Many F1 drivers have fans online, and some viewers simply like to watch drivers do different things.
On the past weekend, Zhou Guanyu, the test driver of Renault F1 team, won a race championship-but not offline, but in the online virtual “Bahrain Grand Prix” organized by F1.
On March 20th, F1 (World Formula One Championship) officially announced that due to the outbreak, the first seven games of the new season, namely Australia, China, Bahrain, Vietnam, Netherlands, Spain and Monaco Grand Prix, all It will not be held according to the original schedule. At least until June, it is impossible to resume the F1 race.
F1 officially launched a remedy for the disappointed audience: organizing an F1 e-sports event. Julian Tan, head of F1’s digital industry creative and e-sports department, said: “As other major sports leagues in the world cannot be played, now is the time to highlight the benefits of e-sports and showcase incredible technology.”
This e-sports event uses the PC-based “F1 2019” game as the platform. The game is officially authorized by F1. The entire series has been released for ten years. The cars, teams, and lanes in the game remain highly authentic. In order to take care of the game level of the F1 driver, the competition also disabled tuning and performance settings to ensure that the driver would manipulate the car.
Although the race has become online, F1 Racing Media reports are no different from offline. In the first virtual race in Bahrain, Renault test driver Zhou Guanyu won the championship, Mercedes’ substitute driver Stover van Dorne won the second place, and Red Bull’s Philip Enger finished third.
Although F1 officials have already announced that this competition is “for entertainment purposes only”, current drivers cannot win the points of the real world championships, but the competition of drivers is as fierce as offline competition.
Also, this is a great time for drivers to interact with fans. F1 officially announced that on weekends without games,A demonstration race will be held to allow fans and drivers to compete on the same stage.
In the first weekend of the first race, the news of F1 driver Lando Norris participating attracted a lot of attention to this event. More than 70,000 people watched the live broadcast on Twitch, and more than 175,000 viewers counted on other platforms.
For the enthusiasm of fans, Hazel Southwell, co-founder of racing media “Inside Electric”, said: The big reason is that drivers already have their own fan base on Twitch and YouTube, and the influence is not limited to simulations. Racing car. In addition, although many people don’t know F1 driver Lando Norris, it is still new to see him end in person. It also attracted enough subscriptions for the event.