Interview with Matias Henkola from Team Walkenhorst about GT Sport

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http://www.motorsport-total.com/meh...ber-playstation-als-kart-kaufen-16082604.html

This is a interview in German with Matias Henkola from Team Walkenhorst about GT Sport. He drove also the BMW GT3 Version on the latest 2016 24H of Nürburgring Race.

If there is any interest, I can translate the Interview in English. The title is already a Little bit funny since Matias recommends to Talents that they should buy a PlayStation instead of a Kart :) Also he describes how he and Team Walkenhorst helped Polyphony Digital in the Development of GT Sport.

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Roxanne
 
It's a rough Translation made quickly. If I have more time, I can post a better Translation :)




GT-Driver Henkola recommends to racing talents: "Better buy a PlayStation insetad of a Go-Kart"

Team Walkenhorst-Driver Matias Henkola explains how his Team helped Sony to develop their Racing Simulation Gran Turismo Sport "as realistic as possible" - Also he explaines his preparations for a Race in real life on the PlayStation

More than 78 kilometers (48.5 miles) accounts three laps on the complete track from the Nürburgring including the Nordschleife. If Matias Henkola drives them with his BMW M6 GT3 from Team Walkenhorst in real life and after that on Sonys Racing Simulation Gran Turismo Sport on PlayStation, then the Lap Times differs only about one Second. The finnish Race Driver explaines in this Interview, how this works, why he prepares his Setup also on the console and why he gets stunned about the closeness to reality.


Motorsport-Total.com - Matias, you know the BMW M6 GT3 from both Gran Turismo Sport and from Real Life. Do you feel on the PlayStation that this is "your car?"
Matias Henkola - It is indeed realistic. We drove three laps at the 24h Race of Nürburgring and then we did the same on the Playstation. The gap was about 1.5 seconds! (Editor's Note from Motorsport-Total.com: The gap between the first and the second place from the qualifying in 2015 amounted 1.631 seconds - for one lap). What you can do with the car in real life is also possible on the simulation. It's perfect.

Motorsport-Total.com - Does the PlayStation belongs to your racing preparations?
Matias Henkola - Yes, technically I have a "virtual free practice session" for each race weekend. It helps to internalize the "rhythm" from the tracks and to understand their weight shifts in curves. I drive only on dry weather conditions because I want to know where my limit is. On the Nordschleife, you always drive on your limit on wet conditions.


24h Race: Developer from Sony played the race engineer

Motorsport-Total.com - Are the fine tunings from the real car and the car in Gran Turismo identical?
Matias Henkola - Right down to the last detail. Even we from Team Walkenhorst assisted them. At the latest 24h Race, we had so much sensors built in our car like no other Team before. Our race engineer was a Developer from Sony who normally works for them. But he also brought us some experience from the Japanese Super-GT series. So we worked together on the car settings to bring them into the game.

Motorsport-Total.com - Do you try different settings on the PlayStation, so you can transfer them to the real M6 GT3?
Matias Henkola - In Motorsport, everything is "really really" expensive! Everytime when you drive on the track, it costs a pretty penny. With a Simulation, you can explore different settings at first and - so long they work - you can transfer them into the real car.

Motorsport-Total.com - What's about the tracks? The Nordschleife is extremly long, there are a vast and different number of road surfaces - are all of them rendered in Gran Turismo Sport?
Matias Henkola - Gran Turismo Sport is the very first Simulation which I played, where the different sections like the "Karussell" really works. That curve is really strange because some parts are build with cement instead of tar. But the Developers built them perfectly into the game. I don't know how they was able to do this but in the game, it feels exactly like in reality. They matched the toughest curve in the minutest detail.


Henkola punishes himself: 30 minute breaks after each Crash

Motorsport-Total.com - Do you think that such racing games can establish a alternative and supporting way for the upcoming talents? With the GT Academy, there was already a similar project...
Matias Henkola - There are many talented drivers which getting started on the PlayStation. If I would begin with Motorsports today, it would be wiser to buy good equipment for a Simulation - such as a PlayStation, Gran Turismo Sport, a Steering Wheel and pedals - instead of a Go-Kart or a small "Formula Car." It's such easier and the Simulations are really good! You can drive all day long, learning the basics and then you can go to the real track - which you know it already backwards.

Motorsport-Total.com - Why is someone, who has fast lap times on the PlayStation, inevitably not so fast in a real car?
Matias Henkola - When you know how a real car works, then it is easy to implement your driving style to the simulation because you know already how each parameters will affect your setup. Looking at it the other way around, you have to familiarize with the physics, the different weather conditions and you need to learn how to handle other cars which are lapping you. For all this, you need to drive on a real track.

Motorsport-Total.com - What's about such things like risk assessment or anxiety?
Matias Henkola - When I drive in a Simulator, I drive like in real life. If I dump the car at the guardrail because of driving to risky, I take a break of 30 minutes. It feels like cheating for me, when I go on after a crash. But when you drive on the Nordschleife in real life, you don't get such often the chance for a clean lap without other traffic by perfect weather conditions - so it happens that you exaggerates while driving.
 
