Last year Rudy van Buren won the World's Faster Gamer competition, a racing esports tournament hosted by McLaren, and now the company - which also has a presence in Formula 1 - has revealed their future plans for esports.
McLaren Shadow Project is a program that is being launched that allows the winner to earn a place on the esports team for the organisation, then being able to race against the best teams in the world as well as gain access to the esports development program, not to mention plenty of goodies.
"McLaren Shadow Project will be the most open and inclusive racing esports competition on the planet. We are looking for the most talented virtual racers from all countries and backgrounds. To make this possible we have partnered with the biggest racing game brands in the world - Real Racing™ 3 on mobile, Forza Motorsport on Xbox, PC racing sims iRacing and rFactor 2," said Ben Payne, McLaren Director of esports.
McLaren describes their inclusion of more casual games as "crucial", and here's what CEO of McLaren Racing Zak Brown had to say:
"Season one proved that esports are a new talent frontier for motorsport and after pioneering the programme in 2017, McLaren plans to develop the concept to generate greater global reach and engagement in season two. A strong, diverse esports programme has a direct benefit to McLaren's innovative ambitions, bringing in new audiences, partners and talent to motorsport. By ramping up over multiple platforms across the online world, it will establish McLaren as an important brand in the motorsport esports community."
You can enter the competition via McLaren's website, and global online qualification heats kick off in August in a number of games. You can enter if you're over the age of 18, and semi-finalists will eventually be selected to go to McLaren's HQ in England, the finals then taking place in January.
Do you have what it takes?