Ferrari Virtual Academy 2010 – Pricing Info & New Previews

The announcement of Ferrari’s official Formula One simulator as part of their Virtual Academy Competition 2010 has taken the community by storm and here’s more on the surprisingly-announced new title:

As announced earlier, the Virtual Academy 2010 simulator will be available starting September 9th, the first version will include the Ferrari F10 Formula One car as well as the Fiorano circuit and will sell for 15€. Info on when the the other two tracks will be released is not yet available, neither are the system specs required to run the title.

Below are new previews, showing some fantastic details on the laser-scanned versions of Fiorano and Mugello. Also included is another video starring Giancarlo Fisichella, bringing us some new footage of the simulator.

For even more info and previews to feast your eyes on, make sure to check out the initial story on the Ferrari Virtual Driving Academy 2010.


  • Carbonfibre

    It would be epic if they started putting all the Ferrari’s in their own simulator after this. 458, 599, 355, etc. I imagine it would become quite the promotional tool as well.

  • Jos

    errrr did I just saw that F1 go airborne in the last few seconds?

  • mike88

    laser scanned tracks sounds great.

    but i bet mugello and nuerburgring will cost extra.

    f10 and fiorano is just starting price.

  • Hompe

    Graphics remind me of iracing

  • Fokkak Menny

    I wonder if Red Bull is considering the same move with Renault…

  • Hakkifan

    Yeah…that just looked wrong. :(

  • David Wright

    No sign of a formation lap or safety car.  The hardcore fans will not be impressed :)

  • vik15

    looks surprisingly good, perhaps  better than Codemasters F1 in regards of colors and lighting.

  • Rich1701

    I’m more excited about this than f1 2010 lol

  • Paul Kelly

    The pricing probably will be obscene because Ferrari figures that petrolheads worldwide will follow the Prancing Horse like lemmings, cost be damned.

  • Jack

    The only reason i will buy this game will be because of Fiorano….
    but $15 euro for 1 track and 1 car…. well, quite expensive…..

  • Floppy

    If this happens you can kiss seeing a Ferrari in other sims goodbye.

  • ed d’agliano-luna aka eddiespag

    Carbonfibre, you have good intuition and instincts.  This does seem like a natural progression from this collaboration.  It will obviously be for sport, marketing, customer relations, fan appreciation, Italian culture (some do say that Ferrari  is at times art), and whatever else can be imagined.  It’s no surprise that two Italian companies have joined forces.  I am relatively sure that Ferrari will do what’s in its power to ensure Stefano Casillo’s ‘Kunos Simulazione’ company (creator of netKar Pro) success, and Kunos will likewise return the same passionate commitment towards Ferrari.  They are after all compaesanos!

  • ed d’agliano-luna aka eddiespag

    Codemaster’s F1 2010, iRacing’s Williams FW31 w/Spa Franchorchamps, Ferrari’s Virtual Academy 2010 (it’s early content being F1 2010 car, Fiorano, Mugello, and Nurburgring tracks), and possibly rFactor2… all in 2010?  Wow, it will be quite a year!

  • Creatorex

    Do you think that ferrari does it for free? They are taking the opportunity to get incomes with this. 1 car 1 track 15€!!! In any case we all will want to try it I hope this to be a serious stuff if not… ff (You know :) )

  • mikemav

    Wow, what a great way to add to the (necessary and considerable) coffers a team needs to go racing. Of course, the story goes Enzo decided to sell Ferrari street cars to pay for the Scuderia racing effort in the first place. This is a cool 21st century version of the same logic applied, and we sim racing enthusiasts should benefit if it is as described! I’m in. Hope it works w/ Nvidia 3D Vision. 

  • Uff

    Then push hard in order to be among the top drivers and win official Ferrari prizes or the chance to drive the car for real: that should be a good prize for 15€. :D

  • kevmscotland

    Guess they are looking for someone to fill Massa’s shoes and be Alonsos pet.

    Atleast this way, his team-mate will suck :P

  • kevmscotland

    I am ofcourse jesting, so dont get worked up :P

  • Jack

    i dont think my neck is strong enough for a F1 car… :P
    so it’s all right!

  • Michael

    Yeah, it’s just to get €15 from mugs daft enough to believe they might get to drive a real F1 car.

    There’s one born every minute I guess. Next week play “Porn star academy! For only $99 you get to perform virtually on 3 laser scanned women. The top performers will have a chance to ride the real thing! A great prize for only $99!” 

