Racing esports is serious business, I'm sure you've heard. I think I've probably bored you in the recent past about it - whether it's how Gran Turismo Sport and F1 2018's esports series have produced races that have sometimes been the measure of the real thing, for a spectator at least, how the likes of F1 star Lando Norris have used games to sharpen their skills, or how McLaren is turning to esports to find the next generation of racing driver - but it's only when visiting the offices of esports team Veloce Racing that it really hits me. This really is serious business.
Down a cobbled mews in Maida Vale - the street was formerly home to Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, though now it's part of one of the more affluent areas of London - there's a converted office that's a hive of activity. Enter the door and immediately to the right are three rigs running Codemasters' F1 2018. On the left there's an even more serious rig - a full-motion simulator that encases the player in a retro-futurist bubble, offering a 200 degree field of view. It's the most intense sim-racing experience I've had - possibly the most intense you could expect out of the bespoke, multi-million pound solutions secreted away in the heart of F1 team's factories - and it's another illustration of the point. This really, truly is serious business.
This particular business was set up by three people - Jamie MacLaurin, a former football agent, plus Jack Clarke and Rupert Svendsen-Cook, two former racing drivers - and already it has the esports teams of Fernando Alonso and Alfa Romeo Racing F1 on its books. It's a business that fills three floors of the office, and is already looking to expand to more spacious premises in the near future. It's a business that its owners take very seriously indeed.
from Eurogamer.net http://bit.ly/2VR9sr2
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