The next-level gaming studio boosting McLaren's F1 appeal

Gaming might still cause some motorsport purists’ noses to wrinkle – but, while the racing itself isn’t ‘real’ as such, its value to the business of motorsport is clear and obvious. It brings tech sponsors who want to be more than just stickers on a car and, perhaps even more importantly to the bigger picture, it provides an alternative entry point for new fans… and, sometimes, new competitors.

McLaren was among the first Formula 1 competitors to hit the Esports scene with a purpose, partnering with the World’s Fastest Gamer programme in 2017. Eventual winner Rudy van Buren went on to compete in the real world at the annual Race of Champions with Lando Norris, and spent a year as McLaren’s official simulator driver. McLaren then formed its own Esports programme, the McLaren Shadow Project, a competition which offered prizes ranging from racing kit and factory tours to a seat in McLaren’s own F1 Esports team.

McLaren Shadow is now one of the distinct business units in the new corporate structure at Woking, with a mandate to “stand on its own two feet” in the words of McLaren CEO Zak Brown: a self-sufficient business which acts as a complement to, without distracting focus from, the all-important F1 team.

The Shadow Studio is a new facility within the McLaren Technology Centre which will provide a focal point and a development hub for competitors as well as an aspirational destination for fans. Calling it a games room undersells its significance to the business.

“It’s a really important pillar for us,” says Lindsey Eckhouse, McLaren’s head of licensing, commerce and Esports. “We look at Esports as two separate things. The first is an accessible way for people to get into racing. Not a lot of people can afford to get to tracks or have the means to get started in real-life racing, because it’s expensive even to do karting.

“This allows people to test their abilities, and also be part of the space in a more accessible way. So that’s a big piece of it. And then the second piece is really the next generation of fan growth. We embraced Esports early on within the F1 world, and we’ve seen strong growth with new fans, younger fans who are starting to come into the fold and get a taste of what F1 has to offer. It’s a really interesting way for us to deliver a new audience to the business.

Shadow Studio at MTC is billed as a key pillar of McLaren's expanding business

Photo by: McLaren

“It allows a two-way conversation between us as McLaren Shadow and the fans. We’re right at the start of building that community, and we’re doing that through our social media channels right now.

“The goal is to accelerate that growth, and that engagement with the community, through some of the different programmes we’ll start to run – whether that’s more live streamed content on Twitch, or charity streams which you’ll see coming up soon, or more focus on the games we’re already competing in. It’s really trying to build audience and that sense of camaraderie.”

Accessibility is a fundamental element of Esports’ appeal and it’s why so many teams – and F1’s commercial rights holder – have been so keen to get involved. Even grassroots motor racing is expensive; a competitive Formula Ford programme now costs in excess of £100,000. Now, while hardcore gamers might be using hardware which costs in the thousands, the entry point is games consoles which cost in the hundreds.

Van Buren is one of a handful of gamers who made the transition to professional racer (he’s currently competing in the German Porsche Carrera Cup) and his story is a relatively typical one: he’d tried karting, been good at it, but then shelved his ambitions when the costs stretched beyond his means. Without gaming he would have been lost to motor racing.

"The Shadow Studio is the perfect space for our pro team to train and bootcamp, but also for the casual gamer to come and be immersed in McLaren Shadow and get a feel for what we’re trying to do" Lindsey Eckhouse

Gaming also provides an organisation such as McLaren with a broader commercial offering. The Shadow Studio also functions as a showcase for the products and services of a number of team partners who might otherwise be present only as branding. Alienware, Dell’s gaming brand, provides the Aurora R10 PCs and gaming monitors on which the software runs. Logitech G furnishes all the driver inputs – steering wheels, pedals and so on – as well as headsets and webcams.

“We have several examples of partners where we’re genuinely using their technology to help our professional sim racers become better drivers,” says Eckhouse. “And similarly, help amateur racers or gamers out there get closer to the sport. So Splunk are creating a real-time visualisation dashboard with us for our pro McLaren Shadow drivers so they can perform better and understand, in real time, what they need to adjust or change, to be able to get around a circuit faster.

“And then on the other side of it, together with Logitech G, we’ve created an amateur-focused platform [the Logitech McLaren G Challenge] which essentially allows people from all over the place, who may be massively into it or not at all, really just to start to touch and feel and test the waters. And in doing so they’re able to win amazing prizes and get closer to the McLaren F1 team. So it’s a great tool to bring new people in.

Logitech McLaren G Challenge serves as a means to attract new fans

Photo by: McLaren

“The Shadow Studio is the perfect space for our pro team to train and bootcamp, but also for the casual gamer to come and be immersed in McLaren Shadow and get a feel for what we’re trying to do. McLaren Shadow has a presence on all major social media platforms, so people can follow us there and see all the different things going on – and even win a spot to watch a grand prix.

“Towards the end of the year we’re going to be running a whole host of different types of competitions.”

McLaren also benefits from the status of one of its F1 drivers as an Esports pioneer. Lando Norris almost single-handedly galvanised the rest of the grid into getting involved in gaming during the coronavirus hiatus last year, opening the world of online game streaming to a vast new audience.

“Lando is hugely valuable for us in terms of his passion for the space and also his willingness to try new things and engage with us there,” says Eckhouse. “The Esports audience is incredibly demanding. If somebody just shows up in-authentically just to tick a box, or just to pretend that they like it, the community calls that out really quickly.

“And so Lando’s genuine love for and engagement with gaming, with Twitch and with Esports really helps us continue to build momentum. He’s a wonderful asset and champion for everything we’re trying to do.”

Sim racing fan Norris is a key focal point for McLaren's expansion into the space

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images