  • magicalgin

    Italian.. what a beautifull language

  • qawaza

    OK good…now where can i find good carbonara spaghetti at the Academy?

  • Philip Oakley

    I’m buying it because it’s the netKar Pro base engine, Fiorano, and the the real CAD scanned car.

  • dalibor

    This means that Netkar will also profit from this collaboration,huh?
    surely there can be expected some generic f1 car in netkar soon? doubt it’ll be ferrari, but nevertheless….

  • Jonathan Stewart

    What’s going on there!?! I am worried now..

  • Uff

    The price is quite normal when you talk about laser scanned contents: have a look at iRacing costs and you won’t find many differences.

  • jimmy

    I think Ferrari has enough money to bring such title to its fans for FREE. But in case of really good simulation model (I expect better physics than any rFactor mod up to date) I’ll buy it of course.

  • jpmjpm

    Wooowwww! Amazing.

  • migf1

    Guys, com’on… you find €15,00 too expensive for the only F1 sim with full access to all the real-life data, coming from the most legendary team in Formula 1? I mean, €15,00 is way cheaper even than a theatre ticket for god’s shake!

    Even if half of what they say on their site is true, still it is a bargain I think.

  • Uff

    @ Michael: just read here and you’ll find what the prizes are: http://www.ferrarivirtualacademy.com/EN/torneo.jsp ;)  
    Ferrari Academy is a way to discover new drivers by letting them drive their F1 cars. Probably it won’t be the same this time, but there still are quite a lot of things that can justify those 15€. :)

  • F1Racer

    It’ll all help to go to paying their fine for their Hockenheim naughtiness.

  • Grega Bračič

    I’m buying.

  • Knarf

    true

    And you will be able to buy at least 2 extra tracks. I suspect that they will add each track of the F1 calendar as the season progresses as I think they laserscan the tracks for their pro-sim used by Massa and Alonso.

    It is 100% sure some teams laserscan each track of the season. And also that at least one team has a prosim based on NK-Pro. This makes me believe that that team is Ferrari and that they are in fact releasing (a trimmed version of) their prosim software.

  • Tonyo

    I don’t think actual Ferrari F1 simulator would run on an average rig. This is absolutely not a public version of their private product, just one more branded game, that’s all. Good marketing though.

  • Uff

    This is not a secret: it’s written on the website too, if my memory serves me well. They adapted their simulator to what normal PC can handle. This doesn’t mean that the final result won’t be good, by the way. :)

  • Deuzessete

    15 euros????????? Bando de mercenários!!! FDP! até parece que a Ferrari tá falindo! 

  • Gerrit

    There will always be people complaining about the prize,even if it would be 5 euro its still too much for some, these people mostly dont know a thing about developing a sim or coding or whatever.
    15 euros is really really cheap for the content provided, seeing how long it takes to generate some good data with laserscanning,i wouldve asked more actually ;)

  • migf1

    The most interesting thing of all is that for the 1st time we have all the good reasons to believe that this sim was created by guys who really know what they are doing. Minimal to zero guesswork! It could easily be used as a point of reference in our comparison with other f1 sims/mods.

    Unless it’s full of marketing bullshit, which I would love to doubt, since something like that could hurt their fame and credibility.

  • Knarf

    What Uff says is correct. Their website states this sim is a dumbed down version of their real sim in order to let it run an normal pc’s.
    So I am pretty sure Ferrari is the team which pro-sim is based on Kunos stuff…

  • Belzebutt

    People who say this has nice graphics, what are you smoking? This looks like it has no shaders, like the GTR games or rFactor. Not knocking this game overall, I’m sure it will be all about the physics and driving experience.

  • Doby

    +1 Gerrit!! Well said

  • cheeseman

    And what are good graphics ? Current videogames with 10000 stupid unrealistic filters ?

  • David Wright

    The thing is Ferrari will already have laser scanned these tracks for their real simulator, so the cost of laser scanning is zero.  If you could actually race the price would be OK.  For a hotlap sim its hard to avoid the conclusion that its pricey.  Really its not much more than a demo.  I’ll probably still buy it though :)

  • cosm1

    i think you smoke heavy! No shaders?? LOL

  • RKipker

    Mr. Wright, I always appreciate your comments and respect you opinion.  I miss discussions with you on No Grip

    I agree 20US may be a little steep at first impression, if it includes the three tracks, it’s very reasonable… !  Additionally, how do we know that they will not eventually make it a racing game/simulator.  Maybe, the Hot Lapping will be to control the release and slowly get folks into the game.