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Hundreds of professional racers got their start in karts. Most F1 World Champions of the last 30-40 years were karters first. A handful of guys have made the transition from gaming into racing but only because Nissan specifically sought them out which is a lot different than gamers showing mad skills and racing teams and sponsors seeking them out on their own merits. Only when racing teams and sponsors begin looking at sim racers on their own merits in more significant numbers will be be able to say that sim racing is a reasonable path into motorsports. All due respect to Matias, but I think his opinion is a little biased due to his team association.
 
Johnnypenso
Hundreds of professional racers got their start in karts. Most F1 World Champions of the last 30-40 years were karters first. A handful of guys have made the transition from gaming into racing but only because Nissan specifically sought them out which is a lot different than gamers showing mad skills and racing teams and sponsors seeking them out on their own merits. Only when racing teams and sponsors begin looking at sim racers on their own merits in more significant numbers will be be able to say that sim racing is a reasonable path into motorsports. All due respect to Matias, but I think his opinion is a little biased due to his team association.
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I have to agree the only gamer turned racer who I would consider to be world class is Norbert Michelisz, the GT Academy athletes have achieved good things but the same could be true of most other silver-rated drivers if they were given full works support and driver training from people like Johnny Herbert who has won Le Mans.

That doesn't mean I'm saying gaming doesn't help racers but I'd imagine that is more useful for working on racecraft (I don't like to use him as an example since he is a terrible accident waiting to happen but Max Verstappen used to play sim games just to rehearse overtakes). Maybe as games improve in realism and karting continues to increase in cost we'll see more Michelisz's coming through.
 
Remember years ago the number 1 sim racer, Greger Huutu had a go at real life racing for the first time? It didn't go well. Ignoring that it made him sick the bigger issue is that his sim racing habits translated over to the real car, stuff that you just cannot do in a real car but got away with in a non-perfect sim.

Sims are a tool to learn some aspects of racing, they've a long, long way to go before they can be a complete training tool.
 
I've basically made it through gtacademy relying mostly on what I learned from sim racing, I had zero racing experience and have driven a Manual car twice before the finals, you learn a lot but like stated below not enough.
 
Samus
Remember years ago the number 1 sim racer, Greger Huutu had a go at real life racing for the first time? It didn't go well. Ignoring that it made him sick the bigger issue is that his sim racing habits translated over to the real car, stuff that you just cannot do in a real car but got away with in a non-perfect sim.

Sims are a tool to learn some aspects of racing, they've a long, long way to go before they can be a complete training tool.
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What happened to him ?

I read that Max Verstappen is a member of TRL and very active playing ? He's now the youngest F1 GP winner.
 
Ridox2JZGTE
What happened to him ?

I read that Max Verstappen is a member of TRL and very active playing ? He's now the youngest F1 GP winner.
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What I said, he brought his sim racing habits to the real car that would quickly break it if he carried on. There is a video of it somewhere.

Yes Verstappen is but he didn't start his career in a sim so not relevant to this.
 
Samus
What I said, he brought his sim racing habits to the real car that would quickly break it if he carried on. There is a video of it somewhere.

Yes Verstappen is but he didn't start his career in a sim so not relevant to this.
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I'l look for the video, curious :)

Max not relevant ? I thought it's about preparing/practice in a sim for real experience or it's specific only on GTA ? Not sure what sort of games Max played on TRL, but his sim racing experience should have helped him in some way :)
 
Ridox2JZGTE
I'l look for the video, curious :)

Max not relevant ? I thought it's about preparing/practice in a sim for real experience or it's specific only on GTA ? Not sure what sort of games Max played on TRL, but his sim racing experience should have helped him in some way :)
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I meant purely in relation to the idea of buying a game instead of a Kart. Max driving in Sims is no evidence that is a good idea, he started in Karts.
 
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GOTMAXPOWER
That doesn't mean I'm saying gaming doesn't help racers but I'd imagine that is more useful for working on racecraft (I don't like to use him as an example since he is a terrible accident waiting to happen but Max Verstappen used to play sim games just to rehearse overtakes). Maybe as games improve in realism and karting continues to increase in cost we'll see more Michelisz's coming through.
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This is one of the areas where I think simulation is actually valuable. The differences physically between driving a real car and driving a computer attached to a desk are huge, even if it's a perfect simulation. But practising race craft is of real benefit. Being able to repeatedly practise aggressive and defensive moves can be helpful, especially without significant physical and financial cost.

It's one of those things about great drivers. They're not only fast, they're incredibly good at putting their car in exactly the most annoying place for their opponents. You've gotta learn that somewhere, and I suspect that it works almost as well in a simulation as on the track.
 
Samus
Here is the full Gregger Huttu video



Skip to 5:50 if you want to pass over the introduction.
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I remember this and then they put him in a real car in one of them and said he was laying down competitive times, but his body was completely unfit for it and he was quite heat stressed after.
 

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