Why Leclerc's Virtual GP annihilation deserves great credit

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc needed just eight days of practice to annihilate the Formula 1 Virtual Grand Prix field and take victory on his competitive Esports debut.

Renault junior Guanyu Zhou was a worthy winner of F1's first-ever Virtual GP - aimed at filling the void left by the postponement of the real-life F1 season. However, that first race was a frenetic lottery, labelled farcical by many and for good reason. Three-time grand prix winner Johnny Herbert cutting Turn 1 to storm from the back of the grid to first place tells you all you need to know about the merit of succeeding in that race.

This past weekend's Virtual GP at Albert Park couldn't have contrasted against that race more. Another Renault junior, Formula 2 newcomer Christian Lundgaard, set a 1m19.415s to take pole position, which would have been enough to place him a very respectable P19 on the grid for the F1 Esports Pro Exhibition Race - featuring the fastest drivers on Codemasters' F1 2019.

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Lundgaard was less than eight-tenths adrift of the ultimate pacesetter - Red Bull's Frederik Rasmussen. Of course, corner-cutting rules were more lenient for the Virtual GP and the conditions weren't the same, but it was an impressive indicator of the strength of the field.

F1 2019 may not be the peak of authentic realistic sim racing, but let's not forget that most of the F1 Esports drivers are full-time sim racers and there's a serious $500,000 prize pool for the main F1 Esports series.

It's wrong to simply assume that it's easy to get to the top of an accessible game. Teams such as Mercedes and Renault use their data engineers to assess their Esports drivers and study their telemetry as they would with their actual F1 drivers. It's unlikely that anybody on the Virtual GP was given that level of assistance, so to get so close is impressive.

In qualifying, Leclerc was just over two-tenths shy of Lundgaard's pole time, but his five-place grid penalty for a collision in qualifying meant Leclerc was able to head the field at the start. He took full advantage and stormed into Turn 1 with the race lead, which he held for the remainder of the 29-lap race.

But what was even more impressive was the way he built an insurmountable lead and pumped in multiple fastest laps, not at all representative of a driver who had only bought the game eight days earlier.

Before the race, Leclerc live-streamed his practice sessions with fellow F1 drivers Alexander Albon, George Russell, Antonio Giovinazzi and Nicholas Latifi. It provided a great deal of entertainment to fans but it's also where Leclerc was able to extract those extra few tenths, making the most of the opportunity to quiz the drivers with more virtual experience about the finer nuisances of the game.

"We're sitting on a chair, there's not even the G-force we have in a real car, but actually, I'm sweating like crazy" Charles Leclerc

The race doesn't have prize money or world championship points, but it does allow F1 drivers to scratch that unavoidable itching desire to prove themselves as the fastest racing driver around on whatever platform is available.

Leclerc brought the same rigour to his preparation that in 2017 allowed him to become the first rookie since Nico Hulkenberg in 2009 to win the F2 (previously GP2) title and that last year enabled him to usurp four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel as Ferrari's number one driver.

"Eight days ago, last Sunday," Leclerc replied when asked when he started playing F1 2019. "I put quite a lot of hours in it. To tell you how much I don't know, but probably at least five each day, every day.

"Towards the end of the week, we decided to join together with George and Alex and stream everything live. It was very fun; we will continue to do that.

"Obviously it's a hard time for everyone staying at home, we try our best to entertain everyone at home, and hopefully this was the case tonight. We'll try to do many more in the coming weeks."

Despite dominating the race from pole and taking the fastest lap, Leclerc downplayed his pace advantage suggesting he simply made the least mistakes in what he described as an "unbelievably hard" race.

"Everyone was very quick," he added. "I think we all knew that going into the race, the one who would do the least mistakes would win because we were all so close on pace.

"It was unbelievably hard. Honestly, we're sitting on a chair, there's not even the G-force we have in a real car, but actually, I'm sweating like crazy. The muscles are not hurting, but the concentration and everything, I've been sweating a lot."

Leclerc's former GP3 title adversary Albon was running third on the opening lap before he spun down to 15th. While attempting to catch the supremely quick Leclerc, Russell spun and collected Charles' younger brother Arthur - also racing a Ferrari.

Fellow sim racing rookie Russell was at a loss describing Leclerc's pace after little had separated the F1 drivers in practice.

"We need an investigation into Charles' pace, it did not seem right at all," he joked after the race.

It's not just Leclerc that succeeded on Sunday, but F1's virtual product itself took a huge leap forwards. The addition of four more current F1 drivers, as well as 2009 F1 champion Jenson Button back in a McLaren for the first time since the 2017 Monaco GP, proved to make all the difference.

Lando Norris is brilliant to watch, but simply having him and Latifi in the Bahrain Virtual GP wasn't befitting of an F1-endorsed project when you can watch Norris in an array of other Esports championships, such as Veloce's #NotTheGP series.

But having the Virtual GP acting as the debut for the likes of Leclerc, Albon and Russell added a unique flavour to the event.

While Max Verstappen insists he won't be joining the grid anytime soon, plenty of other F1 drivers will surely be thinking about joining in on the competition

Ironically Norris wasn't able to take the start due to further technical issues with his F1 2019 game, highlighting the fact that the series still has plenty of areas to improve on. Overall though, it was a complete night and day difference to the pantomime Bahrain Virtual GP a fortnight ago.

It also highlights the beauty of Esports. Where else can you enjoy Button returning to McLaren, Stoffel Vandoorne and Esteban Gutierrez getting another shot at the top level or a rare chance for the top F2 drivers to compare themselves against F1's elite?

Leclerc has laid down the gauntlet and while Max Verstappen insists he won't be joining the grid anytime soon, plenty of other F1 drivers will surely be thinking about joining in on the competition.

Even in the unlikely event that it continues with just these six F1 drivers, the Virtual GP can continue to provide a battlefield for some of F1's brightest young stars and provide crucial entertainment for fans in these difficult times.

For now, it's Leclerc who is shining brightest but just as in real-life F1, his rivals won't stay beaten for long.

For more Esports, head to Motorsport Games to check out the Motorsport Network's exciting virtual racing products.