Esports to the rescue
Luckily for F2, Codemasters made it possible to play with the F2 cars in the latest version of the F1 game, which means we get some virtual F2 action and the drivers can still get their race fix without having to worry about competing with golfers, footballers, YouTubers and singers for the few available slots in the virtual F1 races. It was a good mix of F2 and F3 drivers as well as a few others, including Juan Manuel Correa who amazingly drives with one leg.
The event was, in theory, good news, but I’m just going to put it out there first that watching people race on computer games is boring. Who could actually be looking forward to driving those virtual F2 cars anyway, they look nightmarish. Confirming my suspicions, F2 veteran Louis Delétraz declared that it was going to be a long race (all 16 laps of it) because the cars understeer and will snap on you without notice. Delightful.
I sat down to be a bit grumpy and bored, but then we got the new F2 2020 intro and that was actually pretty exciting (I have no idea why, I must be losing my mind). For a moment my brain was tricked into thinking I was going to be watching F2. That delusion passed quickly though and I soon started browsing Twitch to see which driver was going to provide me the most entertainment, because it sure as hell wasn’t going to come from the official live stream.
That said, one thing I do love about these virtual races is the juxtaposition between the commentators taking it very seriously and treating it like a normal race, and the drivers having no clue what’s happening. Watch the official stream and it’s all about the serious racing, but watch on a driver’s Twitch stream and it’s chaos.
Commentators: “He could have gone a bit more defensive there, but it’s easy to lock up at that corner and go too deep.”
Drivers: “What is happening with my game right now, it’s lagging like crazy… oh my god I just pressed the wrong button and my screen is going to turn off in 20 seconds.”
With that in mind, the best way to watch is when all the drivers stay in one big group chat together, because then you can hear all the chaos at once. However, disappointingly, the F2 drivers aren’t as sociable as the F1 drivers and there was no group driver chat. A quick flick between Twitch streams also revealed that most of them were being very professional and quietly concentrating hard. Thank god for F2 newcomer Christian Lundgaard, who most definitely was not keeping quiet, nor holding back on his views about the car. He may be my new F2 favourite, at least for the virtual season.
“The game is very realistic”
Qualifying probably should have been quite exciting because it was a one-lap shoot out, but presumably because all 19 drivers did this at the same time, in their own little virtual tracks, and there wasn’t really any way of covering it on the TV, we didn’t get to see any of that. In fact, they didn’t even seem to think it was important to run us through the starting grid, so we just jumped straight into the start of the race. What position is everyone starting in? What about even telling us who is on pole (it was apparently Charles Leclerc’s younger brother Arthur)? No? Okay, it’s just me that cares about that then.
In an attempt to make this seem a bit like a real race, the commentators quickly got to talking about race strategy and were even lamenting the lack of variety that you would usually get at Bahrain. Like seriously? The drivers are responsible for their own strategies and some of them don’t have any control over how to choose what tyres they’re using… “Why did my guys put me on hards? I wanted mediums.”
Just like a normal F2 weekend, there were two races (a 16-lap Feature Race, and a 5-lap Sprint Race), but both races seemed to be basically the same and I feel they can be characterised by just this:
Commentators-who-are-not-F2-drivers: “The game is very realistic”
Lundgaard: “Mate, this car is horrible to drive, I have no traction whatsoever…[crashes]… how can I spin in third gear? Oh my god, this car does not make any sense… If this was the real championship I would just retire from racing.”
We also had fun with a load of connection issues, such as the one that meant Lundgaard continually jumped from first to last on the timing board (he was ninth-ish in reality). The commentators tried to laugh it off, but they had no idea what position anyone was in really. “I don’t think he’s in the lead but he’s probably not at the back either.” Feels like a modern-day Murray Walker quote.
Another reason why no one had any clue about what order the race was in was because everyone had penalties for abusing track limits. This was the result of the previous virtual F1 race in China, where the drivers had abused track limits so much, the organisers had decided to change the game settings to “strict”, which apparently meant that now none of the drivers could actually get around the track without receiving multiple warnings. So we just had to wait until the end of the race for the game to work out what order it was going to put everyone in.
All hail the new Leclerc
The computer determined that Arthur Leclerc won both races, proving that he, just like his brother Charles, has a natural talent for spending a lot of time practicing. Formula E driver Oliver Rowland also did well in both races and everyone seemed very surprised about this, which was a bit brutal.
On to the virtual championship standings, if that’s even a thing…? Arthur Leclerc won both races, scored pole position and got the fastest laps (yes, both of them), so he is very much in the lead. Everyone else should just stop counting already.
Anyway, it seems my standards for entertainment have slipped drastically in these times, and I actually enjoyed the whole thing as it was a good excuse to sit and eat crisps and drink wine. Roll on the next virtual race.