The recent Gran Turismo World Series Final in Barcelona gave us a chance to catch up with Gran Turismo series creator Kazunori Yamauchi as part of a short round-table session.
We’ve already heard about his thoughts on the success of Gran Turismo 7 — which saw a doubling of the active player count after its “Spec II” update in October — and how the series continually takes on new challenges such as the Vision Gran Turismo program.
Naturally, with the event being the flagship esports final for the title, the subject of motorsports and esports cross-pollination and integration came up — and how he sees the future of sim racing.
“When we did GT Academy in 2008, during that time the social situation was that no one knew if a sim racer can become a real racing driver,” said Yamauchi. “And we proved that through GT Academy that that is possible.”
“Then after that period, drivers in F1 — like Max and Charles, Carlos, Lando — a lot of them spend more time on simulators than they do in real cars.”
That is with mixed results though. While nobody can argue with Max Verstappen’s sim-racing credentials, as part of the famous Team Redline outfit, he has occasionally made headline news in esports for the wrong reasons — including a rage-quit and outburst earlier this year during the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual where he branded the event “a clown show”.
Nonetheless, as Yamauchi points out, the three-time F1 world champion is part of a new breed of drivers who are as comfortable racing in sims as they are on the track. We’ve even raced some of them in previous GT World Series events, although GT ambassador Esteban Ocon was not really on the same piece of track!
“So now there has been a convergence there of worlds,” continues Yamauchi, “and I think now we are entering a third period in which e-motorsports and esports have to become even more immersed together with real world motorsports. […] But real motorsports has a history of over 100 years now, so change for that industry is not as easy. […] What is needed of the motorsports world now is to make it easier for sim-racers to get into.”
This all certainly has echoes of the as-yet unrealized FIA Digital License, first proposed back in the early days of Gran Turismo Sport. It would have seen game proficiency replace the written, theory part of an application for a beginner’s level race license, although it seems that Yamauchi’s ideal scenario stretches further:
“Then it will become more natural for motorsports as a whole. People in the motorsports world keep talking about grassroots motorsports, but if you really put thought into what is grassroots racing, that is something they should realize that needs to be integrated.”
We have, of course, seen drivers making the step from virtual to reality before.
British racer James Baldwin combines Assetto Corsa Competizione championships with real-world GT3 drives — and was drafted into a team for the 24 Hours of Spa in order to provide sim-racing support as well as driving duties. Compatriot Lucas Blakeley won the F1 Esports Pro series in 2022 and then beat Mika Hakkinen at the 2023 Race of Champions.
Gran Turismo players have seen their own success, even without a boost from GT Academy.
Perhaps the most significant example of that is Igor Fraga, who won the first Nations Cup in the FIA Gran Turismo Championship back in 2018. Although Igor already had some experience in karting and real-world driving, winning the high-profile esports championship took his professional racing career to the next level. He would go on to win the Toyota Racing Series championship in 2020 and was a regular on the podium of the Super Formula Lights circuit in Japan in 2023.
Nevertheless, it’s still a challenge, even for those who have shown their immense talent and performance translates from virtual to reality. It is, perhaps, a testament to just how difficult real-world racing can be, and how much room the sport has to grow and change.
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