Larsson had to call home for car set-up during F1 eSports Pro Draft

Larsson was picked by Renault in the draft, but not before a nervous scramble minutes before the sim racing assessment on the opening day.

Before the competition on F1 2017, which was eventually won by Joni Tormala, drivers had just 10 minutes to fine tune an in-game car setup for the assessment, with most gamers using the set-up they use for league racing.

"We had 10 minutes to set up the car, which wasn't much," Larsson explained to Autosport.

"It was our own set-up we were able to use but I thought we were going to have to use the in-game standard setups.

"I had to call home and get somebody to check my Xbox, write down the set-up I have for Silverstone and COTA, and send it to me."

Larsson was forced to give up on his racing dream at the end of 2013 due to finances, despite winning the Formula Renault 1.6 NEZ Championship that same year.

He has competed in a number of one-off virtual and real racing events since, including reaching the semi-finals of McLaren's World's Fastest Gamer last year, and the final of GT Academy in 2014.

The 23-year-old Swede described sim racing as 'a second chance' at F1, after been picked to represent Renault in the second season of the F1 eSports competition.

"Yeah, [sim racing] is a second chance, I can't ask for more because been part of the F1 circus is an amazing experience," Larsson explained to Autosport.

"In the end, in sim racing, it's just the drivers that count.

"Most of the guys [in the Pro Draft] were aiming for F1 before the competition, but most of them have to give it up.

"What's exciting, is that in sim racing all the cars are equal."