David Greco experienced what would be a dream come true for many sim racers, getting the opportunity to try out a real racing car and prove himself against an experienced racing driver.
Greco won the rFO championship and had the chance to compare himself against World Series by Renault driver Marco Bonanomi. After proving himself in a simulator, Greco left the known environment to try a vintage F3 car at the Adria Raceway. Both drivers completed eight laps and the virtual champion proved to be very close to Bonanomi’s times.
The whole thing was followed by Italian TV station Nuvolari, you can find their report below. Roughly five minutes into the video, we get to see very interesting head-to-head comparisons of both drivers on track – Showing that sim racing seems to be a suitable training for racing drivers indeed.
austin
July 9th, 2008 at 21:47
sweet… if only there was a F1 draft from sim racing lmao
RedBull maybe? lol.. Scott Speed got picked up that way from a karting challenge lmao.
Raikku
July 9th, 2008 at 22:40
What the heck is “rFO”?
trebor901
July 9th, 2008 at 23:41
i dont get these people who dress up in full racing suit and helmet just to play a racing sim.
superapex
July 10th, 2008 at 00:50
After winning the Red Bull driver challenge Scott Speed had to prove himself during some test sessions and then went on to an F1 feeder series. He definately had some skill… his entire family is really involved in national/ international karting competition.. so his pedigree wasn’t exactly a sim racer but rather a seasoned real life racer.
I think there is definately a lot of proof of concept evidence that a sim racer can succeed in real life. I remember some mexican sim racing champion that won a chance to compete in a real race at Hermanos Rodriguez. I think the dude ended qualifying on the front row in his first race.
It definately works the other way too. With real drivers using sims to sharpen their skills. I’ve heard stories of F1 drivers using Rfactor to familiarize themselves with a new track… The new sim on the block Iracing.com has a lot of real drivers registered: Dale Earnhardt Jr, Scott Speed, Justin Wilson, Jacque Villenueve, I’ve heard rumors that Juan Pablo Montoya and numerous others have signed up too.
Kill4Food
July 10th, 2008 at 00:56
Awesome video. Too bad that I don’t understand Italian when it’s spoken that fast. (I’m learning)
I have to agree that sim racing is a very good learning tool. It has definitely helped me improve my driving in the real world. Seen you guys online unless I challenge you to a real race. :mrgreen:
Domenico Veneziano
July 10th, 2008 at 01:36
Hi all, I’m Domenico Veneziano, president of RFO italian national sim championship. I organized the Adria event and I’m seeing a lot of forums talking of it. I’m so proud for all the comments i read and I hope to be able to organize something bigger for simracing.
During 2008 season we had also very nice race videos…you can see comething here
http://www.gametribes.tv/?Episode=645
For the tv test drivers had to use helmet to make it more similar to real thing. Don’t forget that we were on TV and that spectators want something more than two guys in front of a pc. Everything was made also to make a show, to let people be more interested in our special sim world.
Thank you all
Bob
July 10th, 2008 at 01:46
David Greco has been racing since 1999 in karts, Formula Ford, Formula Renault, Skip Barbers. His racing talent isn’t just based on playing rFactor.
Aldo Villamil / Kabrony Productions
July 10th, 2008 at 06:52
bob that is true to a point, in wcgtr2.com we have scca real life race winners, also another races real gts all over America and they all ways put up a good performance in league races. Now i would not mind starting 21 in the grid if they gave me a chance to race real f1. :mrgreen: A good racer is good in real live and virtual same instincts of course to a point. With more people like Greco getting a chance it validates sim racing great post