Could Esports Be The Solution To Formula 1 Race Delays

Coronavirus Aids Esports: Could Esports be the Solution to Formula 1 Race Delays?

F1 community retires to consoles at home while the coronavirus restricts the Grands Prix from taking place in the real world. Could Esports be the solution to Formula 1 race delays?
Coronavirus has swept its grasp across the globe. While it does remain a big question to everyone involved with F1 how long it is going to take for the first race to begin, all the indoor activities are expected to take a rise in the upcoming days. Esports, in particular, is becoming the new normal for sports fans around the world.
For people who have grown up following Formula 1 and other racing formulas, you can imagine the frustration they would experience knowing they cannot watch their favorite F1 drivers on the racetrack for a while. More than the fans, the disappointment was noticeable following the cancellation of the Australian Grand Prix within the F1 drivers. Even though the cessation of the race event worked mostly in favor of everyone involved with Formula 1, fans and drivers are still anxious to see the racing make a return.
So far, Esports has proved to be a great opportunity for people to keep in touch with the sporting world. F1 is one of those sports that has a very enjoyable feel if played virtually. You get sound effects, visuals and thrills much similar to the ones found in real F1 racing. It goes without saying that virtual racing is in no way as much thrilling as the real racing is. Given the dire circumstances we are currently going through, virtual reality is our best bet to getting the F1 fun.

Esports and the Impact Thereof

Esports is a modern sports category that involves video-games being played by professional teams and individual players. Video-games, in general, nowadays have been very realistic. This realistic nature of many of the simulations of sports has made people rethink the very definition of sport and hence further the boundaries of sports. In today’s world, you can be a sportsperson if you love a certain sport. We have seen in the last few years Esports gather a strong following on the internet.
When we talk about esports, we talk about the diversity it brings to the community of sports. We talk about more inclusivity. Many people hope to become regular F1 drivers but do not have the complete equipment or investment at their disposal to help them move up the ladder. With esports, that dream is now possible because you do not need an expensive race car, tons of fuel or support of a racing team to take your skills to the track. You can do all of your racing practice at home on your system using a virtual reality set-up.
The biggest example of the esports making an impact on racing can be seen in the Red Bull eSports team. Moreover, the physics of these games is getting better with time. That means that a lot of the variables found in a real race are going to be found in the video-games too.

Virtual Reality Versus the Real World

As far as benefits of the virtual reality go, they are huge in number compared to doing stuff in the real world. Despite the overall experience being more fulfilling, the real world is expensive. That is probably because it is real. With virtual reality, you are more focused on developing skills on the mental level. You would still have to train your muscles to be physically ready to race in Formula 1 or play a Premier League match in the real world. Many of the greatest athletes in the history of sports have had the mental strength to conquer greatness. That mental strength is gained when a potentially good athlete creates enough free space in their head to invent ideas about the sport. Esports is all about that first 70 percent of mental strength. The rest is up to the work done in the real world.

Coronavirus Works Up Formula 1

Formula 1, despite their best efforts, could not keep the coronavirus at bay. It all started with the Chinese Grand Prix postponement. Then, the Australian Grand Prix got canceled. As if there was more salt left to rub into the disappointment still fresh within the F1 world, Bahrain and Vietnam Grands Prix also postponed. The obvious assessment of the delays is right per se; health comes first.
Unsurprisingly, eSports is helping the fans stay motivated about F1 while they are at home fighting the deadly coronavirus. F1 2019 was made free to play on Steam until March 18 a couple of days ago. There could not be better timing for this offer to arrive on the internet given how disturbing the last few weeks have been for racing fans et al. Moreover, passionate drivers like Lando Norris and Max Verstappen have set up their equipment for the virtual racing environment and are gaining a lot of attention that could have otherwise been paid watching them compete in the Australian Grand Prix.

Verstappen, Norris in Esports – Could Esports Be The Solution To Formula 1 Race Delays

Max Verstappen competed in an ‘All-star Esports battle’ where he finished 11th. But the biggest F1 celebrity has been none other than Lando Norris. In the Formula 1 pre-season, Norris did broadcast his online battles. However, he was only able to get around 2000 viewers which is pretty low by his standards. In the ‘Not the AUS GP’ esports event hosted by Veloce Esports though, he easily hit the 70k viewers mark on Twitch. To his astonishment, this proved to be the best use of his time while staying away from the track.
After Norris’ success in eSports, we need to ask ourselves could esports be the solution to Formula 1 race delays. The physics is there. The car specs are there. The fans are there. The only people who are not there yet are drivers other than Lando Norris. If Formula 1 arranges an online event like ‘Not the AUS GP’, only this time it is the AUS GP with all the drivers going online to find out who could have won the 2020 Australian GP had it not been canceled, it could prove to be a big deal. Consequently, when the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen would compete, the race is bound to become interesting. Also, the grief caused by the coronavirus just might take the backseat and let the F1 drivers bring the fun back.
Please, leave your comments about the possibility of an esports event featuring all the F1 drivers.