Interview with Joaquín Capsi
-Hello again, Joaquín, before we start talking about the CRACS community, would you like to comment or clarify anything from your interview last month in this same magazine?
Nothing in particular, just to clarify to the readers that regarding the question I was asked about the greatest advances and improvements in simracing hardware, I answered with complete objectivity and honesty without naming brands or manufacturers, but the photo placed below the answer does not correspond to my objective assessment of the question—at least currently, it is not the best steering wheel for simulation in terms of price, performance, and software.
Likewise, regarding the question about my work as a COACH with real and virtual drivers, I’d like to clarify that I do this work entirely on my own, offering my coaching services in real competition with any team or structure, and in virtual competition always through cracs.net, where I operate independently and solo. (The attached photo in the response may have also caused confusion about what I’ve just detailed).
Thank you for allowing me to clarify those two points from the interview that were not graphically aligned with my responses.
Origins of the CRACS Community
-Back to the topic of the article, when and how was the CRACS community born?
CRACS.NET was born in February 2016 with the recovered domain from my former real racing team, CRACSracingteam. The reason for its creation online is that, after 30 years in various communities, forums, virtual competitions, etc., I never found a realistic approach in their organization and development. There comes a time when you have to take the reins, accepting the enormous effort it entails when you try to work as a coach for real drivers through a simulator. In communities, and even online through companies or promoters of virtual competitions, they often fail—at best—to treat competition behind a computer as a reflection of current real-world competitions, sometimes driven by marketing, sometimes by the need for high registration numbers, business demands, or simply due to a lack of knowledge about real racing and little willingness to change the habits gamers have had for years behind a virtual wheel.
So, CRACS.NET wasn’t created just to play with a group of friends or strangers. It was created and is worked on to provide the opportunity to learn, improve, and experience competitive motorsport from home, in an atmosphere of cordiality, sportsmanship, and awareness of who all the drivers on the track are.
Assetto Corsa as a Simulator
-Assetto Corsa is the simulator you use, tell us more about it. Are the physics and parameters of the cars you use modified by you?
Yes, absolutely. Assetto Corsa is, without a doubt, currently the best motorsport simulator. I don’t think I’m mistaken (without knowing them personally) if I describe its creators as lovers of this sport to an incredibly gratifying extreme for those of us fortunate enough to seek realism in a simulator. I say this because many others may have the resources, structure, and technical capacity, but if there’s a lack of passion for this sport, it all becomes just another commercial product. However, the way I saw them work on the physics of each car, utilizing many parameters overlooked by other simulators, the effort to make the tracks more than realistic, always prioritizing realism over playability, leads me to believe that the creators and founders were very clear they wanted a competition simulator above all else, forgoing greater profits that would compromise it being the best real simulator.
They might release an update or improvement to attract gamer followers, but they never forget those of us seeking realism, and that allows me to use this tool to offer real drivers a training method that benefits them every minute invested in improving on the real track. This isn’t a prediction—it’s a proven fact with 6 drivers in the year and a half that CRACS.NET has been running.
So, in some cases, I have to build the physics from scratch, and in others, I simply adapt them to current regulations, the Balance of Performance (BOP) of their competition, and tweak some parameters so the virtual car conveys the same as the real one. But it’s always a very labor-intensive task because Assetto Corsa works with many interconnected parameters in its physics, just like in real life, though the software doesn’t always reflect the values and measurements correctly. So, you have to drive them while modifying the physics to ensure the parameters are properly interpreted by the software, and if not, adjust the values to make it transfer realism onto the asphalt.
Thus, it’s not only necessary to have knowledge of mechanics and competition engineering, or access to real telemetry and data, but also to know and feel what the car transmits to the driver in real life to do a good job and understand and compare those virtual sensations with the real ones.
Evolution and Goals of the Community
-How has the community evolved since its creation? What short- and long-term goals have you set?
The evolution has been consistently upward, both in the quality of championship creation, car and track mods, and in the addition of new drivers who, together with those who started last year, remain fully enthusiastic and satisfied. This year, the grids are full in almost all championships. In the F1 championship, only one seat remains available; in the Porsche Super Cup, 32 drivers compete at the highest level in every race; the Blancpain championship is full of color with a grid of 30 drivers bringing 12 different models to life.
In the short term, to maintain that enthusiasm and satisfaction of all the drivers who see week after week that cracs.net delivers everything promised before they join.
In the long term, to offer them all the chance to compete professionally, with national and international recognition from Motorsport Federations for their results in virtual competitions. And why not? To identify drivers here whom we can help make the leap to real competition. In fact, work is already underway for 4 cracs.net drivers to compete in the RCN and VLN in 2018 and the 24H of Nürburgring in 2019.
At cracs.net, there are 14 drivers competing in real championships in 2016, 16 who have competed in some motorsport discipline in previous years. And I’m convinced that among the other 25, some will one day step onto a real race track and find that what they experience after competing at cracs.net feels familiar.
So, we’ll work to give that push to many more drivers or to recognize their ability as drivers for those who can’t make the leap from virtual to real motorsport.
Championships and Cars
-What championships do you hold? With which cars?
We hold the F1 Championship with 2016 physics and regulations, using the 2017 dates and circuits to follow the current season exactly.
A 2017-adjusted Porsche Mobil1 Super Cup Championship.
The Blancpain Championship, combining the Sprint and Endurance series into one, using 12 different car models as you’d find on the real track.
The Spanish Clio Cup Championship with the current Clio IV.
The CER National Championship in Class 1, where in reality 99% of entrants use the car we race here, the Seat León Cup Racer.
The Michelin LeMans Cup Championship, focused solely on the LMP3 category with the Ligier JSP3.
The Master Historics Championship using 1960s touring cars, GT Sport, GT Proto, LMP, and F1 cars.
The RCN and VLN Championship with cars that are economically feasible for most to race in real life.
And finally, the annual special events: the 12H of Mount Panorama, 24H of Nürburgring, 24H of LeMans, 24H of Barcelona, Macau GP, and the 500 Km of Alcañiz, using the cars that compete there in reality for each race.
Regulations
-Tell us about the type of regulations applied to them.
The regulations for each championship are the same as in real competition, except for anything in real racing designed for audience spectacle rather than the driver’s development and merit. The exception is in championships where drivers here compete in real life or plan to, where we adhere strictly to their regulations.
Obviously, races like the 24H events are simulated with shorter durations, compensated by multipliers for sunlight progression, fuel consumption, and tire wear, so the demands of those races provide experience and training for those who can compete in them in the real world.
Driver Profile
-What is the profile of the virtual/real driver best suited to this community?
It’s simple: the driver who wants to simulate real competitions as strictly as possible, either as training because they race in real life, because they want to race someday, or because, without any intention of racing in reality, they want to experience the sensations and demands from home as if they’d had the chance to compete for real.
Registration Process
-If a virtual/real driver wants to join one of the championships, what steps do they need to take? Can you detail them?
1st: Register at cracs.net
2nd: Read the forum rules and introduce themselves with their first and last name, real and virtual experience.
From there, I will personally get in touch by responding to their introduction, arranging a TeamSpeak interview with the driver to detail the championships available at that moment, formalize their registration, and grant them access to all forum content, which is restricted until then.