PlayStation GT Academy graduates to pilot Nissan’s Nismo LM GT-R

Racing in Gran Turismo isn’t too different from pounding a real thing around the racetrack, correct? Definitely, at least if you have a look at Welshman Jann Mardenborough and Spaniard Lucas Ordonez’s success stories.

The pair has been chosen to represent Nissan in one of its two LMP1-spec Nismo LM GT-R cars for this season’s World Endurance Championship (in the same company as former Le Mans winner Marc Gene). That’s a massive achievement and an even bigger risk from Nissan, who is putting spade of cash into the LM GT-R’s campaign. Considering that Mardenborough has just been racing for over a year is incredible.

Both drivers graduated from the Nissan PlayStation GT Academy, that pits drivers against each other in a racing simulator environment. The winner ultimately gets the racing contract, and this is where these two chaps come from.

It’s a meteoric rise, and demonstrates a few noteworthy points about motorsport and gaming in general.

It’s incredibly to note just how the physics of the gaming world has graduated itself, so much so that gamers can jump into real, raging LMP1 cars and pilot them without a sweat. Of course, Mardenborough and Ordonez will have a lot to learn and a great deal of bulking up to do, because piloting an LMP1-spec World Endurance Championship car is no joke either.

Nevertheless, we wonder what the racing greats like Fangio, Clark and Senna, or the racing purist, would say about this. All we can say, is good luck.