RTR: intervista a David Greco

[VELOCIPEDE]

Test Driver Passport

Name: David Greco

Age: 23

Location: Rome, Italy.

David you are one of the RTR beta testers that has real life racing experience and also a big career in simracing.

How far does your real life racing history reach and what are your plans for the future?

Well I started my real life racing career with Karts in Sao Paulo, more specifically in Granja Viana, which is famous for the 500 miles competition that since the first outing saw VIP drivers like Barrichello, Montoya and Massa competing. I did two full championships there prior to try for the first time a Formula Ford in Interlagos. Best ever weekend for me must be my first race in USA at Virginia with the Skip Barber National car, where I scored a podium with only a testing session and a qualifying session of experience with the car. Second ever race and last in the series and actually my last race to date, could have been better as I started second, but made a silly mistake, probably due to very limited experience with the car. Plans for the future? Well my plan is to enter the Formula Palmer Audi in UK next year and from there try to go to F2 and then who knows. But, in all honesty, I just want to race it, be it with an open wheel or a GT car, I just need to race, that's what I love to do, and can do very well.

You have won many big simracing league races the last years. What are your most remarkable achievements so far?

The ASRWC 2006 championship, the Virtual World Touring Car Championship Valencia Semi-final, prize competitions at rFactorcentral like the 1000$ Xmas event and the 2007 runner-up at Formula-SimRacing are for sure the most remarkable achievements. Not many people know this and it wasn't for an important event but in 2007 the only time I met Greger Huttu, I managed to win (I was blocking him like a mad-man). I also won many Italian championships, but the most important was the rFo in 2008 which gave me a super prize, a duel with a GP2-Asia driver (Bonanomi) on a Vintage F3 at Adria, both in real and virtually. I dominated the virtual duel, and lost the real one by only 3 tenths, in just 8 laps (hotlap competition).

What are your expectations of the Real-Time Racing Game? Will this be the final step to close the gap between virtual and real racing?

I hope yes. I really believe that simracing nowadays, and I think I have some right in saying this as I experienced both worlds; it is at such a high level of competition that deserves something like RTR. What's better than challenge a real racing driver on the racetrack? Can't think of anything better honestly, and as a tester I will try to help as much as possible the developers, because yes, this simulator I believe will bring that extra feature that will ultimately narrow the gap between virtual and real racing.

You have been participating in the historical first live race against the real drivers on the track this Thursday, what were your impressions?

As you said, it was the first ever live race against real drivers, and some things are yet to be fixed. We experienced some bugs, as it was totally expected, but the potential is definitly there and the impressions were awesome. Just when you think that in front of you, is not just another simraces, but is a real driver that is really driving at that same frame of a second in the real car/track, you really can't help but have a big smile on your face.

Talent scouts are watching the RTR project looking for the next Schumacher or Vettel. Why should they a talented sim racer like yourself over a real life racer?

Simracing has become so realistic that I think the top sim racers deserve a chance in real racing. Whenever I touched a single seater, like this year at Bedford, performing really well, even if it was after 3 years of no real-testing at all, I think it is not only talent (hoping that I have it) but it is also a proof that practicing with a great simulator really gives you a good preparation. Of course then a Simracer would still need a good physical preparation and good amount of track time before he can amaze the racing world, but with the right chance I believe it can be done. On top of that I think Simracers have one big advantage over young real drivers, that is concentration. It is much more difficult to keep concentration on a 20 inch monitor compared to what real drivers see in the cockpit. This is actually the message I would like to send to talent scouts based on something I have experienced myself; It is much easier to lose concentration, thus make a mistake, in a simulator, than it is in real racing

fonte RTR