The first virtual GP, organized by F1, won by the Chinese Guanyu Zhou for Renault; Herbert and Norris were the stars of a spectacular race.
Renault’s Chinese test driver Guanyu Zhou won the Bahrain Virtual Grand Prix on Sunday. Formula 1 tried to entertain fans with online action in a season suspended by the spread of the coronavirus.
The first seven rounds of the actual championship have been canceled or postponed, including the Monaco Grand Prix, and it remains to be seen how many there will ultimately be.
Bahrain would have been the second race of the year on Sunday and Formula 1, owned by Liberty Media, had hoped to recruit the current drivers in a virtual championship using the 2019 Codemasters F1 game.
In the end, only Lando Norris of McLaren and Nicholas Latifi of Williams, who has not yet made his F1 debut, were present.
Others took over, the former F1 McLaren driver and current Formula E driver Mercedes Stoffel Vandoorne finished second, while the Austrian Philipp Eng, who started in pole position, finished third.
British golfer Ian Poulter, “The Postman”, competed from his Florida home garage, and six-time Olympic cycling medalist Chris Hoy from Britain also competed.
Six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton’s brother Nicolas Hamilton, singer-songwriter Liam Payne and retired retired F1 driver Johnny Herbert also participated in the competition.
Some technical problems to deplore.
Due to technical issues, the race, originally scheduled to last half the actual distance, has been reduced to 25%, since Norris had to deal with a bad connection, which meant that his car was checked most of the time. time by the computer, which he dubbed “Landobot”.
Norris also passed a few messages seeking advice from other F1 drivers, including teammate Carlos Sainz and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, during the period of rest.
The McLaren driver had already participated in another event “Not the BAH GP” organized by Veloce Esports and in which Poulter and Real Madrid’s Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois also participated.
This event was divided into two separate 25% distance races, both dominated by professional players.
Former F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg, who left Renault late last year, competed in all of the day’s races after also playing Saturday at All-Stars Esports organized by Torque Esports.
“Obviously, in the current situation, with the lack of activity, I took the bandwagon to give it a try“, Said the German. “Yesterday and earlier today, I found it quite difficult. There are a lot of geeks who are really, really good. I do it just for fun ”.
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