INTERVIEW
No public but above all, no cars. The 24 Hours of Le Mans starts on Saturday, but coronavirus forces everything to happen online. Unable to organize the classic car race, the organizers decided to offer the first virtual edition of the competition, in sim racing . Haas team driver Romain Grosjean explains to Nathalie Lévy in the evening newspaper how this unprecedented simulator competition, which is not far from classic racing, could mark a turning point in electronic sport .
"We will do everything to win them"
"I don't know if this is the future, but in any case there is a craze and a certain curiosity for online racing. We are going to see how people react, it's brand new and there is a effort to facilitate understanding. " The virtual competition will be an opportunity to participate in the democratization of e-sport, explains Romain Grosjean. "Today sim racing is a lot on the Twitch [platform], but here we’re talking about France Télévisions and Eurosport so we’ll see how it goes but I think it can be really nice . "
>> Find all of tomorrow's interviews from your major evening newspaper in replay and podcast here
This can also be an asset for classic motorsport, says the French driver. "We can try to find the talents of the future via sim racing , it costs much less," he said. What is obvious for Romain Grosjean is that this race will have an impact. "Having won the first 24 Hours of virtual Le Mans, I think it is an event that can mark a turning point in e-sport, sim racing and maybe even more. We will follow this very carefully. "The team is preparing well and we will do everything to win them."
Sim racing, close and different from classic car racing
The sim racing , or racing simulation, shares in common with the sport he imitates. "We are going to choose our car, make adjustments, we will have tire wear, fuel consumption, the weather will change, damage that we can repair at the stand", as for a competition physical, sums up Romain Grosjean.
For this first edition of the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans, the preparation of the drivers has nothing to envy to that of previous years. "We brought in racing engineers who came to help us analyze the data to try to find the best settings." For several weeks, the drivers of the fifty cars that will be at the start of the race have been training intensively.
>> LIVE - Coronavirus: follow the development of the situation on Friday 12 June
However, the two disciplines are difficult to assimilate. Sport "is accessible to everyone and that's something good for our sport, after that it's quite different from reality". Romain Grosjean sees it when he compares his performances, or those of his mates Matthias Beche and Daniel Juncadella, to those of professional sim racers . "I know I have things to understand, it is a challenge and it is also interesting to work on reactions, concentration and trying to go quickly on something that is not natural for us. "
Emulation among French athletes
The atmosphere is not the same either. For the racing driver, "the weirdest thing is that when the race ends you press the Esc button on your computer and it's over. If we win we will all open a bottle of champagne at home, but we will miss it a little bit of this festive side and the absence of the public ".
CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS
> Coronavirus: "We can largely release the pressure", according to an epidemiologist
> Coronavirus: the situation is "getting worse" worldwide, according to the WHO
> Economic crisis: "There are going to be two shocks, one on unemployment and one for young people"
> The rant of the pedagogue Philippe Meirieu against the distance school
> Coronavirus: 5 mistakes not to make with your mask
> It's a good time to take a flight to Europe!
Nevertheless "it is a way of mixing sporting universes". Basketball player Tony Parker, who will start the race and wave the French flag at 3 p.m. on Saturday, is himself very involved in this sport. "He organizes a race once a month with friends: Antoine Griezmann, Gaël Monfils, Charles Leclerc, me and a lot of basketball players and we laugh a lot," says Romain Grosjean.