Millennial Esports CMO Darren Cox was at the Rolex 24 at Daytona last weekend and talked on IMSA Radio about esports racing, real racing and so much more.

In the final round of the contest, an exacting four-hour assessment using McLaren’s state-of-the-art Formula 1 simulator, van Buren beat countryman Freek Schothorst, a 20-year-old science, business and innovation student from Amsterdam.

Van Buren now claims the greatest job in esports – becoming one of the F1 team’s official simulator drivers for the 2018 season.

Van Buren began racing karts aged eight, ultimately winning the Dutch Karting Championship in 2003. However, like many budding talents, he was forced to quit at the age of 16 due to lacking the financial backing needed to progress further.

However, World’s Fastest Gamer, which identifies racing talent through esports, has given van Buren a second chance at his motorsports career.

On quitting racing, van Buren said:

“You search for a replacement because you’ve still got that racing feeling inside you. You want to go on but there’s no option or route available. That burn inside to win, doing a lap quicker and quicker, lap after lap, it’s a feeling that you can’t express. Every boy that starts karting dreams about F1, and at a certain point that dream just vanishes. Now by winning World’s Fastest Gamer, I can relive that dream.”

On winning World’s Fastest Gamer, van Buren said:

“This has been the most incredible experience and words can’t describe how I feel right now. To think that I came to the McLaren Technology Centre for the very first time last week but am leaving here today as McLaren’s newest employee is mind blowing.

“I can’t thank everyone enough for giving me this amazing opportunity; just being here, meeting the team and competing with some amazing people has been an unforgettable experience. It really has been the toughest job interview I’ve ever faced, but with such an incredible reward at the end of it. Now I can’t wait to get started!”

Zak Brown
McLaren Technology Group Executive Director:

“First, my congratulations to Rudy – he really showed the mettle, determination and ability to succeed. This was an outstandingly tough contest, one where we went to great lengths to stretch our contestants beyond their limits, and he’ll be a real asset to the organisation as we develop and refine our 2018 car throughout the next season.”

WORLD’S FASTEST GAMER

The World Fastest Gamer competition, which began in May 2017, saw gamers from around the world compete for a coveted position in this month’s gruelling finals. After numerous heats across a variety of different games and platforms, 12 grand finalists were invited to McLaren’s Woking headquarters to go head-to-head in one last week of testing.

Finals Week included rigorous tests around some of the racetracks where McLaren has enjoyed its most legendary days of competition, including the world-famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indy 500; Japan’s Suzuka Circuit; Brazilian Grand Prix venue, Interlagos; and the world’s most famous 24-hour race, Le Mans, where finalists were tested over a full day-long race distance.

After the 12 contestants were whittled down from six to three, and then finally two, van Buren went up against Schothorst in the ultimate test – an extensive evaluation behind the wheel of McLaren’s hyper-accurate racing simulator, the exact same kit that’s used by the actual F1 drivers to develop their cars ahead of each grand prix.

To triumph, van Buren not only needed to demonstrate the speed and agility required by all top racing drivers, but also the engineering know-how and mental and physical ability required to develop, refine and engineer an F1 car for the team’s two race drivers, double world champion Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne.

World’s Fastest Gamer is a partnership between global sports and technology brand McLaren and the founder of virtual motorsport’s GT Academy, Darren Cox, in collaboration with founding partner Logitech G, a global leader in gaming gear, and two further partners – sports media platform GiveMeSport and esport racing innovator Sparco.

The winner was announced live on GiveMeSport this evening. For more information visit mclaren.com/wfg or via social media at WFG Twitter, McLaren Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or search using #WFGFinals.

Alex Igelman, CEO, Millennial Esports:

“Watching the story of World’s Fastest Gamer unfold over the last two weeks has been enthralling. This is the first step of Millennial Esports creating top quality content around esports properties.

“Once again Millennial Esports are leading the charge in esports and I congratulate the team at McLaren and our people at IDEAS+CARS for pushing the boundaries in the motorsport world.”

