We are gaining a half-inch at a time. It is May. It hardly felt like April. IndyCar concluded its iRacing series with Scott McLaughlin having a victory fall into his lap thanks to driver-induced chaos. NASCAR announced its schedule for the month of May. Darlington and Charlotte will host races, including a pair of Wednesday night races. Elsewhere, Formula E cancelled its Brooklyn and London rounds. Audi is pulling out the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. BMW continues its iRacing dominance. Sebastian Vettel came out to play. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
Another Month of Video Games
At the end of March, after a few weeks of simulated races, I wrote a few observations because iRacing and all these simulated video games were new to me. A month later and there are a few more observations.
With another month of events and formats under the belt I think it is time to look over what has gone right and what has gone wrong.
What has gone right:
Keeping it simple.
When a series creates format and sticks with it, the events take place seamlessly.
When looking at The Race, it has held pretty much the same event each week... until this week.
The original format was three heat races and an LCQ to determine the main event. Two heat races for professional drivers with the top five advancing to the main event, top five from the simulated racers heat advanced to main event with the remaining professional drivers entering the LCQ and the top five from that race filling out the 20-car field.
Intermingled with the professional race is the Legends Trophy races. The first race has a traditional qualifying format and the second race is a reverse grid from the results of race one. None of the races take longer than ten or 15 minutes. There are no cautions. A driver may receive penalties for infractions, whether it be jumping a start, cutting a corner or tacking out another driver.
This past weekend, The Race altered the weekend to make it more even for the professional and sim drivers. The format matches what is done with the Legends Trophy and each class has one race and then a professional race. It is different but it falls into line with what we have been seeing all along and it gives professional drivers and sim drivers their own spotlights.
IndyCar and IMSA have run pretty straightforward events. The familiar faces gather together. There is practice, qualifying and a race. Those races are not riddle with cautions and they are done within 90 minutes.
These series have also brought together drivers who otherwise would not compete together. The Legends Trophy is pure fantasy. Emerson Fittipaldi vs. Jenson Button? Petter Solberg vs. Dario Franchitti? David Brabham vs. Jacques Villeneuve? They dragged Sebastian Vettel into the party this week at Sepang! Where else can you have world champions from three different decades racing against one another along with three Indianapolis 500 winners and a pair of Le Mans winners? That is a dream come true.
The professional races have seen Stoffel Vandoorne competing against Gabby Chaves, Esteban Gutiérrez, Juan Manuel Correa, Nicki Thiim, James Calado and more.
IndyCar has had guest drivers along the way. First it was Jimmie Johnson, then it was Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Kyle Busch. Lando Norris won an event. Scott McLaughlin competed in the full series. IMSA has brought together WeatherTech Sports Car Championship drivers with Michelin Pilot Challenge and FIA World Endurance Championship drivers.
Supercars has seen Max Verstappen, Will Power, Alexander Rossi and Joey Logano take guest drives.
What has gone wrong:
Complicating the proceedings.
For a few weeks it felt like everyone was having fun with this but NASCAR. Each week it was a butting of heads over who was competing, who was locked in, who was relegated to the Saturday night streaming race and then there was the increased pressure with the races broadcasted and sponsors taking it seriously.
For IndyCar's final event at Indianapolis, the series might have bitten off more than it should have. The first five events were open to everyone. We had 30-plus cars at Michigan, Motegi and Austin. It was the full-time grid with its guests. The final event was limited to 33 cars, à la the grid size of the Indianapolis 500. However, James Hinchcliffe, Robert Wickens, Kyle Busch, Kyle Kaiser and Felipe Nasr did not compete. Hinchcliffe, Wickens, Kasier and Nasr all attempted to run every race prior to this.
There is a limit at some point but it got messy when certain drivers were locked in but other drivers weren't. The series has a right to protect full-time competition and sponsors but when some full-time teams do not get that honor or some drivers dedicated their full-time to the iRacing series only to not have the favor returned at the end and some other drivers who were not full-time were wrapped in a security blanket it bred confusion.
Of course, explanations were rarely given.
What has gone right:
Creativity!
This is a chance to be different. Many restrictions vanish in the simulated world. You can run more cars than you can imagine at some of these tracks. Money no longer handcuffs who can run, nor does chassis or engine leases. We can be different. We see reverse grid races!
Series visit tracks that are otherwise not on the schedule. The Race holds no ties to any track. It has gone to the Nürburgring, the Silverstone national circuit, Sebring, Indianapolis and NOLA Motorsports Park! Sepang added its stamp to the virtual passport this weekend. They have run Indy Pro 2000 cars, LMP3 cars and the Legends Trophy has used the Brabham BT44 and McLaren M23.
IndyCar visited some tracks from the not-so-distant past. While fulfilling trips to Barber and Austin, the series went to Watkins Glen, Michigan and Motegi. These aren't three tracks from long ago but they are tracks fans have affection for and are no longer on the calendar.
International circuits fill Supercars' iRacing schedule. It kept Australian staples, such as Bathurst and Phillip Island, but it has gone to Monza, Watkins Glen, Montreal, Silverstone and will go to Spa-Francorchamps.
Dinner with Racers have done this the best. Every race is something we could never see. IndyCar vs. NASCAR Cup cars vs. LMP1 cars vs. Legends cars at Talladega? And it was fantastic. Last week was Nissan GTP vs. rallycross cars vs. Pro 2 Trucks vs. 410-winged sprint cars at Le Mans without the Mulsanne chicanes.
What has gone wrong:
Taking it too seriously.
