This Sunday there will be a Grand Prix. But it will be virtual, a simulation that wants to maintain the flame that a coronavirus wants to blow out by putting the planet under the extinguisher. A sort of act of resistance, a sign of solidarity between the paddock stakeholders, to the great joy of the promoter Dorna who is doing everything to save his flock in these complicated times. This is the real challenge of this race which will take place on the digital Mugello. But this forgets that the participants are authentic pilots whose only goal is to beat the other in any competition. Leaving defeated, even with a controller in your hands and in front of a screen while sitting on your sofa, is unthinkable. And that was not considered by Valentino Rossi…
La Mugello virtual race which will be broadcast like a real Grand Prix will bring together dix leading drivers: Marc Márquez, Maverick Viñales, Fabio Quartararo, Álex Rins, Álex Márquez, Joan Mir, Aleix Espargaró, Francesco Bagnaia, Miguel Oliveira et Iker Lecuona. However, professionals eSports will not participate. And for good reason: they are experts and there is no question of seeing them crush the real pilots who only come to their field as amateurs.
Viewed like this, we realize that the result will still be taken into account by the protagonists. The simply fun side for a moment of relaxation, of complicity with frustrated fans, is only part of the landscape. A set that will be missing an icon: Valentino Rossi. He is not listed as a participant. In the official press release announcing the meeting, we only discover this sentence to explain this absence of brand: “ despite the approval given, Valentino Rossi will not be there »
So, to understand a little more, we have to go back to his last statements made about his occupations as a citizen confined like everyone else at home: “ They told me they were trying to organize a virtual championship for F1 style MotoGP, with the riders competing on the Playstation. I know many very fast ones, for example Bagnaia and my brother Luca.” Then he specifies: « I'm not very fast, I'm afraid of being expensive…I am still part of the video game generation, I remember the first time my mother took me to buy the Playstation, the happiness when I brought it home, I was 12-13 years old . »
Certainly, but the new generation was born with these tools and at the age of 12-13, they were already well immersed in these games. An irrecoverable delay, especially in the face of a Marc Márquez who declared about this Sunday meeting: “ my brother Álex and I love playing MotoGP together, but now we have to be a little more serious. No matter what we do, as drivers we want to win! With only six laps of racing, I think we can be aggressive and push all the way. I can't wait to race! »
So it won't be fun... The competition will take place as follows: a five-minute qualification will decide the starting grid. The race itself will span six laps. The eSports event will be broadcast on Sunday from 15:00 p.m., notably on the Cana+ channels and on the official MotoGP.com website, like for real!
To console yourself, here is the virtual tour of Mugello with Valentino Rossi..
