INTERVIEW
Notice to fans of Formula 1, the channel L'Équipe TV offers a surprising program to its confined viewers. Friday, at 7 p.m., the French driver of the Renault F1 team, Esteban Ocon, will face the Spanish Carlos Sainz Jr. on the video game Gran Turismo Sport, available on PlayStation.
"Here is the seat, with the position as in F1 with the pedals inclined," explains Esteban Ocon, presenting the cabin of his "vehicle" to Europe 1. A follower of these video games, the new generation of F1 drivers uses it more and more like simulators.
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"Now we can simulate our sport very correctly"
With his parents in Normandy, a yellow cap in the colors of his French stable, Esteban Ocon settles down in his F1-style seat, facing a screen before switching on his console. "Simulation games and Gran Turismo have always been part of my life," he says. "I grew up with this game which forged me as a professional pilot, because it is a lot of training."
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Indeed, if the F1 driver also has fun on these games between races in normal times, confinement is a particularly favorable period for this kind of virtual training. "If the containment had taken place thirty years ago, the time would have been much longer for us pilots," he admits. "But now we can simulate our sport very well."
Thanks to these games, Esteban Ocon says he manages to maintain his physical condition. So if the F1 season started tomorrow, he said, he would be "immediately operational" to take control of his real F1.
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