Motorsports・Sports
Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) held the e-Motorsports event "Honda Racing eMS 2023" using the racing game "Gran Turismo 7". With e-Motorsports events already being held by rival manufacturers such as Toyota and Mazda, the timing of Honda’s entry into the e-Motorsports scene is by no means an early one. Why did HRC decide to hold the event at this time? What is the purpose? We interviewed the "eMS Project Team."
After joining Honda R&D, he was involved in technology and product development for mass-produced vehicles and served as the performance project leader for the S660 and CIVIC completed vehicles. In 2022, he was assigned to HRC to oversee Team HRC’s entry in the Super Endurance Series and lead the eMS project.
In 2017, he joined HRC (Honda R&D, HRD-Sakura). While procuring race parts and managing development plans for race models, he also works as an advisor for the eMS team. Through e-Motorsports, he aims to broaden interest in motorsports among men and women of all ages and make racing more accessible.
After joining Honda’s mid-career in 2019, he planned touring car races in the Motor Sports Division’s Automobile Department. In 2022, after being transferred to HRC, he was in charge of planning all overseas four-wheel races. In his current division, he is engaged in business planning for all aspects of four-wheel motorsports.
After joining Honda, she worked in the manufacturing site, plant Corporate Affairs Division, Secretarial Division, Honda Origins Library, and Brand Division before transferring to HRC in 2022 to take charge of the SUPER GT category. She has been in charge of uniform production and merchandising since the establishment of the current department.
“Honda Racing eMS 2023”, Honda’s first full-scale e-Motorsports event, was held on December 10, 2023. It was born from the passion for racing of Yoshitomo Oka, the director of Team HRC, which competes in the Super Endurance Series.
When Oka transferred from Honda to HRC in October 2022, he immediately proposed the project. He had always been concerned about the high hurdles to participating in and watching races and was interested in e-Motorsports as an easier way to experience the sport. Wouldn’t e-Motorsports events allow more people to be interested in motorsports? He wants to lower the hurdles for people to participate in motorsports and help expand the scope of motorsports. He thought that it would be the mission of HRC, which makes racing its living. However, when he first proposed the project, some people in the company asked him, "Isn’t there a difference between a game and real life?" Some people were skeptical, saying, "HRC is a racing company."
Naturally, there would be opposition to HRC because we have made a living from real racing and have achieved results. Still, considering the future of motorsports, we must address coexistence with e-Motorsports. Over about a year, I repeatedly approached upper management and finally got the project underway.
Although he managed to get the team started, there was only one member, Oka. So, he started looking for members who could promote the project together. The first person he approached was Tomohiko Izumi, who has long been dedicated to the planning field.
I was initially an office worker in Aoyama, Tokyo headquarters, and when I was transferred to HRC, I was surprised to receive such an invitation since I had never been exposed to the research institute culture, even though I was from a different field. Honda typically has an engineer at the top of a project working in tandem with a salesperson (laughter).
The next member to join the team was Kai Kikuchi, who was engaged in the procurement of racing parts. He has enjoyed radio-controlled cars since he was a child, and his skills are on a national level. He is also an e-sports player who has competed in the Gran Turismo World Championships. Hearing this, Oka decided to invite Kikuchi to join. The fact that there happened to be an e-sports expert within the company accelerated the project.
Since e-Motorsports was just a hobby for me, only a few people in the company knew that I played it. On the other hand, many people in the e-Motorsports community knew I was working at HRC, so I was often asked, "Why doesn’t Honda hold competitions?" Therefore, when I received this offer, I was excited about the future development of this project. Still, I had to exercise restraint at the same time because even if it was a hobby activity, I could be a company representative.
Oka and Izumi started from scratch with e-Motorsports. Kikuchi’s knowledge of e-Motorsports was a significant factor in the team’s ability to move forward with the project with a sense of speed in the approximately one year since they launched the team.
The simulator set was prepared in-house not only for game analysis but also to allow the company’s upper management to experience the appeal of e-Motorsports. Because of this, the number of people within the company interested in e-Motorsports is steadily increasing.
The fourth member, Hiroko Einaga, had never even touched a game controller before joining the eMS team. Oka felt the need for a perspective other than that of a video game fan, so she was singled out.
I didn’t know that much about motorsports itself. But after I became the executive secretary in motorsports during my time in the Secretarial Division, I became interested in racing. I even started visiting San Marino and the Czech Republic to watch the races. The story of how I joined the team began one day when Mr. Oka invited me to see him in his workroom. Before I knew it, I was already a member of the team (laughter). It’s great that it’s easy to control a full-fledged racing machine and that it can be enjoyed by a wide range of people, from adult men, the primary participants, to women and children.
