A look back at the Las Vegas eRace: A mixed debut, but the potential is there
For once, Formula E drivers faced off against sim racers this weekend in a race... that was virtual! Motors Inside looks back at this ground-breaking event, which represents a new approach to motorsport.
« For me, this event is the greatest sim racing race of all time. »
Less known than Toto Wolff or Christian Horner, Dom Duhan is nonetheless a team principal who matters, in the virtual world. Indeed, the man is simply the founder and owner of Team Redline, the largest sim racing organization in the world.
For the uninitiated, sim racing simply refers to online car racing. Created from scratch by highly specialized development studios, games like rFactor, Assetto Corsa, and Automobilista are a delight for specialists. Infinitely customizable, these games host fiercely contested championships. And Team Redline is the reference here with 5 titles in the iRacing World Championship, which is the equivalent of the virtual Formula 1 world championship. In this team, we find the reference driver: Greger Huttu. The Finnish driver began his online career in 1998 on Grand Prix Legends, the first benchmark simulation based on 1960s F1 cars. But the now 35-year-old driver has mostly built his legend on this same iRacing World Championship, with five world champion titles to his name.
Alongside him, Greger Huttu is notably accompanied by real drivers, such as the Dutchman Nick Catsburg (who participated in the WTCC championship in 2016 for Lada Sport), the Englishman Ritchie Stanaway (who competed in the GP2 Series in 2015), and Max Verstappen, the Red Bull driver himself!
But despite this relative proximity between the two worlds, there was still a missing reference event that could bring the aces of virtual racing closer to their real-life professional counterparts. This gap was finally filled on Saturday, January 7. For the very first time, professional drivers from Formula E faced off against sim racing experts on their own turf: video games. Gathered in Las Vegas for a unique eRace, the 100% electric discipline delved into simulators and eSports for the weekend, centered around the game rFactor 2.
For the occasion, the 20 drivers on the grid faced 10 of the best sim racers in the world, using virtual Formula E models. Held within the Mandalay Bay Hotel, this race was one of the highlights of the Consumer Electronics Show, the largest international exhibition dedicated to technological and electronic innovation.
200,000 dollars for the winner of the eRace!
Fascinating, the Las Vegas eRace was nevertheless anecdotal in the course of the ongoing championship, dominated on the track by Sébastien Buemi. This virtual race did not offer any points for the overall standings. But the stakes were still high: a total prize of one million dollars was to be distributed among the various drivers. 200,000 dollars was promised to the winner of the main race!
In terms of equipment, the 30 competitors faced off on state-of-the-art simulators. Ten sim racers joined the 20 competitors from the 2016-2017 Formula E season, after qualifying through four selection races held last year ahead of the real races: Long Beach, Paris, Berlin, and London during season 2. Each of the qualifiers joined one of the 10 teams on the grid through a random draw. It is also interesting to note that five drivers from Team Redline participated in this event, representing half of these participants!
Which gives us the following distribution. In italics are the drivers of the famous structure.
Gregor Huttu (FIN), Panasonic Jaguar Racing
Aleksi Uusi-Jaakkola (FIN), MS Amlin Andretti
Olli Pahkala (FIN), Mahindra Racing
Enzo Bonito (ITA), Techeetah
Bono Huis (NED), Faraday Future Dragon Racing
Graham Carroll (GBR), DS Virgin Racing
David Greco (ITA), Renault e.dams
Aleksi Elomaa (FIN), Venturi Racing
Petar Brljak (CRO), NextEV NIO
Patrick Holzmann (DEU), ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport
It should be noted, however, an interesting link between the real and the virtual. Winner of the mini-championship offered by Formula E, Graham Carroll is also a track driver, having notably won the Scottish Formula Ford 1600 championship in 2015. For fairness, the 30 drivers in the running competed in identically modeled cars, differentiated only by team liveries and driver numbers.
In the same way, all competitors faced off on identical simulators, all provided by the organizer: no personal modifications could be made. Like the real cars, the modeled cars received a configuration of 170 kilowatts for the race and 200 kilowatts for the qualifications. Similarly, three drivers received a FanBoost through an online vote.
From then on, only the talent of these drivers allowed them to widen the gaps and settle at the top. The stage for hostilities was set around a virtual circuit of 4.98 kilometers, run counterclockwise, and featuring 20 turns. Notably, the cars raced on part of the “Las Vegas Strip,” the famous boulevard that runs through the city in the state of Nevada.
Like a real race weekend, the competition format was divided between Free Practice, Qualifying, and the Race. First, the 10 sim racers got accustomed to the equipment and the circuit on Friday, with an initial 30-minute practice session, before the 20 Formula E drivers took over for an identical session.
On Saturday, the last two 15-minute sessions divided all the drivers into two groups. From then on, the sim racers and professional drivers mixed for the first time before heading into the qualifying session, divided into groups of five by random draw, as per the traditional Formula E format. The five fastest drivers then met again to compete in the Super Pole.
In this little game, 4 sim-racers invited themselves to the top… and only one professional driver, in the person of Felix Rosenqvist. The Mahindra driver saved the honor of his peers by finishing in second place in these Qualifications, two-tenths off the pole, achieved by the young Dutchman Bono Huis (22 years old, racing for Faraday Future Dragon Racing).
