They have a number of qualities that the top racing drivers have.
>> I'm in the process of learning that.
As of right now, I do not have a driver's license, though.
>> Some of these cars are becoming off,
where you can see they're very technical, I'll put it that way.
>> Driving one of the most advanced simulators in the world is amazing.
>> The concept of making
a gamer a racing driver
is incredibly possible.
>> (Music) It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and
I think everyone here, all the finalists who wanted to show up, so
it's going to be a very tough competition.
(Music) >> We have approximately three,
four days' worth of assessments being driven and
delivered by our Human Performance team here by McLaren Applied Technologies.
(Music)
>> The way these changes are racing us out for
us here is all thrown in the deep end with not just case of take part in this race,
but take on this race with this extra twist that's thrown in as well.
>> We are utilizing some cutting edge scientific approaches and technologies,
from EG, ECG, eye tracking, facial recognition, to try and
put more of an objective measure on who it is that we're going to select.
(Music)
>> People will need to have a bit of a technical understanding, I would assume,
being in the simulator, but they can learn that.
Actually, your inherent driving ability is what
can be translated from gaming to the driving sim.
Simulators are probably one of the most critical components now
of all modes of sport.
Though we call racing games racing games, actually, most of them are pretty
high end simulators, they're not that far from what professional teams use.
People who are good at that, their skills can translate to the real thing.
And we find that there are skills you learn inherently from racing games,
such as getting the correct lines, such as waiting to pass, or race craft.
All of that sort of thing.
Actually they are fully transferable.
(Music)
>> Most of the successful drivers started at a time when esports simulations were
much less developed, so
you couldn't really use that as much of a training vehicle to get to the top.
Whereas now, the sophistication of the simulations means that actually you can
learn a lot more and
progress a lot more without necessarily driving the real vehicle.
>> As soon as you drove away in the real F1 simulator, there's so much sensation,
so much detail, so much feeling, feedback that the car gives.
>> If you take the job at McLaren, you've gotta be able to provide data,
provide feedback, and give that to the team.
That's the whole benefit of a simulator,
that's how they get all their data right now.
So the fact of the matter is, it's really important for
them to have that knowledge so that they can provide the feedback.
>> You get to see what different strengths, skills, and
attributes they have.
How they work with engineers, how they understand the cars,
how good they are at interpreting what they see, what they feel.
It really gives me an insight into what's needed to be successful racing driver, and
by extension therefore, simulated driver.
(Sound) >> Potentially,
if they like what we're able to do in the sim then maybe a real life
seat in something would be possible, who knows?
(Music)
>> Well, of course, I would love to take the wheel of an F1 car as with anybody.
>> Think that the challenge you have is that as we're seeing now through some
of the competitions is that the game is when they race, they race like gamers.
They're not racing like racing drivers,
so they're not thinking about time management quite so much.
They're not thinking about when they should be pitting.
They're not practicing some of the scenarios that we are telling them that
they will go through because all they're doing at this moment is focusing on time.
And so there's a real sort of mind shift and
training that we would need to put them through.
(Music)
>> The environment that you have in a real racing car is much more rich in stimulus
so you have g forces sensations, over steer, under steer, balancers coming from
the movement of the of the car, but you don't really get your average simulation.
We're obviously trying to recreate some of those here at McLaren in our simulator,
but it's an approximation of what the real car does.
>> They will have never have potentially even raced a car in anger, and they don't
know the risks associated and the pain that you can experience when you crash.
They've only ever done it in a gaming environment, and
the risk just isn't there.
But I think that they have a number of qualities
that the top racing drivers have.
And so it is a very, it's highly possible that we can do and
transform a gamer into a racer.
(Music)
>> I think at the moment, Motorsport is starting to understand that actually they
need to reach audiences in new different ways.
And certainly, engaging with the esports fraternity is a way of doing that.
(Music)
>> Unlike some other promotions that are a bit of a consumer payout for some fun,
this is real job with some real responsibility to contribute to our
Formula One team.
So ultimately, they're going to start driving our simulator and
learning how we operate and what we're looking for.
So I think once we get done with the celebration,
we're going to get straight down to work.
(Music)
I think that still needs to sink in, the title,
like you're official McLaren F1 simulator tester.
When the family has this is all going live everywhere.
I think it's going to sink in, and tomorrow I'm going to wake up like,
this is a difficult task, but we're going to go for it 100% and
we're going to make the best of it.
(Music)