I’ve been playing driving games since my family first got an original playstation in the late 1990’s. I played the original Gran Turismo as well as the early F1 games. As technology has moved on so have my gaming habits. Now I’m more likely to play the Forza Monza series, Need for Speed, and of course that classic argument creator Mariokarts (my hatred for those blue shells knows no bounds!) As well as this I’ve been a complete racing nerd since I was a child. It doesn’t matter which series it is, I’ve watched it and loved it, especially Formula 1. And like most racing fans I’ve taken every opportunity to get closer to the sport I love. So when I was offered the opportunity to go on a fully working F1 racing simulator like the ones actual drivers use to train in, on the Grand Pier at Weston super Mare, I jumped at the chance.
The simulator offered an amazing, fully immersive experience that really engages all of your senses. The noise from the simulator is impressive to say the least and as you hear the engine gaining revs as you increase the speed it really does encourage you to push that little bit more for a better lap time. Visually, it really does give you an idea of the kind of view the drivers have from an actual cockpit of their car. Very quickly you do feel like a real racer, trying to sport your apex’s and the markerboards for breaking as late as you possibly can. For me though there is one way the simulator beats every single other gaming experience I’ve had and that is the fact it moves. Set up wise for racing games, I use a wheel or control and turn on feedback so I can feel what the car is doing but even this could not prepare me fully for what a simulator would be like. From the second the light go out and you hit the accelerator you can really feel it through you. Every bump, every gear change, every acceleration and breaking results in the sim moving and you feel it completely. There’s a quote in the film Rush that stuck with me, “God gave me an okay mind, but a really good ass, which can feel everything in a car.” And driving in the sim where every little movement is felt by your body, I finally can understand what that quote really means. Simply put, I’ve never had such a total gaming experience like I had in the sim.
The lap itself was an amalgamation of some of the best tracks in racing joined together for one impressive lap. And racing fans from any series will recognise some of the iconic corners, including the infamous Eau Rouge. For me this was my favourite corner of the lap as it really pushed your ability to control the sim to the limit. There’s something about Eau Rouge that brings out the racer in everyone, and I was no exception. Pushing myself to take the corner flat out, not lifting and not giving an inch, which often meant I was left wresting for control at the top of the hill. As I said before the immersive experience of the sim brought this corner to life for me. When I take on this corner on my games using a wheel set up I don’t get the same feeling of fighting the car at the top of it. The feeling in the sim is almost indescribable. It really showed me just why the drivers love that corner so much, and the level of respect you need for your fellow competitor to challenge someone for an overtake there.
My time in the sim was a huge amount of fun and is definitely something I would do again. Throughout my laps I had either a huge grin on my face, or a look of sheer determination to nail the perfect apex through a corner. I really have had no gaming experience than can even come close to what I experienced during my laps in the sim. It all just came together perfectly. The sound, the movement, the visuals. The result is a lap where you really do feel like a true racing driver. And for someone’s who’s always watched the likes of F1 cars racing and wondered how that would feel, it really is something truly special.