Darren Cox: Founder of IDEAS+CARS and CMO Millennial Esports:

“Rudy is a worthy winner and his story of being lost to racing, then rediscovering his passion though gaming and having his talent recognised by an F1 team is almost a fairytale.

“World’s Fastest Gamer has established itself as the new reference for esports racing, and McLaren has grabbed a huge first-mover advantage amongst the F1 teams.

“The hidden story though is the impact that this process will have on the lives of all the participants. I can’t wait for season two, which will be even more fiercely contested now that everyone knows how seriously McLaren are taking this.”

Jae Chaflin, Founder, GiveMeSport:

“We are so proud to be part of World’s Fastest Gamer. The partnership has been really exciting to work on and allowed us to be innovative in new ways. We wish Rudy all the best in his new role.”

Ben Payne, Director of esports at McLaren:

“World’s Fastest Gamer has been an outstanding success for McLaren, and stands as a real demonstration of just how powerful and pervasive esports has become. With more than 10 million people viewing the competition, we’ve demonstrated the real value of esports within F1.

“The competition has inspired everyone at McLaren to work even harder next year to ensure that this competition becomes bigger and better. We are already working to consolidate and improve World’s Fastest Gamer’s position as the pre-eminent virtual racing competition in the world.”

Ujesh Desai, VP and General Manager of Logitech Gaming:

“Congrats to all the talented contestants who participated in World’s Fastest Gamer, and especially Rudy. Rudy’s skills as the best virtual racer in the world will be invaluable in helping Logitech G improve our next generation racing wheels. We look forward to working with him.”

Claudio Pastoris, CEO of Sparco:

“This outstanding initiative has given the racing world a unique insight into the sim world. As a worldwide leader in safety and racing equipment, Sparco is committed to working with pro gamers to help them maximise their ergonomic performance and compete at the optimum level. I would like to thank McLaren for this amazing experience and I looking forward to the next chapter together.”

World’s Fastest Gamer pits the best gamers in the world against amateur virtual drivers, across multiple racing platforms, as they battle it out to become the ultimate ‘champion of champions’.

World’s Fastest Gamer is a partnership between global sports and technology brand McLaren and Millennial Esports – through the founder of virtual motorsport’s GT Academy, Millennial’s Chief Marketing Officer, Darren Cox.

The competition has been put together in collaboration with founding partner Logitech G, a global leader in gaming gear and two further partners – sports media platform GIVEMESPORT and Esport racing innovator Sparco.

From short films to hours of live streaming, World’s Fastest Gamer has redefined how racing esports is broadcast to fans. The competition has already seen over 10 million views and unprecedented levels of engagement. With non-stop coverage, the Finals Week is expected to beat all industry records to become one of the most watched esport racing events ever. Fans can follow all the WFG Finals Week action on WFG Twitter, McLaren’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube channels and website and via media partner GIVEMESPORT’s Facebook page.

Over 30,000 players entered the WFG competition, and after rounds of heats, the 12 finalists will meet for the first time on 11 November and go head-to-head in Finals Week – a series of physical, mental, track and virtual challenges to find out who has the skills to claim the ultimate prize. They will need to demonstrate their engineering know-how, ability to work as part of a team and display the mental and physical strengths required for the position.

The winner will be offered a one-year contract with McLaren as a simulator driver, working with engineers at the McLaren Technology Centre in the UK, feeding into the technology used in the real world by the team’s drivers, Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, at grand prix circuits across the globe.

