s what the Jimmer (Broadbent) says is entertaining.
I think he finished last today in the virtual GP. I also noticed he crashed out 15 minutes into the 24hr race a day or two ago.
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He finished last because his game crashed on lap 21. Was running in 13th at the time but might have been further up if his clutch hadn't messed up giving him a drive through for a jump start.
And yes he crashed in the 24hr Nurburgring but so did a lot of others. His team finished 6th in class so that's a bit unfair.
He never professes to be the best but to have fun. Clean fun.
Yes he has ****shows but mainly with his mates in Wreckfest and other games (SNOWRUNNER the other day was great)
That's why he's got 466K subscribers. To be invited to drive albeit virtually against current F1 drivers is quite an honour really.

Pagenaud and Ferrucci behaved like kids on Fortnite.
 
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venancio
it wasn't even lando's fault, why get back on track just to do that? I don't get this kind of behaviour on racing games, maybe on FPS.
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True. Lando didn't even make contact with Pagenaud and the other guy in the incident prior to Pagenaud and his spotter plotting to sabotage the event of which the plot was clearly evidenced..
Mistake #1: When plotting to do something malicious never leave your video and mike on.
 
davidt33
True. Lando didn't even make contact with Pagenaud and the other guy in the incident prior to Pagenaud and his spotter plotting to sabotage the event of which the plot was clearly evidenced..
Mistake #1: When plotting to do something malicious never leave your video and mike on.
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That's what's so telling about this whole thing. They know they're streaming and that people heard them. They didn't care and did it anyway.
 
You know what's funny? We commented about and cursed millions of dirty players out there and then you see these professionals doing stupid stuff you just can't believe it!
How can you be save in a public room if the pinnacle of iRacing houses people like this?
 
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theschledy
There wouldn't be any money if real drivers weren't taking part.

And if we're getting in to money, do we know how much the drivers are getting for taking part in these events?

And lastly, I don't feel sorry for anyone that's betting on iRacing events. Sounds more like someone with a gambling problem. Plus with the amount of people that have lost their jobs in the past months, I don't think gamblers need anyone's remorse right now.
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Considering that Pagenaud drives for the guy that now owns the series, the stunt he pulled Saturday could potentially have an impact on future money with the sport. I don't know how much these guys are getting in terms of payment, but these guys aren't driving whatever livery they want, so sponsors are definitely paying for their logos on the cars, and most of the drivers had sim equipment loaned to them for this. Wickens had a company drop their support for the sim rig.

There's been a lot of exposure for iRacing as their numbers increased by 50% since lockdowns began and companies involved in supplying sim racing equipment have been getting exposure from the drivers using their stuff.

These are suppose to be professional drivers, and while this did occur in a game, the propensity that was shown for drivers to wantonly disregard the other competitors doesn't really, and shouldn't sit well when it comes to them racing on track. Ferrucci definitely proved he hasn't changed from his time in F2 and probably shouldn't be in a race car anyway.
 
Tool1312
He finished last because his game crashed on lap 21. Was running in 13th at the time but might have been further up if his clutch hadn't messed up giving him a drive through for a jump start.
And yes he crashed in the 24hr Nurburgring but so did a lot of others. His team finished 6th in class so that's a bit unfair.
He never professes to be the best but to have fun. Clean fun.
Yes he has ****shows but mainly with his mates in Wreckfest and other games (SNOWRUNNER the other day was great)
That's why he's got 466K subscribers. To be invited to drive albeit virtually against current F1 drivers is quite an honour really.

Pagenaud and Terrific behaved like kids on Fortnite.
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I think Jimmy has too much on his plate right now.
He's had a huge surge in subs and (I think) he feels he can't say no to invites, so he's spreading himself too thin.
He looked exhausted at the end of the 24hr.
Next up ...
an opportunity to race against the absolute elite of motorsports (yesterday).
I don't think he has time to properly prepare for these events.
 
I'm waiting for Pagenaud to realize how wrong he was and apologize, but nothing is coming. All this feels so wrong...
Beside the incident, his stream was very interesting during the race, as the three men (Simon Pagenaud, Ben Bretzman and Richard Arnaud) were talking about fuel strategy as the race was progressing.
After Pagenaud talked about taking Lando out, Richard (that coached him on iRacing) said "no... no..." then later "just make sure you to not do a decision you might regret or something" to which Simon answered "I won't regret anything, what are you talking about, i'm racing"

@2:09 in the video, he makes a debrief in French were he shortly mentioned the incident in a very surprising way:
I think that the crash with Norris will surely bring me a lot of following, which can be very very good in terms of communication.
("Je pense que l'accrochage avec Norris va surement m'amener pas mal de suivi, ce qui peut être très très bien en terme de communication")

There's a 16 min of Lorris podcast interview regarding the incident here.
 
A perfect storm of events that has brought online racing to the attention of the general public. Too bad childish gamer behavior will make the casual viewer walk away-no penalty for incidents, not really racing. While tempers and tantrums have always been part of racing, it looks a lot different to the viewer when a driver gets out of a wrecked car and goes after a competitor vs. raging at a screen from the comfort of your gaming room. Not a good look. I think these selfish behaviors are shooting the whole thing right square in the foot.
 
It follows Bubba Wallace who rage quit an online race resulting in a Sponsor withdrawing from his team and Kyle Larson who used the N word live on stream, he got fired from his team. So it may be just a game but at the moment people are watching and it has real world impacts and consequences. Wouldn't be surprised if something similar happens to Ferrucci and Pagenaud.
 
GTPorsche
Considering that Pagenaud drives for the guy that now owns the series, the stunt he pulled Saturday could potentially have an impact on future money with the sport. I don't know how much these guys are getting in terms of payment, but these guys aren't driving whatever livery they want, so sponsors are definitely paying for their logos on the cars, and most of the drivers had sim equipment loaned to them for this. Wickens had a company drop their support for the sim rig.

