Last updated on .From the section Motorsport
Eracing is getting serious. Sponsorship money is rolling in, and drivers’ reputations are being formed on beanbags (and sim-rigs) across the globe.
As if the world hasn’t been turned completely on its head by the coronavirus, we are now seeing the unthinkable: some of the greatest jobs on Earth being traded.
A Formula E driver can’t be bothered to take part in his own esports race and replaces himself with a sim racer. Before a rock star furloughs himself to train to become a virtual F1 driver.
He is the mountain
After curating F1’s official playlist recently, Simon Neil – lead singer of Scottish stadium rockers Biffy Clyro – has fallen so in love with the sport he’s obsessed with becoming good enough to partake in a Virtual Formula 1 GP.
Not satisfied with gluing himself to a simulation steering wheel and pedals back at the castle/condo/flat, Neil has enlisted the help of Alpha Tauri driver and F1 driving instructor Daniil Kvyat to teach him how to handle himself around the track.
The charge? Teaching the Russian former Red Bull man a few licks on the guitar – presumably to enable him to become a rock star, post F1 career.
Abtsolute joke
So what happened in Formula E’s Race At Home Challenge on Saturday? Oliver Rowlands’ crowning as the first British winner of the nine-round event – streamed on the BBC Sport website, Red Button and iPlayer – was massively overshadowed.
German racer Daniel Abt was disqualified and ordered to pay £8,900 to charity for getting a professional gamer to compete under his name – ironically following what we all thought was a brilliant race in which he almost won.
Mercedes’ Stoffel Vandoorne finally got off pole position brilliantly to lead, after weeks of terrible luck being taken out by his rivals at the first corner. But the Belgian driver battled with whom he thought was Audi-Schaeffler’s Abt through most of the race – it was actually sim racer Lorenz Horzing – the pair swapping positions at the Berlin Tempelhof circuit.
The pair were eventually hi-jacked by the opportunist Rowlands, who drives for Nissan eDams.
Organisers also took away all points won to date by the 27-year-old German, who later apologised: “I did not take it as seriously as I should have.
“I am especially sorry about this because I know how much work has gone into this project on the part of the Formula E organisation. I am aware that my offence has a bitter after-taste but it was never meant with any bad intention.”