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Oh how they laughed. When Nissan and Sony teamed up to provide bedroom gamers an opportunity to see if their digital talent could be extrapolated and quantified in real racing terms - actual, proper, blood, sweat, petrol and oversteer - it's safe to say the collective racing fraternity let out a few laughs. Surely, someone with zero actual racing experience couldn't cut it amongst the elite, the professionals?
Well, it was plucky Spaniard Lucas Ordonez who had the last laugh, because he was the first winner of Nissan and Sony's ‘GT Academy'; a tortuous process where Nissan's crack team of mentors and racers polished online gamers into racing diamonds. And how they succeeded: Lucas raced at Le Mans and has just been announced as a Super GT racer in Japan.
His successor at the GT Academy, 2011 winner Jann Mardenborough - the first and only Brit to take the crown - has similarly made the racing fraternity sit up and take notice. Because this former GT3, Formula 3 and Le Mans racer has now signed up with Arden Motorsport. Arden Motorsport currently competes in GP3. GP3 is a feeder into Formula One.
Are you connecting the dots? A former PlayStation gamer who never raced a single day in his life who then went on to win GT Academy, raced GT cars, stood on the podium at Le Mans and raced in Formula 3 is now one step closer to starring alongside his hero Lewis Hamilton.
And TG.com has charted his rise from GT Academy student to full-time driver. Time for a little catch-up chat...
Hi Jann. A hearty, backslapping congratulations on your seat in GP3 with Arden Motorsport. You must be chuffed.
This year has started off pretty good, right? It's been a crazy ride since 2011, loads of ups and quite a few downs, but it's amazing to see how much I've done in two and a half years.
Downs?
Last year was tough in Formula 3 because it was such a jump from GT3. I mean I remember doing a lap in practice or indeed in qualifying, coming in and thinking ‘yeah that's a good lap, that', and finding I was still half a second off, P14 or something, or worse. I was thinking: ‘How on earth do I find that extra pace?'
Things like that take it out of you mentally, and I found it really tough. I think last year was a learning year, but this is the year to show how much I've improved. That's the aim. Certainly last year was a massive hurdle, a building block I suppose, and in a lot of ways it was a character-building year. Now I hope things will fall into place a bit easier.
Fingers crossed. How did the opportunity come around though?
Well, after the Formula 3 season ended last year, I had a test in a Renault World Series Car, and I just remember thinking it was insane, I couldn't believe how much speed it had. From there, a few people asked if I'd tried the GP3 formula, because it might suit me better.
Written By:- Vijay Pattni
More of this article on the Top gear website
