{"id":6687,"date":"2019-02-06T05:47:58","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T05:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/?p=6687"},"modified":"2019-02-06T05:47:58","modified_gmt":"2019-02-06T05:47:58","slug":"mclaren-opens-path-for-esports-players-to-become-real-life-f1-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/mclaren-opens-path-for-esports-players-to-become-real-life-f1-drivers\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren opens path for esports players to become real-life F1 drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The times, they are a changin’.<\/p>\n

Just a couple of weeks after we reported on a esports player out-performing a former formula one driver on a real racing track, a giant of the racing industry has realised the potential for a new generation of its athletes.<\/p>\n

McLaren’s director of esports, Ben Payne, has discussed the very real possibility of esports players making the transition into real-life driving as racing simulators continue to develop closer and closer to the real thing.<\/p>\n

The next generation of the world’s best racing drivers could grow up perfecting their craft at home.<\/p>\n

Last month a former member of McLaren’s esports team, Enzo Bonito was able to beat ex-Formula One racing driver Lucas di Grassi<\/a> around a track in Mexico.<\/p>\n

It was not ignored by Payne and McLaren’s talent scouts.<\/p>\n

“It’s not the first rodeo for gamer to racing driver,” he told GamesIndustry.biz. <\/p>\n

“GT Academy has done that in the past, so it’s happened, but it’s the first time it’s happened under an F1 brand.”<\/p>\n

“When we launched Shadow Projects in July 2018, it was an iteration of that program from our perspective. We wanted to try and find athletes for our esports team.”<\/p>\n

Payne talked about the challenges of making the jump from gaming to real-life racing, most-notably the physical toll.<\/p>\n

He still believes that F1 simulation racing asks much more of its players than other titles like FIFA or Call of Duty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“If you and I played FIFA for a few hours, we could stop, have a beer and then pick it up again. <\/p>\n

“But, our guys are more athletes than in a number of esports spaces. I know the big esports teams have nutritionists and all that, but I think simulation racing is different.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just a couple of weeks after we reported on a esports player out-performing a former formula one driver on a real racing track, a giant of the racing industry has realised the potential for a new generation of its athletes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":6639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[14,4,575],"class_list":["post-6687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-f1","tag-featured","tag-mclaren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6688,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6687\/revisions\/6688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}