McLaren, together with Logitech, has launched the "World's Fastest Gamer" competition to recruit new drivers among video game enthusiasts
Are you good at driving simulators? Well, get your resume ready and send it to McLaren. Soon you could be the new simulator driver for a Formula 1 team. No, it's not a joke. But the search started by the English team that is turning to the fans of driving simulators to find the driver of the future.
McLaren, together with Logitech, are launching a competition, called "World's Fastest Gamer". The winner will be offered the opportunity to work in the simulator team for a year. McLaren believes so much in this project that to realize it they have called in Darren Cox. The man behind Nissan's GT Academy. That is, the man who makes simulated driving games to help progress in real racing. Cox said that in recent years the success of initiatives like this has been huge, and that most drivers who come from competitions like this have skills that can't be found.
The importance of drivers
Drivers at simulators are crucial in racing, and especially in Formula 1 where the smallest details make the difference between a winning season and a failing one. In the seventh of the races all the data from the tests are sent to the drivers who have to work out effective solutions for qualifying in the simulator. And the process is repeated continuously until race day. Usually McLaren used to hire its drivers with at least some engineering skills, but in recent times the world of video games is upsetting the hierarchies. Obviously, though, to win the McLaren competition you need specific knowledge and the ability to work in a team. The contest will reward not only the first but the best 10 drivers. The first four will work directly with the team starting this summer, the rest will go to work on projects for the British company's racing cars.