“ A
mini car crash at every corner.” That’s how Mark
Webber, nine-time grand prix winner, describes
the battering a driver’s body takes at the wheel of
a modern Formula 1 car.
Why? Physics. Take Turn 13, the first part of
the right-left flick onto pit straight at Montreal’s Circuit
Gilles Villeneuve, where Webber finished in the top five
in each of his past three races there with Red Bull Racing.
Every lap he’d mash the brake pedal, applying 275 pounds
of force through his left foot for just a fraction over
2 seconds, to slow the car from 210 mph to 80 mph in just
400 feet. The rate of deceleration? About 5 g.
To your body, that’s like driving your car into a wall at
10 mph. Every lap. For 70 laps.
I thought about this as I watched the 24 Hours of Le
Mans Virtual on MotorTrend. This digital reimagining
of one of the world’s greatest motorsport events was
deeply impressive: 200 drivers, including real-world
Formula 1 champions and Le Mans winners, located in
37 countries, and racing 50 photo-real virtual cars on a
photo-real virtual reconstruction of the iconic 8.5-mile
Circuit de la Sarthe. They raced through a
virtual night, managed virtual fuel consump-
tion and virtual tire degradation. And when
they had a virtual crash, they were virtually
out of the race.
The GTE class featured virtual versions of
the Chevy Corvette C7.R, the Ferrari 488 GTE, the Aston
Martin Vantage GTE, and Porsche’s 911 RSR. Meanwhile,
the LMP class cars were virtual representations of the
French-built Oreca 07 LMP2 racer, which in real life
weighs 2,050 pounds and is powered by a 4.2-liter natu-
rally aspirated V-8 developing just over 600 hp.
Overshadowed by the faster LMP1 prototypes and not
as visually differentiated as the GTEs, the real-life LMP2
cars have generally been regarded as a supporting act at
Le Mans. This year, though, they were the main event,
and utterly fascinating to watch.
Although the same, the virtual Orecas were not iden-
tical. The software allowed race engineers to alter
suspension settings, downforce levels, and gear ratios,just like on the real cars. For engineers used to setting
up real cars, this was a unique challenge—they were
optimizing against cleverly programmed software, not
the more subtly capricious combinations of ambient
temperature and wind direction and moisture in the
real world. Even so, it’s fair to say that in terms of the
machinery, the 30-car LMP field was the most closely
matched ever to start at Le Mans.
The biggest variable was therefore the drivers, which
meant it was possible to meaningfully compare the
performance of the best simulation racers against top
real-world drivers. The quickest of the sim specialists
were faster than the quickest real-world drivers, Finnish
sim racer Aleksi Uusi-Jaakkola clocking a 3:23.672 lap
late in the race, 1.9 seconds better than the best lap from
Fernando Alonso. But the two-time F1 world champion
shouldn’t hang up his helmet just yet.
Racing is precision geometry, at warp speed. You
need intense concentration and heightened situational
awareness, lightning-quick reactions and calm control,
focus and confidence and commitment, making sure
your braking and steering inputs, your
throttle applications, and your gear shifts
are consistently at or near the limit while
you place your car on precisely the right
part of the track. Lap after lap after lap.
Now, imagine doing all that while pulling
6 g through a long, fast sweeper, holding your breath and
tensing your core like a fighter pilot, your head effectively
weighing 55 pounds, your internal organs all squished
to one side. Or while braking so hard your tear ducts
secrete and splash on your visor. Meanwhile, cockpit
temperatures breach 130 degrees and cause you to lose
up to 9 pounds in fluids during a race, reducing your
brain function by as much as 40 percent. And do all this
while ignoring thoughts of one’s fragile mortality should
any action be performed incorrectly by a split second.
Don’t get me wrong—the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual
showed top-level sim racing can be interesting and
engaging. But it’s nowhere near as hard as the real thing.
And never will be. QNEWS I OPINION I GOSSIP I STUFFThe Laws of Physics
Why sim racing can never be as hard as the real thing
Angus MacKenzie
With much of
the racing world
on hold, virtual
events have
popped up in
their place. The
product has
potential, but it
can never replace
the real thing.The Big Picture
With much of
the racing world
on hold, virtual
events have
popped up in
their place. The
product has
potential, but it
can never replace82 MOTORTREND.COM SEPTEMBER 2020