Oval racing at over 200mph - especially in open cockpit cars - has to be the most dangerous form of motor racing there is. We've lost way too many good people in devastating accidents on ovals over recent years, from Greg Moore to Dan Wheldon to Justin Wilson, while other drivers such as Mike Conway, James Hinchcliffe and Robert Wickens have suffered horrendous and in some cases life-changing injuries in violent high speed accidents.
Esports succeeds largely because it is a very accurate simulation of the physical cars and tracks we actually see in a Grand Prix
I watch motor racing because it's thrilling and exciting, but I have no interest in blood sport. If F1 was still as deadly as it was back in the 1960s and 70s - when a driver was killed almost every race, before Jackie Stewart spearheaded massive safety reforms - then I couldn't be a fan today. So the idea of being able to watch a race without the anxiety of anyone being seriously harmed genuinely appeals to me. It was really brought home by the way that iRacing enabled Wickens to return to competition, taking pole position for the most recent race even as he continues to recover from spinal injuries that have left him in a wheelchair. Yet can motor racing ever be truly exciting and satisfying without involving at least some small but nonetheless genuine element of risk?
Virtual motor racing could potentially save huge amounts of money compared to the real thing, slashing the cost of designing and manufacturing new cars and cutting the need to fly endlessly around the world, thereby reducing the negative impact on the wellbeing of team personnel and on the environment. But a digital-only sport can ever never hope to appeal to all those designers, craftsman, engineers and technicians who are drawn to the sport by the raw appeal of building a car from scratch out of metal, oil, plastic and carbon fibre. Current motor racing Esports games succeed because they are very accurate simulations of the physical cars and tracks we actually see in a Grand Prix. Take away that real world exemplar, and what exactly are we simulating? What would keep the online sport grounded rather than flying off into the realm of science fiction fantasy?
