Red Bull had signed British PlayStation gamer-turned-racer Jann Mardenborough to an “intensive driver development program”, where the 22-year-old will race in GP3 with Arden International in 2014. The son of a former British footballer has been a product of Nissan and Sony’s GT Academy (a competition to train Gran Turismo gamers to real racing drivers), where Jann beat 90,000 other gamers to become the overall champion for the 2011’s GT Academy competition. He will be a few steps closer to Formula One (F1) by racing in the GP3 series – a single-seater race series that sits underneath F1 and GP2.
After winning the GT Academy, he became a works driver with Nissan, and moved through the motorsport ranks as fast as he drove in the GT Academy – with achievements including winning a race on the British GT in 2012 and a podium on the LM2 category at Le Mans last year. He also progressed to single-seater racing as he competed in the FIA European F3 and British F3 Championships last year.
“That will be the ultimate goal, but we are just trying to see how far we can go up the ladder and see if I can keep improving. If I keep improving then I think that is possible. It is certainly a step up from Formula 3 last year. I tested the car in Abu Dhabi last November, and we decided that this would be the best option for my development and my learning for this year. I am really looking forward to it, and obviously they are closely linked to Red Bull.” he said.
The traditional route for racers is the tried-and-tested karting and single-seaters racing which is taken by many F1 drivers including Sebastian Vettel. That could set to change as the future F1 champion could be someone who started by honing his/her racing skills with a Playstation.
[Source: Sky Sports F1]
