JUNE 17, 2020

Leclerc questions F1 2020 game's driver rankings

Charles Leclerc thinks the way current drivers were ranked by the developers of the new official game F1 2020 was "not appropriate".

Charles Leclerc, Australian GP 2019
© RV Press

Charles Leclerc thinks the way current drivers were ranked by the developers of the new official game F1 2020 was "not appropriate".

For the game's new 'My Team' feature, developer Codemasters has ranked the current drivers out of 100 in terms of how expensive they are for users to sign up.

Lewis Hamilton got the highest ranking, but Valtteri Bottas was listed as equal with Max Verstappen, while Charles Leclerc is ranked only seventh - lower than Kimi Raikkonen.

Meanwhile, Kevin Magnussen and George Russell are just 17th and 18th.

"I saw some of them," Ferrari's Leclerc said when asked by his Twitch followers about the rankings.

"For me, some are not appropriate, not very well rated. I think George was very low and he is quick. If you put him in the right car, he is as quick as the best."

Elsewhere, Romain Grosjean has received an advanced copy of the game and told France's Auto Hebdo that it is "a bit too arcade".

"You always get understeer in a corner, and then it is very difficult to know if you will spin or not on the power without traction control," he said.

Grosjean says he is a bigger fan of the more immersive iRacing and rFactor, and thinks esports may even attract significant investment from professional real-world motor racing teams.

"I had this discussion with another professional driver," he said.

"He told me that we had to be careful, because if brands realise they get more out of esports and it costs them EUR 200,000 instead of several million, they may also ask the same question."

(GMM)