Video: How will McLaren’s esports tournament work? We ask racing game expert Darren Cox

What is World’s Fastest Gamer? We visit McLaren’s Surrey HQ to find out…

In May, British racing brand McLaren announced its World’s Fastest Gamer racing game esports championship, the winner of which will land a job with McLaren as a simulation driver.

So far, details of the actual qualifiers and tournament format have been scarce. One qualifier will take place at Silverstone, while the other three are to be announced.

A new FAQ page on the McLaren website has revealed that participants will be able to take part using a mobile phone, console or PC, across a host of titles such as Forza, Gran Turismo, Project Cars, iRacing and rFactor 2.

Six of the 10 qualifying spots will be pre-selected by a panel of gaming and motorsport experts, who will be looking at results in Formula E, Forza, iRacing and more. Those who progress will also do so on the opinion of the panel – not on the basis of a points-based system or a league table.

“The final 10 will be put through a series of tests overseen by McLaren’s engineers and professionals. McLaren will test finalists for general health and fitness, reaction speed, engineering know-how, car set-up ability, PR skills and aptitude,” read a statement on the McLaren website.

“The final decision of the McLaren management team will be based on the observations gained during the whole final event, supplemented by times and data gathered from each competitor. Finally, there will be a formal job interview.”

We visited Ideas+Cars founder Darren Cox (who worked on the GT Academy initiative, that helped top GT gamers become real life racing drivers) at McLaren HQ to ask him more.

You can watch our interview with Darren Cox here: