Standing beside Fernando Alonso after being flown to Barcelona for a photoshoot, Sebastian Job was lastly an expert driver – regardless of having by no means pushed a racing automotive.
The English esports gamer had received a variety of ‘sim’ races – which simulate real-life races – and been signed by former F1 world champion Alonso’s esports group, which later merged with Oracle Purple Bull Racing.
It’s obligatory for all F1 groups to have an esports division, however Purple Bull have achieved one thing no different has – put a sim racer in an F1 automotive.
“The pace simply takes over,” stated 24-year-old Job in a Purple Bull movie known as , documenting his journey from esports to real-world racing.
With restricted laps, Job was inside one second of the usual set by ex-F1 driver Patrick Friesacher in Vettel’s 2012 title-winning V8 automotive, and was much more aggressive in a Porsche GT3.
Job is now aiming to race within the Porsche Carrera Cup at programs together with Manufacturers Hatch and Donington Park, after he received three world titles within the digital model.
“I went into sim racing as a result of I knew I did not have the cash to get into F1, and 11 years later I get to drive an F1 automotive – that is inspiring for folks to see,” he stated.
“On the check days, we noticed the true scale of what sim racing can do, so the aim now must be to get me on the grid for the Porsche sequence or an analogous one.”
Joseph Soltysik, Purple Bull’s head of esports, stated: “We might like to see Seb race in actual life, and that imaginative and prescient is shared throughout the broader group.
“We’re looking for a possible and sustainable method to fund it.”
‘The primary particular person to make use of me was Fernando Alonso’
Job grew up in East Grinstead, Sussex, and confirmed expertise in karting at an early age however his mother and father couldn’t afford the subsequent stage of that self-discipline.
“I knew right away the standard route into motorsport wasn’t going to be potential since you do must have an unbelievably rich household,” he stated.
As a substitute, he determined to dedicate himself to sim racing and his mother and father purchased him a set-up price about £200.
“I loved it and I knew I used to be good at it and I needed to pursue it. However on the time just about no-one was doing it as a job,” he stated.
“Round 2018, folks began to receives a commission and it lined up properly with me leaving sixth kind. The primary particular person to make use of me was truly Fernando Alonso.
“They flew the drivers out to Barcelona, we obtained footage with Alonso, my mum got here and I feel that was across the time my mother and father began to clock it.”
At that age, Job had solely simply handed his driving check and in addition received a scholarship to race in Formulation Ford, on actual race tracks for a 12 months.
However his largest win got here in 2020 when he received the Porsche Tag Heuer Esports Supercup, with a prize pot of $50,000 (£40,300).
On the top of the Covid-19 pandemic, esports was within the midst of a growth, with F1 drivers getting concerned and Max Verstappen racing within the match Job received.
Many F1 drivers compete in esports, and ‘sims’ – brief for simulators – are utilized by groups to mannequin how automobiles will carry out, however sim racers not often develop into race drivers.
Jann Mardenborough’s impressed the 2023 movie Gran Turismo, starring Orlando Bloom.
No esports driver has gone on to compete in F1 – but.
Sim racing extra accessible – Horner
The price of reaching the F1 grid runs into the hundreds of thousands, and lots of drivers are the sons of multi-millionaires, or males who competed at a excessive degree in motorsport and may appeal to sponsorship.
Job believes sooner or later sim racing will open the door for an F1 champion that might in any other case not get that chance.
“There is not any doubt in my thoughts, I do not know the way quickly, however essentially the most gifted folks, we in all probability do not even know who they’re as a result of they cannot afford to race,” he stated.
Purple Bull group principal Christian Horner agrees that sim racing might make motor racing extra accessible to younger drivers.
“This problem is to see how carefully does the digital world relate to the actual world, that’s the query to be answered – that’s what that is all about,” he stated within the Recreation to Glory documentary.
“I feel sim racing might finally create a broader pool of expertise for the youthful drivers as a result of it is far more accessible. Motor racing is pricey whereas sim racing is a less expensive model.”
