Apparently so, but it seems more for memorizing the tracks then actually getting a feel for the car.

http://www.jgadgets.com/2008/01/05/real-racers-actually-use-gran-turismo-to-train

It doesn't seem that helpful. In games, the tracks seem shorter than when I watch one TV.

its a gud way to learn the track but its not accuarate as real life

well,I personally use gt 4 to get try and memorise tracks like nurburgring, cause its a dream of mine to do a few hot laps there one day

same here lol

^GT4 has the most realistic recreation of Nurburgring (IMO), but the physics system sucks.

I personally believe that Enthusia Professional Racing is as accurate as a game could get in terms of handling.


SKR34 is right. When you watch the tracks in real life/TV, they're much bigger than one thinks it is....

Villeneuve, used it in his first season in Formula 1!
He was going to race at a track he never raced before, and his team got a Playstation, the last years Formula 1 game, and Villeneuve, raced a few laps on it!
Amazingly -as far as i can remember- Villeneuve did quite good at the track!

I don't think that video games will train the racers but just see the opposite side. In Formula 1, teams have simulators. So in the future we might see video games training racers. I can't choose a side.

My ex boss, would use gtr 2 and a simulator to learn all the tracks he could which matched the Grand Am Rolex series.

I know Montoya used to play all the time while he has in F1 to learn the tracks and things of that sort.

I think Sarthe looks smaller on TV than it does in GT4. Especially the Mulsanne straight. The distance to and between the two chicanes look amazingly short on TV.

I remember Loeb was using GT4 to practise for Le Mans the first year he was racing for Pescarolo, so I thought the game was so realistic that you could actually become a hardcore race driver from playin GT4. As in you could practise driving an R8 in GT4, and two months later you'd be able to beat eight tons of crap out of Pescarolo Sport in real life. lol

^GT4 has the most realistic recreation of Nurburgring (IMO), but the physics system sucks.

I personally believe that Enthusia Professional Racing is as accurate as a game could get in terms of handling.


SKR34 is right. When you watch the tracks in real life/TV, they're much bigger than one thinks it is....

of course its bigger than you think it is, when your playing the game, it only take you 7 to 9 minutes to do a lap, when it would take you hours to jog the damn thing

I think Sarthe looks smaller on TV than it does in GT4. Especially the Mulsanne straight. The distance to and between the two chicanes look amazingly short on TV.

I remember Loeb was using GT4 to practise for Le Mans the first year he was racing for Pescarolo, so I thought the game was so realistic that you could actually become a hardcore race driver from playin GT4. As in you could practise driving an R8 in GT4, and two months later you'd be able to beat eight tons of crap out of Pescarolo Sport in real life. lol

True, he raced his WRC rally in Turkey and then on his private jet back to Le Mans where he'd race for Pescarolo, he practiced on a a PS2, with GT4 and the Logitech Driving Force Pro.

Villeneuve, used it in his first season in Formula 1!
He was going to race at a track he never raced before, and his team got a Playstation, the last years Formula 1 game, and Villeneuve, raced a few laps on it!
Amazingly -as far as i can remember- Villeneuve did quite good at the track!Villeneuve? What year was that? The game must have been compounded by big squares, lol.

If I'm not mistaken Hamilton and Yamamoto learned some tracks on GT4 before the real practices.

You are missing the point here. The reason they truly use GT4 is that visually it is unrivaled in terms of track recreation and graphic representation. They went through pain staking efforts to recreate ever bump, brake marker, corner, curb, ect ect. They are using GT4 to memorize the track layout and braking zones. Not to mention the physics werent great but the perception of speed was always best exhibited by GT4. When you drive and F1 car in GT4 the track is a blur just as I imagine it would be IRL in a car like that. Too me I think it would be a great way to learn a track, but no so much how to drive.

Its not a bad idea but its possible for this to actually hurt their lap times because they might mix the games physics and real life physics and can accidently overturn or underturn.
what i think they should do is practice on the games say 500 laps? then go to the track, master it and never play that track again on the simulators

Anyone played GT5: Prologue yet? The game is completely redesigned from the ground up. The physics are completely new, track and car modeling, added to the in-car view and the G25 wheel with clutch and H shifter support are completely sick. The game is really something else. All I need is the 'ring to really have some fun!

^^Will try sometime...

I think for one, it does help in memorizing a race track.

Maybe they didn't make the track 100% correct to every corner, but they got most of it.

I'm sure if I was a race car driver :D, I would use a simulator to help me out.

This is what we call....

Propoganda..

A: It's Gran Turismo, the biggest automotive game series from japan..that recently was a flop (Grand turismo 3.5 AKA 4)
B: The Drivers are F1 drivers...of japanese residence and decent..
C: In japan you're no more than 45 minutes from a coast..no matter WHERE you are in the country therefore japan ISN'T THAT BIG!!!
D: A F1 driver can afford to drive his happy ass to the track to walk it on an open track day...There isn't an issue of "not being able to make it"
E: There are dozens of other games and methods of learning the tracks layout withot playing A Japanese game, on a japanese console, with a japanese manufactured steering wheel.

F: The guy obviously isn't a GOOD driver, because Gran turismo makes a mockery of real life events...meaning you can take cars that run 7 minutes around the ring IRL..and make them run nearly 6 minutes on GRAN turismo in stock trim....

And if he ONLY managed to get within .4 seconds of the REAL life record..on a video game...no wonder his team has no success..

First japan hits the market with the GT-R now GT-5...

Dude..this is getting ridiculous.

If any driver uses games as a means of getting a feel for the track, then they are morons. Luckily, I doubt there are many of those race drivers who exist (I hope).

They would only use it for visual recognition at best. Familiarising themselves with what's around them, with possible things to look out for, overall flow of the circuits etc.

What confuses me though, is that drivers take walks around the circuit before the first practice session. The F1 drivers do it all the time, and while I haven't seen it in any other race series, I would be heavily surprised if they didn't.

Well I used to play Forza all the time, and my favorite track was Road America - I had that track down. And then 3 years ago I had my first real car race there in SCCA, and it definently helped me because I was already familiar with the layout, elevation changes, ect... It is in no way a substitiute for real practice, not in the slightest bit, but it does help.

This is what we call....

Propoganda..


That's a strong word for something which doesn't really...matter?

Anyway, it's true that race drivers play computer games like the rest of us. What are they going to do in their time off? They're rich and famous, and they drive race cars for a living - because it's what they want to do.

Particularly during periods outside the racing series they play computer games not only to remind them of tracks, but in order to keep their competitive mentality. Hamilton admitted to remaining competitive through winter by "cracking out the Playstation".

Chris.