Moritz Löhner, the winner of the 2020 ADAC GT Masters Esports Championship, has successfully completed a test session in a real-life McLaren 570S GT4 at the Hockenheimring.
The prize pool for the popular virtual series not only cash prizes, but opportunities to hit the track too. Löhner won the title last year driving for Williams Esports during a dramatic final race and one of his prizes was to test a GT race car.
“It worked out very quickly because I know the Hockenheimring very well after thousands of laps in the simulation and was able to implement many things directly,” enthused Moritz after hitting the track for the first time.
This wasn’t just a fleeting driving experience, either, but a detailed test session with over 30 laps completed. Dörr Motorsport ran the car, and their driver Christer Jöns set a lap time to aim for, Moriz coming within half a second of the target. This was particularly remarkable considering the challenging weather.
“The track conditions were very difficult and I had to get used to them. In the dry, you can very quickly approach the limit of the car, but in the rain, you must to find where the grip is on the track.”
The car is also used as a testbed for Schaeffler Paravan Technologie’s Space Drive steering system, which utilises steer-by-wire in place of a traditional mechanical connection.
“The Space Drive technology was also new to me and very interesting to try out, as many components work like a sim racing steering wheel.”
After this impressive performance, he will be returning to defend his virtual crown in the 2021 ADAC GT Masters Esports Championship and you can watch it all live and exclusive on Traxion.GG, starting Tuesday 1st June.
Images by Christian Baur.