    Finally, have we considered… maybe they’re looking for funding to help obtain the F1 2011 championship next year by selling they’re laser scanned tracks… LOL     :-$ !

  • Jonathan Stewart

    I would pay over €150 for this same thing, if we had to.

    This is a great opportunity and I really have nothing to complain about yet, other than it’s not out today instead of Sept 9th.

  • Michael

    Eh? If they’ve laser scanned the tracks and used them in their real simulator as well the cost is zero?

    D’oh. How did you figure that nonsense out? Try again.

  • Ferrari Spaceships Stole my Mother

    Hmmm…….I’ve said it 5 billion times before – licensing issues are threatening to come and end our golden age.  

  • free2game

    Hence the “trimmed” part. It would be a lot cheaper to use as much content as they already had lying aorund.

  • Jay

    If I want good graphics, I’ll go outside.

  • Empty

    What I’m going to say is ahole ish. Dont like it, STFU and stop reading.

    Are you guys that gullible to believe that some uber sim is just going to appear out of thin air like this has? Do you really believe it’s going to be the next thing to raise the bar? No, it’s just another NKPro version. Sadly, NKPro didn’t raise the bar due to the issues this thing will have – Racing. Or the lack thereof. Great sim, just, well, where is the racing?

    It’s NFS Shi(f)t redone. “promising the most accurate virtual reproduction of a Ferrari F1 single-seater in computer simulation to date.” No duh. When was the last “virtual reprodution of a Ferrari F1 single seater in computer simulation” anyways? When did ISI stop, 2003?

    Seriously. As much as people bitch about iRacing pricing, sure do seem to throw their money around willy nilly at anything they are told is what they want, when in fact, it’s not even close.

    Have fun hotlapping in your so much fun to drive Downforce car. ;)

  • Gerrit

    Indeed, i dont think they got the tracks scanned for free ;)
    And there is still a competition involved with this sim (i dont see that with demos), with some nice prizes which need to be payed too ofcourse :P

  • Gerrit

    This one doesnt promise any RACING now does it?

    And thanks, I think I will really enjoy this one, and come on, whats 15 euro on a 1 month salary.
    Unless youre some kid waiting on your 10 euro allowance a week or something…

  • dalibor

    why so much anger in your post? :-P

    well, nkpro has nearly best physics available in sims (like iracing, lfs….)
    then if its nkpro + direct info from ferrari f1 = probably yes-best im to date. :)
    and your comparison with nfs clearly shows that you dont really know driving sims quite well to make such harsh comments….
    yes iracing is pricy, but who for who can afford it its well worth it.

  • David Wright

    OK lets try to explain this more carefully. 

    Ferrari have a simulator they use for their F1 team.  We know some teams use laser scanned tracks for these simulators.  Its hard to believe Ferrari would sell a commercial game with laser scanned tracks but not use laser scanned tracks for their F1 team simulator, so I’d suggest its virtually certain Ferrari use laser scanned tracks for their F1 team simulator.

    Since they have already paid for the laser scanned tracks for their F1 team simulator, there is no need to pay for them to be scanned again for Ferrari Virtual Academy.  They can use the laser scans they already have for free in their Virtual Academy.

  • Hoshi

    100% purchase for me, can’t wait!!

  • Adam Bradshaw

    Let’s just hope McLaren doesn’t use the same train of thought and end up with Codies!

  • Fokkak Menny

    I’m wondering why you mentioned SHIFT in your rant. I mean, since when SHIFT was a sim? And it’s not like another game developer decided to make a sim and speak highly of it. This time it’s coming from a source, and despite Ferrari’s manner in expressing how great their sim is (they’re always proud of their work), I’m sure it’s going to as accurate as they claim, or it would be such a stupid way to bring down their name over a PC game. I seriously don’t think Ferrari is that dumb.

    And what’s wrong with nKPro? If anything, that’s a fine choice.

  • Indestructible Carrot Killer

    s/he said    NFS Shi(f)t

  • ed d’agliano-luna aka eddiespag

    Hey fellas,
      here’s some simple no cost advice/tip.  Download netKar Pro at no cost and try the free open wheel demo car and test track (Crema) and just drive.  You’ll get a good feel for what this will be all about (physics, ffb, graphics, immersion, etc).  Then for those of you interested in taking your driving to a whole new level and want to be a more competent and complete driver, get netKar Pro and start your training from the lower three formula levels (F1600, F1800, F2000, and F3).  The first two cars are non winged and are great for developing car ‘feel’ of mechanical grip, and the last two you’ll develop your skills in an ‘aero’ car.  In my opinion it will more properly develop you as a proper driver/racer before jumping into the Ferrari F1 F10 racecar, which I assume will be extremely difficult to master.  This way you will be able to bring your times as low as possible and who knows, maybe even win those prizes offered.  For sure you will gain a greater appreciation and thusly a more enjoyable and fulfilling experience at driving the Ferrari Formula One racecar.  ;)

