Motorsport: E-sport a new direction for Formula 1

Golfer Ian Poulter against McLaren driver Llando Norris against a member of One Direction was motorsport’s new reality.

As a Formula One driver, One Direction’s Liam Payne makes a great pop star.

Two weeks ago the idea that television viewers might be getting their weekend sporting fix from watching a computer game would have been laughed off — particularly by anyone over the age of 30.

But a lot has changed in a fortnight. With the sporting calendar on hold, Sky Sports decided that not only was it worth screening a race between a group of Formula One drivers and other assorted celebrities, but that it was worth putting the coverage of Sunday’s virtual Bahrain Grand Prix as its main attraction.

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Golfer Ian Poulter against McLaren driver Llando Norris against a member of One Direction was as good as it got in live sports broadcasting. With social distancing in place, the drivers locked wheels from the comfort of their respective homes over a 28-lap race around the Sakhir circuit, half the normal distance, under the floodlights.

Before that came an 18-minute qualifying session where the drivers seemed to have a great time chatting to each other through their simulators.

Norris was booted out of the game early on and was not able to log back on. Poulter, a keen petrolhead often seen at races, drove a Renault and had a collision with former F1 driver Stoffel Vandoorne.

Chris Hoy, the six-time Olympic cycling champion who has competed in the World Rallycross Championship, had two crashes and was told by his rivals to “stick to cycling”.

As for One Direction’s Liam Payne, he seemed to think leaving the track was part of the game and qualified miles off the pace. It was left to the Austrian Red Bull driver Philipp Eng to claim pole position.

For those involved in the highest level of the sport it perhaps made a pleasant change from cramming into a tiny F1 cockpit. Certainly, after the season was put on hold until the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in June, it will have been a relief to get down to some actual racing, even if it was only using the PC version of the F1 2019 game.

The appeal, though, stretched beyond the modern generation of drivers. Norris was joined by Nicholas Hamilton, the brother of the six-times world champion Lewis. Williams rookie Nicholas Latifi was joined by Payne.

Former F1 drivers also took advantage of the chance to turn back time and relive their past, with Vandoorne and Esteban Gutierrez lining up for Mercedes, Johnny Herbert racing for Alfa Romeo and Nico Hulkenberg in the seat for Racing Point.

Of course, the F1 drivers, past and present, that were involved would have an advantage, given that this is what they did for a living, sort of. So, to ensure there was a level playing field, the configurations of the machines were set up to make it harder for the professionals.

With the first seven races of the Formula One season cancelled, the sport has decided to replace each one with a virtual race, held on the same day as the actual race would have been. Alternatives will be raced for Vietnam and the Dutch race, which did not feature on the calendar, or the game, last year.

Formula One has been involved in e-sports for a while and who can blame them. Microsoft has said there are more than two billion gamers globally, with the video game industry estimated to be worth $US120 billion. The new owners, Liberty Media, have been trying to tap into this growing, younger market, since they took over the sport at the start of 2017.

For the past couple of years they have run a professional e-sports F1 series, with hosts and commentators, and they all took up their familiar spots as the race was shown on Sky Sports Main Event, YouTube and on F1.com.

THE TIMES