There's been a lot of exposure for iRacing as their numbers increased by 50% since lockdowns began and companies involved in supplying sim racing equipment have been getting exposure from the drivers using their stuff.

These are suppose to be professional drivers, and while this did occur in a game, the propensity that was shown for drivers to wantonly disregard the other competitors doesn't really, and shouldn't sit well when it comes to them racing on track. Ferrucci definitely proved he hasn't changed from his time in F2 and probably shouldn't be in a race car anyway.
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But again, if you start punishing drivers for something that isn't their day job they're going to stop doing it, and then everything else goes away.

To be clear, I'm not trying to justify either drivers actions. But I don't think they have any contractual obligations to do these events. So coming down on them with real world repercussions just to satisfy a couple of incidents doesn't look good for motorsport. And it'll only make people who dislike sim racing dislike it even more.
 
Nothing from the race stewards yet concerning consequences? I'm very surprised I haven't heard any news of this yet. I would have thought with every race, race stewards review incidences and act accordingly. Surely they would have had time to review and there's lots of evidence.
It's very strange also Bubba faced sanctions for merely dropping out of a race yet others face no consequences for deliberately plotting and sabotaging a race including causing collision taking out the driver who otherwise would have been the race winner.
 
theschledy
And then there's this:

Only a matter of time before drivers start dropping out.
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Probably for the better for some of them, it’s tiring seeing pro drivers make asshats of themselves every week.

If Pagenaud was smart he will just do whatever he’s told, especially with Scott McLaughlin waiting in the wings for a Penske drive. Other than owning the top team Indycar, Roger Penkse also owns the Indycar series and IMS. So I doubt he likes this situation very much.
 
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B.O.B
I think Jimmy has too much on his plate right now.
He's had a huge surge in subs and (I think) he feels he can't say no to invites, so he's spreading himself too thin.
He looked exhausted at the end of the 24hr.
Next up ...
an opportunity to race against the absolute elite of motorsports (yesterday).
I don't think he has time to properly prepare for these events.
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Plus the fact he lost his grandad to Covid 3 days ago.
 
Tool1312
Wouldn't be surprised if something similar happens to Ferrucci and Pagenaud.
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Santino Ferrucci landed a decent drive in IndyCar after; allegedly bullying his teammate in F2 (possibly with a bit of racism), driving his F2 car whilst filming on his phone, leaving Trident without paying his bills, crashing into his teammate on a cooldown lap.

If he can get to IndyCar despite all of that he is not losing his job to what happened in a video game.
 
davidt33
Nothing from the race stewards yet concerning consequences? I'm very surprised I haven't heard any news of this yet. I would have thought with every race, race stewards review incidences and act accordingly. Surely they would have had time to review and there's lots of evidence.
It's very strange also Bubba faced sanctions for merely dropping out of a race yet others face no consequences for deliberately plotting and sabotaging a race including causing collision taking out the driver who otherwise would have been the race winner.
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I'm not gonna act like I'm not biased on the topic, but for me it wasn't hard to see that the Bubba Wallace situation was more about making an example out of a black guy. It wasn't hard to see the sponsor try to milk that moment on Twitter. But I understand that not everyone will see it that way.

I'm not surprised that there isn't any punishment because teams aren't taking these races that seriously. As Josef Newgarden pointed out, the iRacing indycars don't drive like the real cars. Not that it had anything to do with these incidents, but I don't think it's fair to come down on drivers in these circumstances. I get that people are annoyed that some aren't taking this seriously. But I don't understand why every incident needs an extreme reaction to it. And as GOTMAXPOWER pointed out, Ferrucci did a lot worse in F2 and still managed to land an Indycar seat.
 
MikeV27
Probably for the better for some of them, it’s tiring seeing pro drivers make asshats of themselves every week.

If Pagenaud was smart he will just do whatever he’s told, especially with Scott McLaughlin waiting in the wings for a Penske drive. Other than owning the top team Indycar, Roger Penkse also owns the Indycar series and IMS. So I doubt he likes this situation very much.
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If they refuse to drive with respect for the other competitors then maybe they don't need to be participating anyway. Letting it be a free-for-all punt party will chase away drivers too, and the drivers that will scare off could be the ones that would make the racing better instead of worse. These sorts of things happen occasionally in the real thing but it's so much easier to do it virtually with no safety or repair $$ concerns that it's easy to get carried away like the average unconcerned gamer does. I don't think expecting professional drivers to act like professionals is really too much to ask.

The penalties probably shouldn't be nearly as strong as you'd see in the real world since everything else is not at the same level yet(what happened to Bubba seems quite excessive but I still suspect that may have been a "last straw" sort of thing) but intentional wrecking needs to be discouraged somehow, possibly more so when there is no chance of getting hurt or massive repairs to make you think twice.

But of course... when racers are wrecking each other, people talk about it.
 
It should be so dead simple: _anyone_ making an intentional accident has to be banned from the given platform immediately. Further penalties can vary regarding the series, the sponsors, the broadcaster, etc.
All sports' minimum requirement is called sportsmanship. Nobody should be involved in races with the total lack of it. If someone - in addition - is so stupid that he even speaks out his unfair intentions, that's just a bonus, for the fans to laugh him around, then, well deserved: forget him for long.

It is just a shame, that this generation can learn that this moves can be legit after some sneaky story-telling, (or backed up with the money and interests of sponsors.)
It is also a shame that they learn that this moves can be done on a regular basis in Gran Turismo Sport's races for years now, without a ban. Shame.
 
The Sim racing community really needs to walk away from this idea that people need to be banned all the time. It's not a good look.
 

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