  • Empty

    Like I said, nKPro is awesome. It’s a great sim. But in the end, it’s worthless. No one races. Wait, no, your going to take that literally. Very very few race. Sadly, that is it’s great downfall. If nkPro had the same size community as even iRacing does it would be THE sim – sadly, it doesnt. Great sim, but again, who’s racing? Why would I waste my money to hotlap? I’m a simracer, not a Simlapper. Which are you?

    Hell, why not buy nkP for a bit more and hope to find some actual racing? Or, are you lot this obsessed with Ferrari? lol

    Exactly why iRacing is worth it. Because even though I spend more money, I get to actually race without fear of wreckers – but that is another topic. But yea, if more people raced nKPro, I’d be there and not at iRacing. That is for sure.

    Do you not remember the comments on this site about Shi(f)t prelaunch? Many were saying “This will be the greatest sim ever”. No lies, you can go look through them and see. “SMS is old Simbin, so it’s going to be the greatest ever!” Clearly, Shi(f)t is not a Hardcore Sim.

    Dalibor – “and your comparison with nfs clearly shows that you dont really know driving sims quite well to make such harsh comments….  ”

    I’ve been Sim Racing since the mid to late 90′s. I’ve been around. Pretty much every sim that is worth a damn in the last 15 years I’ve driven.

    Did I say Shi(f)t is a sim? No, you simply misunderstood what I’ve said.

    It’s the same trick SMS pulled with Shi(f)t. Lets say it’s going to be the most accurate version, because it technically is due to the fact it has “better” data behind it and more parameters simulated than past iterations, when it may not be a true sim. Sure, it may do things that no one else does, but everything else is horribly flawed, is it really more accurate? You can easily say that Shi(f)t is more accurate than say, rFactor because Shi(f)t does “simulate” more parameters, particularly in the tire model. Clearly though, that is just a PR Man’s spin. Shi(f)t clearly isn’t a sim, even though it is simulating more parameters a car would experience.

    LFS is a great comparison to this. Yes, it has an awesome (for the time, still even today it’s fairly well regarded) tire model. Most of the rest though is just…. Not Sim like. You can see cars do things here that just dont happen.

    Hell, F1 2010 by Codies is the same case of the devs saying “Yup, It’ll be super realistic!” when, well, in actuality, it isn’t going to be what we – the sim racers – are looking for.

    Don’t fall prey to PR.

  • David Wright

    Looks like you fell for iRacing’s PR :)

    No doubt iRacing is very good, but there is hype and PR surrounding all racing games.

    As for F1 2010 not going to be be what “we” sim racers are looking for – please don’t assume all sim racers are looking for what you are looking for.  I’m looking for AI, I’m looking for dynamic weather, and dynamic track conditions, I’m looking for all the F1 teams and tracks, and I’m looking for full length races.  iRacing doesn’t provide what I’m looking for.

  • Gerrit

    Yeah, but thats not how it works…lets say I’ve made a mold of a certain car part, sure now that I got the mold its easy to reproduce the part, but it would be foolish to sell it dirt cheap…thats just not how a business works ;)

  • Pau

    “I’m a simracer, not a Simlapper. Which are you? ”

    One would presume your not much into rallying. Is timekeeping not racing part?

  • Empty

    I love RBR. Probably the sim I do best at.

    Rally is different than driving in circles around a circuit. Unless you classify turning laps in a test as rallying. Which is odd if you do.

    David – “As for F1 2010 not going to be be what “we” sim racers are looking for – please don’t assume all sim racers are looking for what you are looking for.  I’m looking for AI, I’m looking for dynamic weather, and dynamic track conditions, I’m looking for all the F1 teams and tracks, and I’m looking for full length races.  iRacing doesn’t provide what I’m looking for.”

    So physics don’t matter? Do you still play GP4, because it does everything you listed probably the best, even today. It’s weather is out of the world, as is the AI. Races of full legnth, still some of the best track modelling out there in terms of accuracy. With modding, it’s all there. Sadly, it’s let down by simplified physics. Still awesome though, even 8 years later.