Behind, an unprecedented qualifying race separated the 20 slowest drivers from the qualifying session, between 11th and 30th place. It was necessary to eliminate the last 10 drivers to form the top 20 drivers participating in the Las Vegas eRace. Among them, there was 1 sim-racer driver (Petar Brljak) … and the remaining 19 drivers from the Formula E field! However, the gap wasn’t that huge since José Maria Lopez, eleventh and first eliminated, missed out by five hundredths from Aleksi Elomaa, 10th and the last sim-racer driver qualified for the Grand Final.
Contested over 14 laps, the qualifying race was won by the Portuguese Antonio Felix da Costa (Andretti Formula E) ahead of José Maria Lopez (DS Virgin Racing) and the other Andretti team member, Robin Frijns. The other drivers who secured their spots were the following: Nelson Piquet Jr. (NEXTEV), Sam Bird (DS Virgin Racing), Mitch Evans (Panasonic Jaguar Racing), Sébastien Buemi (Renault e.dams) as well as the two Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport drivers Lucas di and Daniel Abt (ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport) to complete the lineup.
Back on the race: sim-racer Bono Huis declared winner off the track!
Everything was set for the big virtual race, run this time over 28 laps, with a mandatory pit stop of at least 30 seconds, to closely mirror reality.
Unfortunately, this race was marred by controversy. Initially the winner, Olli Pahkala received a 12-second penalty due to excessive use of the Fan Boost. Surprisingly, the Finn racing for Mahindra used the Fan Boost… for six laps, well beyond the allowed limit! This boost allowed him to find the speed needed to get ahead of Bono Huis, who was leading the race before his mandatory pit stop, which took place in the final laps of the event.
Afterward, the young Dutchman was officially declared the winner of this Las Vegas eRace. He won the maximum sum of $200,000. Second, Felix Rosenqvist confirmed his brilliant qualification by running the entire race just a few strides behind Bono Huis: the Swede was by far the best representative of the professional drivers. Olli Pahkala fell back to third position but still completed the podium. The rest of the top 10 consisted of three other sim-racers ahead of four professional drivers.
4-Enzo Bonito
5-Aleksi Uusi-Jaakola
6-Gregger Huttu
7-José Maria Lopez
8-Sam Bird
9-Daniel Abt
10-Nelson Piquet Jr
11-Sébastien Buemi
Fairly calm, this race was nevertheless marked by a major crash (which we will have the opportunity to detail a few lines further) involving three drivers, all sim-racers: Graham Carroll, Aleksi Uusi-Jaakola, and David Greco. Spectacular images but obviously without any consequences for the physical integrity of the drivers. To console himself, David Greco still pocketed the $10,000 for the driver who achieved the best lap.
A technical configuration to review, a well-presented show!
This innovative race has indeed become part of the global strategy that Formula E has known since its launch in September 2014. After refining the experience in qualifying races within the eVillage, this event has taken on a whole new dimension due to its significance within a major innovation fair; and also because of the amounts at stake.
Streamed live on the official Formula E website via the Twitch platform, the race allowed for the recognition of artists who were previously little known to the general public. It also highlighted the differences between the two categories of drivers. Professional drivers had to work hard to keep up with the best, even though, in addition to Rosenqvist’s second place, there was a noteworthy performance by José Maria Lopez battling at the end of the race with Gregger Huttu. The majority of the Formula E drivers embraced the challenge, and the lap times were quite respectable.
From the presentation point of view, the staging of the event will be applauded, broadcast and commented on like a real race.
However, one might regret the graphic quality of the game rFactor 2, which was not exceptional, far from it. Thus, the race was mainly captivating due to the tension rather than the beauty of the cars and the modeled scenery. In this respect, realism was not felt at all during collisions, with cars passing through barriers like ghosts and magically returning to the track.
Massive accident between Graham Carroll, Aleksi Uusi and David Greco #VegaseRace https://t.co/V8jdljCLFJ https://t.co/j4OhJ0BLzY
— FIA Formula E (@FIAformulaE) 8 janvier 2017
Or even during pit stops: no mechanic has been modeled for the occasion and the car change has not even been represented!
Moreover, technical configuration problems marred both races. Jérôme d’Ambrosio in the qualifying race and Lucas di Grassi before the eRace couldn’t even defend their chances! In this regard, the eRace was also delayed by a few minutes, causing a few moments of uncertainty in the execution. This casts a shadow on a race intended to be the flagship of the eSports automobile community. These errors were notably highlighted on Twitter and the live chat. We were still a long way from the shows offered by top eSports games: League of Legends and Starcraft. To a lesser extent, there is also work to be done to catch up with FIFA, which has been organizing an Interactive World Cup for several years now.
However, these reactions also indicate a debate that positions Formula E as a key player in the revolution of motorsports. Beyond the issues encountered in Las Vegas, the series created by Alejandro Agag must continue in this direction. eSports is a booming discipline, and sim-racing deserves to be included within it. The 100% electric discipline is thus the pioneer of a noble cause: bringing these two worlds of motorsport closer together and giving sim-racing the exposure it deserves.
