Racing simulators help real drivers in three main ways: learning a circuit before they arrive, testing car setups without track time, and practicing racecraft against other drivers. Formula 1 teams run dedicated driver-in-the-loop simulators before, during and after race weekends, and many professional drivers also race online. A simulator does not replace real seat time, but it lets teams and drivers arrive better prepared.
How F1 Teams Use Simulators
Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team describes its driver-in-loop (DiL) simulator as a virtual test track. The cockpit uses the same chassis, steering wheel and pedals as the race car, track models come from lidar scanning, and engineers spend a lot of time correlating the virtual car with the real one so it handles the same way. For a track the team knows, a typical pre-event programme is two days, around 450 laps. A new circuit adds two more days, plus a day for the race drivers to learn the layout.
Most of that running is done by dedicated simulator drivers. In the team's explainer on the sim driver's role, simulator testing runs five days a week, and a sim driver can log up to 170 laps in a day working through setup changes. During a race weekend, the sim team correlates its car to the race drivers' fastest practice lap, tries setup options and feeds the findings back to the track, sometimes working through the night in the UK to match the trackside timezone.
Learning Tracks
Track learning is where a simulator is most directly useful: braking points, turn-in references, elevation and curbs can all be rehearsed. That depends on accurate track models, which is why teams and sim developers laser-scan circuits. iRacing describes its laser-scanned tracks as reproducing the cracks, camber and undulations of the real surface.
Racecraft and Online Racing
Many professional drivers race online. In 2019, F1 drivers Max Verstappen and Lando Norris won the virtual Spa 24 Hours in iRacing as teammates for Team Redline, driving an Audi R8 LMS GT car, as reported by Motor Sport Magazine. Norris said in the same report that drivers who move from a simulator into a real car can show "the skills correlate very well". When COVID-19 canceled live races in 2020, NASCAR drivers raced the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, whose first televised race drew 903,000 viewers, according to TechCrunch.
What the Research Says
Be cautious with claims that simulator time directly makes drivers faster in real cars; the published evidence we cite here shows something narrower: simulators capture real racing skill. In a 2017 PLoS One study from Delft University of Technology, racing drivers in a simulator set faster lap times and drove a more optimal racing line than non-racing drivers, while the two groups showed no significant difference on general reaction-time and tracking tests. In other words, what separates racing drivers is task-specific skill, which is what a simulator lets them practice, rather than faster reflexes.
What a simulator is good for, and its limits
- Good for: track familiarization, setup direction, procedures and racecraft.
- Limited by: how well the car model is correlated, and the physical cues a platform can reproduce. Even a full-motion rig cannot reproduce sustained g-forces.
The Same Ideas at an Event
An event rig is not a factory F1 simulator, but it uses the same building blocks: physics software, force feedback, force-sensing pedals and motion. SimsForHire's full-motion rigs use SIGMA Integrale 2DOF/3DOF electric motion platforms. Read how racing simulators work for the technology, then see our corporate events, trade shows, private parties and brand activations. To try sim racing walk-in, visit our sister venue Shift Arcade Miami.
Rent or Buy
Full-motion rigs are $2,750 per rig per day, with a $2,000 event minimum, plus tax and insurance. Delivery is free within 50 miles of Miami. We also sell and lease simulators. Call (754) 228-5654 or send an inquiry.