And this isn't a dig at sponsors or broadcast partners. People got mad when television partners got involved and when sponsors perked up interest. Motorsports series need both to survive. If neither were interested in broadcasting this you should be concerned and you would probably be crying about the races not being broadcasted. You can't be upset when the races are broadcasted and then complain when they aren't.
When it comes to taking it too seriously I mean putting out a schedule and then allowing drivers to practice for eight hours a day every day until the race. If series want to have fun with this then have fun with this and don't put the pressure on the drivers.
Bubba Wallace cited the amount of practice being the recent he stepped away from the last two NASCAR races. First off, it shouldn't be that serious. If Wallace wanted to do an hour of practice the morning of the race and that was it then great! Take it easy. You should want drivers to roll out of bed and just run for fun.
This issue with keeping a schedule is while it is great to know where you are going you there is nothing stopping anyone from running for 80 hours over six days to practice. With the decreased barrier of entry, a driver could practice for 12 hours a day. There is no worry about weather or light or resources. However, not every driver has the same stamina for such an endeavor.
One way to keep it light is to keep the venues unknown. It could level the playing field.
Each series has about three or five guys who are absurdly talented at iRacing, another ten that are good and another ten that are not remotely competitive. If you give the top echelon drivers more time to practice they will have the track down pat in half a day while some drivers will only get the hang of it after six days.
If the venue was a surprise until about an hour before the race, we could see some different people at the front. A top-level driver could be brought down to Earth but some of these drivers take to these simulated platforms like ducks to water. It doesn't seem to matter what the machinery is or if the surface is asphalt or dirt but this would at least equal the playing field.
Instead of a budget cap it would be an hours cap. No one could get an advantage practicing for days. There would be no benefit practicing for no one would know where they will be racing. The drivers could spend the week relaxing at home, maybe doing iRacing without purpose if they want to but have time for other hobbies and only have to show up on race day.
What has gone right:
Not throwing cautions!
It is a video game. No drivers are in danger. No track marshals are in danger. No spectators are in danger. There is no need for a caution in any of these races.
Unless you are throwing a competition caution for a commercial break it is not worth it.
What has gone wrong:
Throwing cautions!
Looking at you NASCAR!
It has dragged races on. There is no rhythm. Worst of all a race will get a dozen cautions in the first half but then after shooting itself in the foot the race will have no cautions in the second half of the race and you have this inconsistency where single-car spins in the first half of the race brought the race to a halt a four-car accident will occur and everyone will keep going.
NASCAR already had consistency issues with cautions but this is much worse.
What have we learned?
This has been fun but mostly because it has been filling a void. If there was no pandemic, I would not be filling my days with The Race at noon and IndyCar at 2:30 p.m. on a Saturday. My Saturday would be Formula One qualifying in the morning, IndyCar practice and qualifying, perhaps a Michelin Pilot Challenge race or some other sports car series and Supercross at night.
When motorsports return, the simulated racing interest is going to dry up close to immediately. All the drivers will spread to the racetracks of the world. They will not be at their computers. Some of us will be attending those races at said racetracks. We're not going to be watching iRacing events.
We have had our fill and then some. IndyCar competed for six consecutive weeks. When was the last time IndyCar had a race for six consecutive weeks? I am not sure moving this to weeknights and filling the time between races would have any legs. Drivers are going to be at a track for three days, travel home Sunday night, rest on Monday and have to be on a plane Thursday night to do it all over again. I doubt many drivers would sacrifice their Tuesday or Wednesday to compete on iRacing, not on a weekly basis at least.
Simulated races have a place but the appetite for it being a regular companion doesn't seem to be there from either fans or drivers.
It could perhaps be a one-off but I think its life is in the offseason, not every week but a few weeks, perhaps around Christmastime. For IndyCar, the offseason is long enough that a three-week or four-week series in December would fall three months after the last race and three months before the next one. NASCAR has no offseason, even with the early November finale. It could probably do two or three races but no one would want to run all of December and January. Sports cars has time but January is busy with the 24 Hours Dubai, 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Bathurst in early February. It could probably do three or four races every other week during the winter.
The one place where I think iRacing could be handy is leading into a season. It could provide a great preseason event to promote the year ahead. It could be a chance to see drivers in new places, meet the rookies, catch up with drivers we haven't heard from since the previous season ended. It could be an affordable promotion for new season and provide a form of competition to get the juices flowing.
Television coverage has been wonderful but streaming online provides a friendlier space. Time constraint is not a problem online. Commercials aren't necessary for the broadcast. It can feel a little freer. If you can get it on television, then terrific, especially if you can sell a sponsor on the event, but streaming is an accommodating place for any future simulated race action.
We could be taking a breather from all these simulated races shortly. It has done its job keeping us engaged during this uncomfortable time. The size of its part when things get back to normal remains unanswered. We will have to check back in a few months.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Scott McLaughlin but did you know...
Marc Miller won the Thursday Night Blunder event at Le Mans.
Juan Pablo Montoya and Adrian Fernández split the Legends Trophy races from Sepang. Esteban Gutiérrez and Anthony Davidson split the Pro races.
Nicky Catsburg won IMSA's iRacing event at Mid-Ohio.
William Byron won the NASCAR iRacing event from Dover. Anthony Alfredo won the non-Cup drivers' race.
Coming Up This Weekend
Thursday Night Blunder begins May at the Nürburgring Müllenbach layout with seven different German cars.
NASCAR concludes its iRacing series at North Wilkesboro.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