    Frankly, nothing beats iRacing. It’s physics are good enough. Some say the best, others say it’s not – doesn’t matter, it is fairly realistic. Heck, rF can be realistic enough. The racing is out of this world, which is why it’s worth it for me. Again, I’m a racer, not a lapper. Not sure how that is falling for PR when I have made the judgement for myself…..

  • Empty

    RBR is one of the few sims that stays on my HD. In fact, it’s probably my favorite. I’ll certainly fire up RBR over the latest F1 mod in rFactor.

    @ David – So you must still play GP4 then, no? Because everything you listed GP4 does do the best. AI? No contest. Weather? Still the best. Full Legnth races? Got em. It has everything your looking for.

    And how is saying that “I’d be at NKPro if it had a larger community” buying into iRacing PR? Yea, I am subscribed to iRacing. I love it. Why? Because the racing is more realistic. I don’t get wreckers, I don’t get idiots who can’t drive – atleast in my splits. I’d gladly jump ship to any other sim that can offer the same quality of content and racing with the same level of ease. It isn’t buying PR when you’ve made the decision for yourself.

    nKP offers the near enough the same level of content. However, it’s racing is a let down, because few actually are racing. rF fails on both accounts (You probably know my stance on 90% of the mods). GP4 is great, but F1 just isn’t fun. RBR loses it’s luster once you know every single stage like the back of your hand – memorizing courses isn’t rallying.

    So that is why I support iRacing. Because it is the best package.

  • migf1

    Yes, we know… iRacing is the best and bla bla bla. So please go iRace and leave us mortals toying with kiddish stuff. This isn’t an iRacing thread, is it?

    PS. Btw, this looks pretty exciting nKPro racing to me :p

  • Full

    Graphics for me are hi level. Maybe not full of post effects, but the whole pakage shown high attention for details. Look only at the bridge from fiorano… probably we wont even miss post effects with such attention to details.
    nKpro physics are top level, graphics very detailed and clean.

    100% BUY.

  • nestor martin

    Is it NetKar Pro????

  • Justin ForzaBarça D’Cruze

    @Empty
    NKP didnt raise the bar…are you serious? It was the most hardcore sim when it came out and it still is. Yeah it had massive issues before v1.03 but its come a long way since then in terms of stability and netcode in particular. The community is very small and leagues are the only way to go if you want to find races but I’ve had plenty of good races in it.

    Now I like iracing, I really do. It is hands down the best racing experience out of all the sims (safety rating is genius), as it should be given it is by far the most expensive. And you’re entitled to preach about iracing and the book according to Kaemmer/Henry all you want but how would you know that this is anything like Shift? Or that Shift was a bad thing for that matter? In any case 3 laser-scanned tracks +  f1 car for 15 euros……I dont need PR to tell me thats a good deal because well, how much does it cost to rent 1 car or track in iracing again??

    So yessir, I shall continue to hotlap in my ludicrously boring F1 car because some of us still appreciate the physics of a sim even if it lacks door to door racing.

  • Shorel

    The “trimmed” part is actually the lack of suitable controllers. Everything else is just not as significative.

    Modern computers with loads of processing cores are a lot faster than the supercomputers of ten years ago.

    On the other hand, Ferrari has state of the art steering wheels, pedals, and other stuff for their simulator, that probably feel exactly like the real thing, while you (and me) only have flimsy potentiometers and noisy gears.

  • Abdulhaq Elhouderi

    Alright, this is bit strange. People say Ferrari Virtual Academy uses the netKar Pro engine, however, we have seen no evidence to suggest so (real evidence!). On the other hand, Ferrari claims the simulator is part of it’s official simulator resized so it can work on normal computers.

    If FVR really used netKar Pro; can the official (real) Ferrari simulator be based on netKar Pro?. It’s either that, or Ferrari are lying or FVR is not using netKar pro engine. I’m new to such simulators so all the above might be w r o n g :P

  • Abdulhaq Elhouderi

    A though: it had been ages since netKar was updated (2006), maybe Ferrari bought it  8-)

  • crampy

    its 9th Sept. show us the money!

  • nestor martin

    OK it’s 9H26 in Italy, WAKE UP!! >:o

  • Fan

    Its already 4pm of 9 Sept in my country!!!! AND I AM STILL WAITING!

  • rally_fan

    Hopefully will be no delay :)

  • Jorge Ferrari

    Business my friend, only bisiness.
    500.000 x 15 = 7.500.000 euros!!!! Nice deal

  • rally_fan

    Something is happens, official website not available, are they uploading something to the server?

  • fan

    the server keep crashing.

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