Sim Racing for F1 Fans: A Beginner’s Guide

“Sim racing is the closest most of us will ever get to understanding what these drivers actually do.”. Lando Norris

More Than a Game

When Lando Norris and other Formula 1 drivers started streaming their sim racing sessions during the 2020 lockdowns, the audience that found them wasn’t just the existing gaming community. It was Formula 1 fans who had never considered sim racing as something relevant to their interest in the sport. Through those streams, a lot of people discovered that what happens on a simulator is genuinely connected to what happens on a Formula 1 circuit.

Sim racing, the practice of using software and hardware to simulate the experience of driving a racing car, has grown from a niche hobby into a competitive discipline with its own professional series, its own stars and a talent pipeline that Formula 1 teams now take seriously. For fans who want to engage with Formula 1 beyond watching, it’s the most direct route to understanding what the drivers actually do.

What Sim Racing Actually Is

At its simplest, sim racing is playing a racing game on a computer or console. At its most complex, it’s a full motion simulator costing hundreds of thousands of pounds that Formula 1 teams use to develop their cars and train their drivers.

The spectrum between those two extremes is wide. The good news for beginners is that meaningful sim racing experiences are available at every budget level. The most important choice early on is which platform to use, because each one offers a different balance of accessibility, realism and community.

The Platforms

F1 25 (and the annual EA Sports series)

The official Formula 1 game series, developed by Codemasters and published by EA Sports, is the most direct entry point for F1 fans. The official licensing means every current team, driver and circuit is represented accurately. The career mode lets you progress through the junior formulae in a way that mirrors the actual path to Formula 1.

The driving model is accessible rather than punishingly realistic. That’s the right balance for anyone new to sim racing who wants to engage with the Formula 1 world specifically rather than motorsport simulation more broadly. Start here.

iRacing

iRacing is the platform that serious sim racers and professional drivers use for competitive racing. It’s a subscription service with a realistic driving model, a structured licence system that mirrors real motorsport and a community large enough to ensure races are available at almost any time of day.

The barrier to entry is higher, both financially and in terms of the learning curve. But the competitive depth and the realism of the racing experience reward the investment significantly. If you want to race against other people at a level that actually tests you, iRacing is where that happens.

Assetto Corsa and Assetto Corsa Competizione

Assetto Corsa and its sequel Assetto Corsa Competizione are the most highly regarded simulation platforms for pure driving physics, particularly for fans interested in GT and endurance racing. The Formula 1 content is more limited than the official EA series, but the driving model is considered among the most realistic available on consumer hardware. If you care about how a car actually feels through a corner, these are the platforms that deliver that.

The Hardware

Sim racing on a controller is functional. It’s also a ceiling. The significant step up in immersion and realism comes with a steering wheel and pedal set and the range of hardware available covers every budget from entry-level to near-professional.

• Entry level: Logitech wheel and pedal sets, available for a few hundred pounds, represent the minimum investment that produces a meaningfully improved experience over a controller. They’re the right starting point for most people.
• Mid range: Fanatec offers a substantial step in quality and realism. The force feedback is more detailed, the pedals are more precise and the overall feel is noticeably closer to a real car.
• High end: Direct drive wheel bases from manufacturers including Simucube and Fanatec replicate the force feedback of a real racing car. The prices reflect their proximity to professional standard equipment. These are for people who are serious about the hobby.

A single monitor is sufficient for most sim racing applications. Triple monitor setups and VR headsets both offer significant increases in spatial awareness, which improves both the realism of the experience and your competitive performance. They’re not essential to start, but they’re a logical next step once the basics are in place.

Why Formula 1 Drivers Take It Seriously

The relationship between Formula 1 and sim racing is now well enough established that dismissing it as entertainment misses the point. Drivers including Verstappen, Norris and Russell have been open about the time they spend on simulators, both for professional development and genuine competitive enjoyment.

The skills that sim racing develops are transferable. Spatial awareness, consistency under pressure, understanding how a car responds to different inputs. These are things Formula 1 teams have incorporated into their driver development programmes. Several drivers on the current Formula 1 grid developed their initial racing instincts through sim racing before they ever sat in a real car. That pipeline is now sufficiently established that Formula 1 teams monitor sim racing competitions as a talent identification tool.

This isn’t a side interest for the drivers who do it. For some of them, it’s where the habits that made them competitive were first formed.

Getting Started

The simplest starting point is the official F1 game on whichever platform you already own, using whatever controller you have available. The barrier to entry is a single game purchase and the willingness to spend a few hours learning the circuits and the car behaviour.

1. Buy the official F1 game. Play it on a controller. Learn the circuits.
2. When the controller starts to feel like a limitation, invest in an entry-level wheel and pedal set.
3. When the official game’s driving model no longer presents a sufficient challenge, move toward iRacing or Assetto Corsa.

The sim racing community is large and welcoming to beginners. The official F1 game has its own online community. iRacing’s structured licence system means beginners race against other beginners while they develop. The learning curve is real but the support available to navigate it is substantial.

If you want a broader grounding in how Formula 1 works before you start, the F1 glossary on this site covers the terminology you’ll encounter both in the sport and in the sim racing world.

Formula 1 looks different once you’ve tried to drive the circuits yourself, even in a simulation. The braking points that look straightforward on television become genuinely difficult. The consistency that drivers like Norris and Verstappen produce lap after lap starts to feel remarkable in a way it didn’t before. That shift in perspective is perhaps the best reason to start.

Further reading

• iRacing Official Site: iRacing is the primary competitive sim racing platform referenced in the article and its official site is the authoritative source for subscription details and the licence system.
• Assetto Corsa by Kunos Simulazioni: The official home of Assetto Corsa, the simulation platform described in the article as one of the most realistic driving physics experiences available on consumer hardware.

Related picks on Amazon

A few things worth a look if this article got you curious. Links are affiliate: buying through them supports the site at no extra cost to you.

• Logitech G29 Driving Force Racing Wheel: shop on Amazon
• Fanatec CSL Wheel and Pedal Bundle: shop on Amazon
• F1 25 for PS5: shop on Amazon
• Next Level Racing Wheel Stand: shop on Amazon

Sim Racing’ A Beginner’s Introduction: FAQ