McLaren and Logitech Team Up for the World’s Fastest Gamer Competition

McLaren has become the first Formula 1 team to enter the esports arena, announcing World’s Fastest Gamer, the world’s most intense and demanding competition for virtual racers. It’s a contest that will see the winner offered the best job in esports, a role with the Formula 1 team as one of its official simulator drivers.

It is a collaboration between McLaren, founding partner Logitech G and the founder of virtual motorsport’s GT Academy, Darren Cox. McLaren welcomes two further partners for launch. Sports media platform GIVEMESPORT and esport racing innovator Sparco. The format pits the best gamers in the world across multiple racing platforms as they battle each other to discover the ultimate ‘champion of champions’.

The winner will be offered a one-year contract with McLaren to work in an official capacity as a simulator driver. They will work with engineers at both at the McLaren Technology Centre and at grand prix circuits across the world to develop and improve the machinery driven in the real world by the team’s drivers, Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne.

The battle to find McLaren’s newest recruit will be viewable at every stage via a dedicated YouTube channel and McLaren’s social media channels. Six international finalists will be hand-picked by experts in both gaming and Formula 1 to join this year’s competition. A further four finalists will be selected from qualifying events online during summer 2017.

The grand finale, held at the McLaren Technology Centre in the autumn, will put all 10 hopefuls through one of the most rigorous job interviews in the world. Not only will they race against each other across a variety of different gaming titles on different platforms, they will also need to demonstrate their engineering know-how, ability to work as part of a team, and display the mental and physical strengths required for such a unique position.

With teams, leagues and players from the world of sport investing heavily in esports, from Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City, to West Ham United and the Philadelphia 76ers, virtual/reality collaborations are a fast-growing trend. In the US, esports are already catching up with baseball and ice hockey. A recent US report found that 76% of esports enthusiasts now prefer the gaming equivalent to watching their favourite sports on TV. esport is now one of the biggest sports in the world, with revenues now overtaking those of Hollywood.