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Grosjean reluctant to join Virtual Grand Prix Series

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Romain Grosjean has started testing the sim racing waters, but the Haas driver isn’t inclined so far to join a few of his F1 colleagues in the sport’s official Virtual Grand Prix Series.

Formula 1’s forced hiatus has encouraged Grosjean to assess the online world both as a competitor and an entrant, as the Frenchman has set up his own sim racing team – R8G Sim Racing Team – that will make its debut in this weekend’s iRacing Nurburgring 24 Hours.

The outfit, which enjoys the backing of Ricard Mille and GoPro, will announce its roster of drivers and program later this month.

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Grosjean sampled F1’s official platform, which runs on Codemasters’ F1 2019 software, but the game’s lack of feeling has so far kept the Haas driver from joining Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Alex Albon, George Russell and many others in the sport’s Virtual Grand Prix series.

“The F1 game I’ve tried a little bit and didn’t get a great feel initially so I put it aside and went more into iRacing,” Grosjean told The Race.

“I, for some reason, appreciate the GT cars and I feel iRacing is a little bit more realistic in terms of how the car behaves.

“I think I’m not the only one with that comment I believe.”

Indeed, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has also declined to take part in F1’s online events.

“I know F1 really wants me to join and I would love to, but still, if it’s me two seconds off the pace it’s a bit tough,” added Grosjean.

“What you’re missing is the sensation, the feeling of speed that you don’t get, and that’s the same in the simulator, you know with the multi-million [pound] F1 ones, so I guess the limitations are kind of the same in that aspect.”

“The only thing I miss is the feeling from the ass, you know it’s all coming through the steering wheel and the motors they do a great job.

“But still you’re missing the feeling from the chassis itself which for me is the hardest thing to get at the beginning.”

©Codemasters

Grosjean was no stranger to online games ten years ago, but the 34-year-old says the current platforms are in a world apart and require a significant amount of knowledge, which he is currently building up.

“It’s a bit of a full job at the beginning, understanding the fuel level, if you do or don’t change tyres in a race which I didn’t even know how to select in the beginning so I was like ‘why am I so slow in the pitstops?’ and I was told ‘because you’re changing tyres’,” he explained.

“There’s a lot of things you need to learn but it’s good fun.”

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