TCR World and life

3 SPOTLIGHT The hunger for racing has reached the highest peaks since the COVID-19 pandemic has locked the whole world down, suspending the new season after only a few events. Drivers and fans alike quickly developed withdrawal symptoms and were desperately looking for a cure. A virtual, but efficient cure: SIM racing. The use of simulators is not new to motorsports, as many drivers regularly utilize them for training reflexes and learning racetracks. But thanks to the huge progress of the digital technologies that has made them exceptionally realistic, SIM races can now also provide an outlet for all those motorsport lovers who can’t afford to enter into the real competition. A few of them have even been able to use this as an introduction to becoming real professional drivers like the current WTCR champion Norbert Michelisz, Lucas Ordoñez and Jann Mardenborough. Eventually the FIA recognized SIM racing as a real motorsport discipline, including it in the Motorsport Games programme. However, never before have so many SIM racing series been launched, often mingling real drivers with fans, which eventually, resulted in professional gamers outpacing acclaimed champions. Once again, WSC Group, the owner of the TCR brand and concept, went its own way while entering into the SIM racing arena in the best possible way and appointed Italian expert Luca Ragusa, who has done a stunning job in programming the homologated models and rendering the liveries of the different drivers. “My job consists of programming the cars The TCR pyramid goes digital Currently reserved for the real drivers, the TCR digital cars are already coveted by the fans, as was proved by the comments posted in live chat during the Spa races. “We are pleased to see that the fans loved them. All we can say to them is to be patient. Soon our cars will be available for them too,” said WSC president Marcello Lotti. TCR Europe was the first officially- sanctioned series with the rights to use virtual TCR cars, but it will soon be followed by TCR Canada and others, as WSC is spreading the format, signing with the promoters of the real championships deals that involve SIM racing. WSC and the promoter of TCR Europe have adopted a different approach compared to other virtual series, restricting participation to the real drivers who have already committed for the season or have a history of competing in other TCR series. This has made virtual competition as close as the real races; Dániel Nagy made history by becoming the first winner in a virtual TCR event, having scored a double victory at Spa, but competition was fierce and the following races promise to be as close as in the real world. There’s no reason to doubt that the TCR SIM races have the potential to become popular and be opened to the fans when action on the track will resume. Which will result in the building of yet another TCR pyramid! for virtual racing. I start from 3D renderings realised by Lorenzo Prati of LP Design, and through a bespoke tool I work on the look and the functional behaviour. It takes about 300 hours of work to complete each model; then my partner Marco Sabbatini works on rendering the livery of each driver and it takes him 20/25 hours more per car, depending on the complexity of the decoration. The final touch is given by Tino Hartmann who adds the sound of the cars,” Ragusa explained. The drivers may adjust only a limited number of parameters. “During the programming I fix some features such as gearbox ratios, aerodynamic drag and suspension range, while the drivers can later set up tyre pressure, brake distribution and differential calibration.” In cooperation with the car manufacturers’ technical departments, Ragusa will be soon working on the 2.0 versions of the virtual TCR cars. “We’ll improve the graphic so that the cars will show body damage after an incident, making everything even more realistic.”