By admin Jarno Opmeer is perhaps the most well-known F1 esports driver out of all of them.
In 2020 and 2021, he won the World Championship twice. He has about 500,000 YouTube subscribers, and about 400,000 people frequently watch his races live on Twitch. Opmeer, who has been with Mercedes since 2021, has recently defected to Red Bull, and PlanetF1.com caught up with him at the Zandvoort home grand prix.
Jarno Opmeer talks about his time at Red Bull and his friendship with Max Verstappen.
Let’s start with the obvious: why did you sign up for Red Bull?
Why not? Together with Freddie [Rasmussen], we will undoubtedly have a very potent team. It’s unlikely that we have ever seen two world champions on the same squad. It will be thrilling.
Naturally, it doesn’t ensure success in the future, but we both have a ton of experience and are adamant about trying to win the title.
How was the initial week?
I’ve known for a long, but right away, we finished the first race on Wednesday, making it a wonderful start.
We just need to keep getting ready for the F1 esports. So far, it’s been fantastic.
What was the experience of making the switch from Mercedes to you?
Now that I work with Redline, the Mercedes esports team is minuscule in comparison to Redline’s size.
It’s undoubtedly much larger because the esports team also includes the Red Bull division.
Redline is obviously highly skilled in sim racing, and it’s fantastic that everyone there is aware of the challenges and requirements of practice sessions, among other things.
The team experience has been fantastic and is undoubtedly benefiting me greatly, as I have already observed.
Have you had any conversations with your fellow countryman Max Verstappen since joining? He is a major admirer of sim racing.
He and I had an interview this morning! Naturally, we occasionally have brief online conversations in the team chat section of Discord. Thus, yes, I’m sure we will talk more in the upcoming days, weeks, and months.
Max is obviously a huge fan of iRacing. I’m not very good at iRacing, but I do it occasionally. I really should be concentrating on my F1 side, as competing at the highest level in several sims at once is not simple. It is feasible, but you actually do give up a tiny advantage, which is important in esports.
After the esports season is over, I’m sure we’ll talk a lot more. We’ll work it out. Maybe we can do something in iRacing. I believe we should stick to Call of Duty and FIFA in the interim.
What are the primary distinctions between F1 and iRacing racing?
Since Formula One has evolved significantly every year nonetheless, you have to constantly rework the rules of the game.
iRacing does not change, or does change somewhat. Although it updates, the foundation is mostly unchanged. Thus, it is evident that iRacing is extremely technical. F1 not so much, which somehow makes it quite difficult for everyone to truly understand.
One year is not the same, as I mentioned. In contrast, you kind of know what to concentrate on when using iRacing.
How quickly do you adjust to a new Formula One game when it’s released?
Driving-wise, I believe you can get the hang of it in about a week. What takes some getting used to are the settings and driving combinations.
whatever driving technique, along with whatever configuration, is the fastest? Determining that is usually the challenging part. Every game has a better fit now than it did earlier.
One analogy is League of Legends, which releases new metas every few months, and Formula One is somewhat similar. Few drivers are able to adjust and perform at the highest level every year.
How does esports differ from traditional sports?
It is distinct. Real Formula 1 is, of course, extremely dynamic. Weather variations of only a few degrees can have a significant effect on tires, aerodynamics, and other factors.
In contrast, even though it rains in the F1 game, we can always prepare for it. For example, the lack of wind change is already a major issue.
When I raced in Formula Renault, I recall that the braking point would shift by about 20 to 30 meters depending on whether there were headwinds or tailwinds. This feature is absent from the F1 video game.
In some ways, that facilitates things, yet everyone is constantly using it. For example, to even get into Q2, you had to be quite near to the limit. That makes a big difference.
This explains why P1 to P20 are shown within, say, two tenths, in a Q1 or a Q2. You wouldn’t see that if it were more dynamic since a lot more people would make mistakes.
How is the state of Formula One esports generally? The 2023–24 season included a single event followed by a five-month hiatus.
the state of health overall? It’s challenging to determine. I have no involvement. I’m not too familiar with behind-the-scenes activities. I can offer my thoughts about it, but it’s difficult for me to speculate on what’s happening behind the scenes since I don’t know everything. since I also don’t know a lot.
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When did you decide to pursue a career in esports?
I attempted to qualify for F1 esports in 2017 when I was still playing Formula Renault, but I had a really tight schedule and had no experience with the game. I still came dangerously near. I believe I placed among the top 40, which was the cutoff point for qualifying to the semifinals.
However, after I quit competing in real races, I realized that I could compete in esports since I had come so close with so little preparation, even though I still had a long way to go.
I recall my early attempts to get a spot in the F1 esports. I believe that, at random, I was one second slower than [champion of 2017 and 2018] Brendon Leigh. I therefore understood that, without a doubt, I could succeed, but I would need to put in a lot of work.
Every actual driver who enters a sim race experiences extreme difficulties at first, but I believed I was capable of competing at the highest level.