The eMS team staff is not dedicated to only the team. Therefore, the four team members have their day jobs and work for the eMS team at the same time. Each member finds satisfaction and enjoyment in the team’s activities, which is why they can devote their energies to the team despite their busy schedules.
HRC has four principles: “to realize sustainable motorsports,” “to contribute to the four-wheel business,” “to expand the Honda brand with HRC,” and “to broaden the scope of motorsports.” And all of these things align with the hidden power of e-Motorsports. Although it costs a lot of money to drive in motorsports, we want people from all walks of life to enjoy it. For example, most people cannot drive in a real Super Formula machine, but in a game, they can drive every day at any time they wish, right?
It is fun to be able to control a machine that we don’t have the opportunity to drive in real life. First of all, we have to own a machine to drive it, and driving it on a circuit is unlikely. Being able to safely and securely experience such a simulated experience is appealing. The only thing needed to visit circuits worldwide is the game’s loading time (laughter).
In preparation for the "Honda Racing eMS GT Grand Final 2023" on December 10, online qualifying was held within "Gran Turismo 7" from late September to late October. The number of competitors exceeded 200,000. At this point, this was an opportunity to introduce HRC and Honda to people worldwide. Even more surprising was the U17 division. Over 75,000 competitors gathered, even though they were not yet old enough to obtain a driver’s license.
I am glad that so many people took up the challenge of qualifying. It was also a success that we gave away a livery of CIVIC TYPE R CNF-R, which is currently competing in Super Endurance with Team HRC, as a participation prize in the game. Among the participating players, there must have been many who had never heard of Super Endurance. But the Super Endurance livery might be an excellent opportunity to get them interested, and from there, they could watch the actual race, maybe… That would be great!
One concern in organizing an e-Motorsports event was that it needed to catch up in launching to the market. Therefore, the eMS team decided to think through HRC’s objectives of “expanding the base” and “increasing awareness of HRC.” To attract people who are less interested in cars, and "Casual Gamers" in the game, HRC has set a bar low enough for anyone to participate in an e-Motorsports event.
At the start of the project, we analyzed various competitions, including those of Toyota and Mazda. Considering what kind of competitions HRC should hold, we decided to have the finals at an offline venue where anyone could easily participate and watch the competitions. That’s why we held the finals at the Welcome Plaza in Aoyama Tokyo office. While real motorsports events require spectators to travel to the circuit, e-Motorsports events have fewer restrictions, and our strength is that we can go to the venue to meet the spectators and the participants.
At the Japan Mobility Show event, we did not set any contact penalties in anticipation of many beginners participating so that they could experience the fun of racing. On the other hand, for the event on December 10, where serious players who had passed the qualifying rounds gathered, we set up a race judging team and strictly enforced race control. By requiring the use of three different types of tires for the race, pit stops occurred at least twice, and we designed the regulations to bring the fun of motorsports, which also involves race strategy, to the forefront.
Because we launched to the market relatively late, we were able to analyze our competitors and the industry in detail. We searched for the “HRC style” of aiming for an event that all participants can enjoy.
The December 10 "Honda Racing eMS GT Grand Final 2023" was meant to be a touchstone, and e-Motorsports events will continue to be updated in the future. And they are also considering challenges using game titles other than "Gran Turismo"
There are not only full-fledged racing games like "Gran Turismo," but also more casual ones, aren’t there? If we hold events with such games, we can meet different people and get to know them better. Also, as a future goal, we would like to have events on a global scale. Since this was our first event, it was limited to Japan, but in the future, we would like to hold global events, including actual real events, and interact with people from all over the world.
HRC captured the top spot in F1, so we would also like to aim for the top spot in e-Motorsports.
Among e-sports, e-Motorsports have a high affinity between real and virtual, and some sim racers (e-Motorsports drivers) have gone from being sim racers to being professionals. In the future, e-Motorsports and motorsports will increasingly become more inseparable. In the Future e-Motorsports activities by racing companies and mobility product manufacturers, including HRC, will be closely watched.
The Honda Racing eMS GT Grand Final 2023, held on December 10, brought together meritocrat competitors from all over Japan. The venue was filled with excitement at the high-level, heated racing with ubiquitous overtaking.
”Honda Racing eMS GT Grand Final 2023” Live streaming (archive)
Original article issued on December 15, 2023
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