dream | act | succeed

As the advanced part of this racing is life season comes to an end, I want to introduce a kind of a sim racing 1×1.

Sure, little did I know, that in fact sim racing will get such an attention through the current corona pandemic, but I guess we can all profit from thinking a little bit more about the virtual motorsport.

I have a dream, that one day there will be no need to explain my sport to other people anymore

With the attention on sim racing rising from day to day, it makes even more sense to talk about this topic in order to help others get going in the sport more easily and without repeating the mistakes, we all have done some years back in time when we first started.

1. Sim racing VS. Reality

There will always be a difference! It can’t be the same, but it can get pretty close. Don’t try to argue about how realistic or not realistic it really is. A simulator is always something that will not give you the 100% experience, but it doesn’t need to give you that anyways. This is an awesome tool to either have a lot of fun and blasting around with friends on the tracks around the globe, or to get ready for the real world of driving. If you can get your mindset right and allow this sport to enter your life, you will not even profit from that on the road, but also learn a lot about life in general.

2. Online VS. Offline

The most common mistake people are doing is getting online as soon as possible but (sorry for the language) do not give a sh** about other people. They neither know how to drive, nor how the track actually looks like. They have no car control, don’t watch their mirrors and make the life of all the people in the online lobby just a bit harder everyday. But that isn’t the way the system is supposed to be working, right? Sure, at the beginning nobody expects from you to be perfect already and sure, crashing is of course a big part of racing on a simulator, but still, why don’t you learn the basics offline and join the online game later on in your career?

If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.

Mario Andretti

But if nothing feels under control, you shouldn’t be in an online lobby!

3. Say sorry and wait

In the real world, a crash is of course a little bit more expensive than on the sim, but nevertheless, be kind to each other. If you missed your braking-point and pushed someone out (by accident) than say sorry and wait until the other person is back on track. Mistakes just happen, that’s making us human, right? But for sure, if the incident was rather a team order than an accident, just keep on driving. #Timoschiebihnraus

4. Reflect on your doing and learn from the best

If you are new to the sim racing world and do not study mechanical engineering in your free time, I guess you have hardly any clue about how everything really works. Sure, you can just start doing something and get going from there, but this opens the door for learning things in the wrong way. You might do common mistakes, like holding the car on the gas mid corner, or driving the wrong lines all together. Sure, if you do not know it better, it’s at least a start and you can work on your skills in the future. But I would highly recommend you to start analyzing the real world guys driving around in circles and copy their techniques. And for sure, you will find your own style of driving sooner or later, but at least with the basics you should make sure that you do it in the right way.

5. Practice makes perfect? No! Perfect practice makes perfect!

You can literally drive for ages without stopping but still do not improve as much as you originally wanted to improve. Well, I guess you are not really practicing. In the world of cycling where I spent another part of my life, someone told me in the past.

Don’t practice as you would race and don’t race as you would practice.

In the sim racing world, too often people want to make it so realistic, that they totally forget about the big opportunities and chances the sim racing world offers. Sure, the pro’s do not get the Nordschleife for themself for the next 24h’s, experiencing the track under all weather and light conditions. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t do that. If you have a problem with that one particular corner, why don’t you focus on that over and over again?

Pick one thing you want to improve on and then simply work on this particular skill as long as it takes to get it right.

6. Have fun!

Sure, we all might get a little bit aggressive if something doesn’t work as planned, but in the sim racing world, this is not the end of your life. Don’t forget that there are other people out there that share the same passion as you do. They love motorsport, cars and racing. Therefore, don’t take sim racing to serious all the time, go out with your friends and enjoy some laps in the cruising mode. You can even learn something from driving slowly or behind someone who actually better knows what he or she is doing.

See you next time!