Does F1 Esports Have What it Takes to Compete with Real-Life F1?

Many of us have probably imagined at some point in our life that we are professional race cars or formula 1 drivers. Whether this has been when you’ve visited an arcade and you play one of those car games with an actual steering wheel and gearbox, or if it’s in a more modest setup at home, it doesn’t matter.

It’s become common in recent years to see traditionally in-person sports became adapted to the digital medium. Other major titles like Madden, NBA 2K, and FIFA are much-loved series which have structured and sponsored professional circuits, allowing players to become esport-athletes, respenting real-life franchises and teams like superstars Lebron James and Mo Salah do.

Indeed, online casinos were frontrunners on this trend. Blackjack is one notable example which has flourished as a digital sport, validly competintg, if not surpassing, it’s in-person counterpart. In general, the popularity of the iGaming experience is due to both the quality of the games, the faster speed of play, and the convenience of playing on a variety of devices. Providers like Casumo offer NetEnt roulette games, themed-slots, and blackjack to their customers allowing the tradition of casino games to continue in this new form.

How do the worlds for professional F1 Esport players differ from that of the real-life F1 drivers? So are there similarities, and could Esports transition do the real deal? We will explore that in this article; let’s dig down and see.

The Performance of the Cars

When Esport players are streaming and playing F1, a frequent question is about the cars they are driving and their relative performance to the real deal cars. Here the answer is quite simple. They are not. F1 Esports players don’t use the same car like those used in real life. With that said, though, there is room for players to customize aspects of the car to make it more similar. Things that can be changed include downforce level and angles of the suspension, just to name a few things.

Close Games

If you’re an avid F1 watcher, then you’ll know that the races can be very close. The event is noteworthy if the cars are within a second of each other. Now let’s consider how this differs in Esports. Here we are talking about super-tight times.

It is not unusual that the entire top ten qualifying cars are separated within tenths of a second. Moreover, there are cases where drivers are qualifying with hundredths away from medal position but instead end up 8th in the grid. It’s super competitive, and the fields are unbelievably tightly packed.

The tightly packed field makes the margin of error razor-thin, meaning that the slightest mistake could have devastating effects on the entire outcome of the race. It’s similar to real F1, but the margin of error is much smaller in Esports.

Losing the rear for a moment on an exit of a corner could be the end of it. Getting the front-wing tapped into the first turn? Then goodbye. You are skating on thin ice. With that said, these conditions prep drivers for getting as close to a 100% performance as possible.

Concluding Remarks

We can certainly conclude that the video game industry has come a long way in a very short period of time. The fact that this topic is even being brought up shows intrigue in gamers crossing over to real life. After investigating a bit further, we can also see that there are similarities between the games. With that said, it’s still hard to translate to the real deal, but in a few years, when video games are even more realistic, we might be there. For now, however, there’s still a disconnect.