Gamer beats professional racing car driver on the track

No, this title is not click bait. A gamer actually beats a professional racing car driver on the track and the whole world was left speechless. You would think that a professional racing car driver is a superman when it comes to reflexes, agility, knowing when to shift and knowing when and just how much to turn that wheel, right? You would think that nothing beats hours and hours of training and experience on the track, isn’t it? Well, it seems that a gamer who trained in a simulator beat a professional racing car driver. It all happened on a race track in Mexico, last week. Enzo Bonito, a 23-year-old gamer who trained on a racing simulator  showed Lucas di Gassi, an ex-Formula 1 driver, what driving is all about. 

The ending result shocked everybody. Not even commentators could believe their eyes and ears! But, if you think about how simulators and racing games nowadays recreate the racing experience to the last detail, even simulating suspension angles and tire wear, Enzo’s victory seems a little more possible, but not too much. He’s a gamer, though!

eSports are the new thing. Watch out! They’re massive!

This kind of eSports is even attracting world-racing professionals.  For aircraft pilots, flight simulators are a must, so why shouldn’t it be so for car racing drivers? Why wouldn’t a racing simulator replicate the same flight factors that a professional flight simulator does? Simulator racing games are on a growing spiral and it is rapidly transforming in a multi-billion dollar industry. From a hobby, from a game played by kids….how about that?  Recent studies show that nowadays, 66% of the US population over 12 are gamers.  In 2013, there were 58%.

Only in one quarter of 2018, eSports fans from all over the world, watched  their gaming heroes for a total of 17.9 billion hours. eSports has a worldwide audience of more than 380 million fans and are rapidly becoming more popular than the Olympic sports. Actually, there are rumors that certain games could be considered Olympic sports.

https://twitter.com/F1/status/1087083924361236481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1087083924361236481&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Finterestingengineering.com%2Fa-gamer-just-beat-a-professional-racing-car-driver-on-the-track

What do you think of this? Could a computer game be a real Olympic sport? Is it really a sport siting in a chair, in front of a screen? The debate is long!

Via Interesting Engineering