Unbelievable: The races of the future are already here

The world is experiencing rapid and constant change. This happens in competition. An example of this is football, which has a new example league of kings of Gerard Pique that hooks young people. Gerard recently said that it is difficult for young people to watch a 90-minute football game without spending a long time with their eyes on their mobile phones or other content. The Kings League is an adaptation of football with the spectacle and freshness that new generations can demand. CUPRA has a similar career mindset. This is how he explained CUPRA Racing competition director, Xavi Serrain a conversation with a small group of Spanish press last Race of Championsin Sweden.

“CUPRA doesn’t close the door to a certain type of format, but obviously we don’t want to get into typical and current formats because they don’t work anymore. My engine love mind, from so many years of drawing parts, has gone through the process of accepting that we need to change. And we take advantage of technological change to look for changes in formats as well”. There’s the key.

CUPRA aims to be a 100% electric brand by 2030, so its current sports bet is on electric competitions. It is the first brand to confirm its presence in Extreme E, it has just entered Formula E and developed the car for the new Electric World Touring Car (ETCR). For the brand, the competition is no doubt. “In CUPRA’s DNA, motorsport is one of the main pillars. It is obvious. We have never thought of leaving this world”, pointed out MD Antonino Labate, director of Strategy, Business Development and Operations of CUPRA.

But the company intends to go further. Competition, yes, but above all, experience: “Instead, we think about how to build an experiential world through sport.” They want to be pioneers here. How to do it? Think Kings League, the world of Twitch and gaming. The world of young people who in a few years will be buying cars. And more and more people are not so young. Now think about translating those ideas into motor racing. That’s what CUPRA is doing with an experience that, as MD has learned, will be released in Berlin next April in an anticipated event before the eyes of the world, coinciding with CUPRA’s 5th anniversary. An idea that could be the origin of future races. A new way of understanding motorsport. We present to you the Cupra Squared Experience, or as its creators say, the ‘Exponential Experience’.

Real and virtual competition at the same time

When you tell someone that they can compete in a real and virtual way at the same time, it’s hard for them to imagine what’s coming. No simulators. It is a 100% mix of real and virtual. He CUPRA Squared Experience is a concept where a driver and a co-driver will compete inside a real car, the Cupra Urban Rebel Racing Concept, a 100% electric vehicle with more than 400 peak CV and brutal acceleration: from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.2 seconds. an animal

Competitors will drive this car into a large open space like an airport, but what they will see in front of their eyes when driving is something else. They will wear virtual glasses and see a completely different track, with elements that have yet to be identified. And it is the range of possibilities that it generates in terms of circuits, traps or surprises that exist within the virtual world in which it competes is endless. Gates can be added to pass or thousands of elements on a track where drivers can see tens, hundreds or thousands of rival drivers from other parts of the world.

The car will offer the same sensations as a normal one. No moving simulator. If you turn right in the virtual world and suddenly brake at a speed of 100 km/h, the driver’s body will feel the real forces because the same speed of the car he is driving in reality, on the runway of the aforementioned airport or any large space that selected for that competition.

Performed in April

Right now, it’s just the first thing to know teaser to open the mouth But we don’t have to wait long to see more. In April, in Berlin, the initial concept will be revealed and some journalists will be able to test it in the passenger seat, but its evolution can go anywhere. “Let’s see. We will contact, say, 5,000 people who will be in the same place. This is no longer the usual ghost car. It’s about imagination. We don’t know what the limits of the concept will be”Serra added about a product that, in the hands of great influencers and creators of current events, could have a huge future.

“We don’t lose our ambition to win, but we can do a lot of things at the same time that are not typical, because otherwise we won’t be able to reach people. As generations disappear, we will not reach new ones if we do not make a change. What is the change? We do not know. We’re writing it”added Xavi. “We expect these new races to be our next gem. The R&D team is working on this with a huge challenge”he pointed out.

“I have many dreams. But the biggest is taking advantage of our Exponential Experience on a global scale. It’s great. I want it to be the greatest racing-based experience in the world… It will be!” Antonino concludes for this newspaper.