The Finalists are:

• David Hoch (USA), 23, qualified
• Rudy Van Buren (The Netherlands), 25, qualified
• Yordi Maldonado (Mexico), 20, qualified
• Henrik Drue (Denmark), 34, qualified
• Isaac Price (UK), 22, qualified
• Freek Schothorst (The Netherlands), 20, qualified
• Aurélien Mohammedi-Mallet (France), 23, panel selection
• Bono Huis (The Netherlands), 23, panel selection
• David Le Garff (France), 40, panel selection
• Greger Huttu (Finland), 37 panel selection
• Harry Jacks (UK), 22, panel selection
• Ryan Moore (USA), 22, panel selection

Click here to download images of finalists

The Qualifying Events:                                   

Six of the finalists were selected in qualifying events across a number of platforms including:

• PC racing sim, rFactor 2: the Silverstone qualifying race clocked up 2,540 individual lap times over 10,600 hours with the coverage reach exceeding 30 million.
• Free-to-play mobile game Gear.Club: McLaren increased the gaming audience by including free-to-play mobile game Gear.Club, making it possible to enter without a games console or computer. 26,166 entrants, out of which 24,075 competed, drove over 1,355,425,792 metres.
• Forza Motorsport 6: CJ Wilson Racing, a sportscar team based in Texas, organised this qualifying event. From hundreds of entrants, 32 drivers qualified and drove a total of 13,190 miles over 169 hours.
• Forza Motorsport 6: partner Logitech G held the only live qualifying events of the competition. The qualifying events comprised of four rounds held across the world at events such as Dreamhack in Sweden, Insomnia in the UK and IFA in Berlin. Over 1,000 gamers competed at the Insomnia and IFA events.

• Online PC racing sim, iRacing: qualification ran using the McLaren Honda MP4-30 car at iconic circuits such as Monza, Interlagos and the Circuit Of The Americas. A total of 803 drivers entered across 46 countries, driving a total distance of 83,170 miles or 24,392 laps.

A panel of experts pre-selected six additional finalists based on their careers so far in virtual racing. The panel included: Dom Duhan, Head of Team Redline esports Racing Team; Davide Brivio, Head of esports, Sparco; Andreas Schicker, Head of esports Business Development, Logitech; and Wolfgang Reip, GT Academy Winner/Simulator Coach.

For more information and to follow all the Finals Week action visit mclaren.com/wfg or via social media at WFG Twitter, McLaren Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or search using #WFGFinals.

Zak Brown
McLaren Technology Group Executive Director:

“We are proud that McLaren is the first F1 team to launch in esports. World’s Fastest Gamer is an exciting platform for us to bring motorsport and the sport of Formula 1 to a whole new audience, as well as traditional fans.

“The results have shown our instincts were right. Furthermore, with simulation now a well-established feature of modern racing operations, it is an interesting exercise in understanding the potential for esports to unearth future motorsport talent.”

Darren Cox
Founder of IDEAS+CARS
and CMO Millennial Esports:

“World’s Fastest Gamer has already massively exceeded expectations, both in terms of the interest we’ve had from the Industry and the level of views and engagement of our content.

“Millennial Esports is committed to creating quality, breakthrough content for esports – Worlds Fastest Gamer is one of the first solid examples of this strategy.

“By the end of season one, the content we have produced will have included short form, long form and live streaming allowing us to reach new, difficult to target audiences for McLaren and its partners. ”

Check out what they are saying about the amazing Silverstone finale….

It was an odd weekend for Silverstone. Thousands were there, yet no one showed up… Inside @McLaren's #WFG search: https://t.co/y1mIDewM7Q pic.twitter.com/l0K5beMwGt

— Motor Sport Magazine (@Motor_Sport) September 4, 2017

The World's Fastest Gamer hopes to find @McLarenF1's new simulator driver #F1 #WFG pic.twitter.com/J29W0gVnDY

— WTF1 (@wtf1official) September 4, 2017

Congratulations to all drivers for a super close and fair race. Awesome drive @RvBuren and good luck at @McLarenF1 in the finals!

— rFactor 2 (@rFactor2) September 3, 2017

Winner of the @TheWFGamer. Im out of words. Thanks to @McLarenF1 and @rFactor2 for hosting such a event. Can't wait for november.

— Rudy van Buren (@RvBuren) September 3, 2017

Congratulations @RvBuren. We'll see you at the MTC final! #WFG pic.twitter.com/NwKgvyo9dK

— Worlds Fastest Gamer (@TheWFGamer) September 3, 2017