Welcome, Cooper Webster

Real-life racer joins the Red Bull Racing Esports team.

Red

Bull

Racing

Esports

has

bolstered

its

ranks

with

the

arrival

S5000

driver

and

iRacing

aficionado

Cooper

Webster.

The 18-year-old Australian will compete for the Bulls as part of the Porsche Esports Super Cup team alongside Sebastian Job and Graham Carroll.

However, this weekend he will also be racing for Red Bull Racing Esports in the Virtual Le Mans Series Round 4 race at Sebring.

Cooper Will Be Racing For Red Bull Racing Esports at Sebring This Weekend

Cooper, who races in Australia in S5000 competitions, will balance sim racing with real life competition, bringing his on-track experience to the virtual world of iRacing.

He said: “It feels a bit surreal to have joined Red Bull Racing Esports – I never thought I’d ever be approached by such an iconic team in motorsport, let alone drive for them.

“I am super keen to start working with PESC drivers Sebi and Graham in what is widely acknowledged as one of the most competitive sim racing competition in the world.”

Cooper feels that there are some strong similarities between being behind the wheel of a real car and in a sim rig.

He explained “I find the nervous feeling in your stomach you get on the grid before the start and the feeling you get when someone is pressuring you from behind into making a mistake the same, regardless of whether I am racing in real life or in a game. I feel like iRacing does a really good job in replicating this feeling and I love it.

“The main thing I notice every time straight away from switching from real life and the sim is your body isn’t being thrown around when you turn the wheel. But the pressure is still the same like I say.”

Sebastian On The Hunt

Webster is eyeing up a strong performance in the PESC series early next year, he said: “My goal with Red Bull Racing Esports is to do the best I can in PESC and hopefully aim for a top 10 in the championship.

“However, for a more overall goal, I would like to see visible gains on my speed on the sim as well as consistency to stay at the front in as many events as I can. Working with well-established drivers in the squad will be beneficial so I can reference myself to and improve all aspects to me.

“I’ve been working towards racing in PESC for over six months now with 100% effort. Joining Red Bull Racing Esports has given myself the motivation and excitement to make the absolute most of it, and to have the opportunity to do this alongside the former world champion in Sebi is still something I am still comprehending.”

Graham Pushing Hard

With the advancement of sim racing technology, aspiring real world drivers have used Esports as a potential avenue into competing on a physical racetrack.

As a driver who will compete across both real life and virtual competition, Cooper expects to see more sim racers racing behind the wheel in real cars. He added: “I think as sim racing becomes more popular, respected and realistic drivers from the real world racing will begin to move to sim racing to fill in the gaps between real life races because you don’t get as much track time in real life compared to what sim racing has to offer with how easy it is to access.

“Therefore, I think sim racing definitely opens the door but for esports drivers to compete in the real world but there are still improvements to be made. Esports drivers aren’t being taken from winning a championship and given the opportunity to show what they can do in a real car. There are certainly more opportunities now but I would like to see more of this happening for esports drivers.”

We’ll be catching up with Cooper in the coming months!