Sim Racing Will Help Me in F1 - Lando Norris

Paul Jeffrey · Feb 17, 2019

Lando Norris believes his substantial sim racing experience will help him in his debut season of Formula One this year.

A keen gamer and regular streamer of his sim racing exploits, new McLaren Formula One driver Lando Norris believes his time behind the virtual wheel will help in his quest to achieve success in Formula One this season.

“We go through hours and hours of preparation trying to do setup stuff and, from that side of things, you learn a lot about different cars" said Norris of his time in our virtual hobby - something he still regularly takes part in despite his new Formula One duties.

“A lot of it relates very well back to an F1 car. So you try ride heights, wings, camber, caster, whatever, tyre pressure.

“You are staying involved in all this and knowing what everything does and the combinations of, for example, if you go with this wing you can get away with a bit more lower rear ride height and things like that. Sometimes people don’t know that.”

Do you think lessons learned in a virtual racing environment can translate into performance in Formula One? Will you be supporting "one of our own" this season? Let us know in the comments section below!

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ears · Feb 17, 2019

Looks like he's getting good practice at avoiding the wild Verstappen at least.

@11:35

FeltHat · Feb 17, 2019

crazy kids and their games

Deleted member 205301 · Feb 17, 2019

did about 30 races against him, and, not sure simracing will help him, but sure he'll help simracing^^
@++

CC · Feb 17, 2019

Yeah he loves our cars.

samprince053 · Feb 17, 2019

I still find it crazy that last week I raced that guy and now he just unveiled his F1 car, its crazy that just everyday people can race against Formula 1 drivers, even if it is just virtually

slingshot64 · Feb 17, 2019

Good luck to the lad , always tip my hat to anyone that gets to this level in motor sports in general.
Something i could never reach , good luck.

apex11 · Feb 17, 2019

samprince053 said:
I still find it crazy that last week I raced that guy and now he just unveiled his F1 car, its crazy that just everyday people can race against Formula 1 drivers, even if it is just virtually

If your Dad was a billionaire you could be unveiling your F1 car.

Leonardo Chaves · Feb 17, 2019

How much it helps i have no clue, but it doesn't hurt either.

Durge Driven · Feb 17, 2019

I think they can take a leaf from Formula E
Less time with interviews and puff pieces and stage serious esports races every round

Richard Dastardly · Feb 18, 2019

Simracing will help Mclaren's parts bill, if he drives the same...

Possibly the most personable F1 driver at the moment, given you run into him everywhere & half of wherever he is makes fun of him

InsaneOzzie · Feb 18, 2019

It may help him mentally, but it's waaaayyy different physically, I wish Lando the best in his F1 debut, he's gonna need it.

Durge Driven · Feb 18, 2019

....for example, if you go with this wing you can get away with a bit more lower rear ride height and things like that........................... Sometimes people don’t know that.

Understatement + ...what is more worrying is your average motorist knows even less

Where sims and reality divide I like Jim Clark as example, he would drive some series for dinner on the table, go out and do a few laps and not change a thing
He adapted to the car not other way round and he would still win
His F1 mechanics said much the same thing

Same reason I like fixed setup races now and then

Durge Driven · Feb 18, 2019

Can someone explain me this:

Why in one of the top most realistic simulators... (among others) do my 1968 open wheel have brake bias ..................

Hill's 1968 Lotus

TuElite · Feb 18, 2019

I really hope he'll be careful for his first season, and not aim for too much.. You know for sure that if he's somewhat loose with it, or causes incidents that people will comment dumb stuff like 'expected from an iRacer' etc... Hopefully he avoids that.

antirussia81 · Feb 18, 2019

CC said:
Yeah he loves our cars.

I love them as well and somehow you've never mentioned that. And this guy is not even Chuck Norris, just some ordinary Lando, so...

CC · Feb 18, 2019

antirussia81 said:
I love them as well and somehow you've never mentioned that. And this guy is not even Chuck Norris, just some ordinary Lando, so...

Charles Leclerc enjoyed this RSS2 before the end of his championship also before the end of his 2017 championship, these cars do help the drivers.

Peter Kerényi · Feb 18, 2019

antirussia81 said:
I love them as well and somehow you've never mentioned that. And this guy is not even Chuck Norris, just some ordinary Lando, so...

Lando Norris and his alterego Chuck Calrissian (CC?).

This is fascinating BTW. Simracing is not really acknowledged outside of our circles (which I first realized reading comments on a FB post about the Bonito guy beating di Grassi (?) in ROC), maybe the new generation of drivers will make our hobby more popular.

CC · Feb 18, 2019

Peter Kerényi said:
Lando Norris and his alterego Chuck Calrissian (CC?).

This is fascinating BTW. Simracing is not really acknowledged outside of our circles (which I first realized reading comments on a FB post about the Bonito guy beating di Grassi (?) in ROC), maybe the new generation of drivers will make our hobby more popular.

We have had some wonderful emails over the years sent to the team,
one was from a young F4 driver, I forget his name now off the top of my head,
but he was saying thankyou so much for the content its really helped him to win races,
so does help, all these teams have simulators back at the factory, some advanced some not so much so,
maybe just depends on the budgets they have,
but for sure there is nothing wrong with building a nice simulator at home and playing as much as you want, there is no way it can be negative gaining more practice specially in the same car you drive in RL.

Richard Dastardly · Feb 18, 2019

Many years ago I got to know a guy a little on a GT forum ( frequented by Spencer Pumpelly, amongst other people ), which led to helping him out making GT vids a bit, and then we started racing in GPL and NR2003. Shortly after that he got a seat from Nissan's GT Academy & went sportscar racing in the US ( and I kinda lost track of him a bit ). It's surprising how long there's been some crossover between real & sims.

Lando's ( somewhat reckless

) iRacing career won't hurt, but there's no sim on earth that can prepare you for being thrown around in an F1 car, I'd imagine.