(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED c.16th April 2024)
Porsche's finest Esports racers came together to introduce Porsche Junior Alessandro Ghiretti to the world of sim racing and prepare him for his busy real-world racing schedule.
The 22-year-old Frenchman will be competing in the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup, as well as six events in both the Porsche Carrera Cup France and the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia.
A key part of his preparation was a visit to Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team’s facility in Gronau, Germany, where he trained using their on-site simulator. That was a significant learning experience given Ghiretti had no previous experience in either Esports or on a sim rig.
However, the 2024 Porsche Junior racer was soon able to get to grips with the simulator, and reflected positively on the virtual racing scene.
“It's really interesting because there is a lot of people who can start sim racing.” Gheretti said after his simulator experience, “I will say it's more easy and more accessible than real racing, of course.”
“I like to watch a sim racing race, because also the risks taken are nice to see the moves on the race, the action.
“Because if you crash the race of course you lose the race, but you will not lose your life, so sometimes you can see really, really great moves, so it's nice to watch.”
Along with refining his driving, Ghiretti also worked with his mental coach whilst in the simulator to ensure his concentration levels remain high throughout a race.
This is an especially important skill to hone with an eye to the future, as Ghiretti hopes to take part in the Nürburgring 24 Hours.
“Sometimes it's easier than the others to secure a win if you have a gap or not.” says Ghiretti.
“But when you're under pressure until the last lap - just keep yourself in your window of concentration and think about your target and do not do any mistakes.”
The psychological side of racing is one that’s very familiar to the Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team’s drivers, who regularly compete in virtual endurance races.
Earlier this year, Josh Rogers and Charlie Collins teamed up for the iRacing 12 Hours of Sebring, finishing second overall.
Most notably though, Rogers was a part of the four-driver team that won the inaugural 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual for the Porsche Esports Team.
“Keeping calm in the scenario I think that's very important.” two-time Porsche Esports Supercup champion Rogers says, “It's very easy to kind of let your emotions take over and then that reflects in your driving.
“You still have to take a calculated approach to everything even when you're in the zone and you're acting a little subconsciously, it's still important to still be a little bit there. So I would say that - keeping calm and maintaining a strategic approach no matter what.”
Another key distinction between Ghiretti’s racing commitments this year compared to the top Esports professionals is the variety of cars and especially circuits they have to master.
Many top Esports racers will regularly drive both LMP and GT class cars, but can race at multiple circuits in the same day and have to be prepared for all of them. This is in part due to the formats used for many of the top racing esports competitions.
That level of adaptability is something Rogers proved his ability at in the ESL R1 Esports series last November - winning five of the nine races in the final day of the tournament-style event to be crowned the series champion.
He continued: “From a format perspective, there's a lot more flexibility and freedom in terms of what series’ organisers can do to make things exciting.
“With the ESL R1 we have 12 car grids, heat racing, semi-finals, finals in a major kind of style tournament. An entire championship can be flipped on its head compared to how it has been the previous four months.
“There's so many different things that they can do to make it a bit more of an adrenaline rush for people watching and also us driving at the same time.”
The ease and freedom that Esports drivers can practice with any car around any track means they’re much more dialled in than real-world racing drivers can be with their limited track time.
That creates some fiercely competitive sessions with qualifying in particular being more tightly contested than it often is in traditional motorsport.
“If there is only one [difference], I would say how close it is.” Porsche Coanda Esports driver Charlie Collins said.
“Considering how much time we have to practice, we have a lot more time than you guys in the real world, so we're always trying to find those little details, but this also means that people get so close because they can practice so much.
“And so when you look at qualifying, for example, it's just one or two-tenths that can cover maybe ten people. And so it can be really, really close which I think is very exciting to watch.”