Sim racing teaches you the brutal difference between a 'calculated risk' and a 'bad idea.' One gets you on the podium, the other gets you a front-row seat to watch the rest of the race from the pit lane while contemplating your life choices.
Attn: Sim Gaming Expo News will be curated and hand picked for next week sometime.
Without your support, we wouldn't be here today! Here’s how you can help us grow.
NEWS FLASH
The virtual advantage: From being a kid obsessed with the movie Cars to becoming a pro esports driver, Isack Hadjar's path to his Racing Bulls F1 seat was anything but conventional. He honed his skills and learned to manage pressure in elite esports tournaments, using the virtual world as a high-stakes training ground to master new circuits and race strategy. This digital-first approach provided an accelerated learning curve, giving him the confidence to battle wheel-to-wheel long before he ever sat in a real F1 machine.
More E⚡ less G⛽: Formula One's 2026 power units are getting a massive makeover, shifting to an even 50/50 split between the internal combustion engine and electric power. To achieve this, the complex MGU-H heat-recovery system is being removed to simplify the tech while the MGU-K's kinetic energy output is being tripled to 350 kilowatts. This overhaul, combined with a switch to 100% sustainable fuels and reduced fuel flow, will fundamentally change how drivers manage energy for attacking and defending on the track.
A season of dominance: Honda completely ran the table in the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES, locking up the drivers' championship with star Alex Palou, the overall manufacturers' title, and the Rookie of the Year award with Louis Foster. Palou was the driving force behind the success, winning 8 of Honda's 12 victories—including the prestigious Indianapolis 500—and finishing on the podium in a staggering 13 out of 17 races. This marks the first time since 2005 that the company has won the Indy 500 and swept all three major championships in a single, commanding season.
SIM RACING SNIPPETS
Reviving abandoned tech: A new community-developed driver on Steam, called Oasis, is giving a second life to Windows Mixed Reality VR headsets that Microsoft officially discontinued last year. The driver allows once-obsolete devices like the popular HP Reverb G2 to work directly with SteamVR, though it currently only offers support for users with NVIDIA graphics cards. This is budget for sim racing gear add-ons at it’s best!
More wheels, less hassle: Simagic has launched its new QR-A quick-release adapter, designed to let sim racers easily use a wide variety of third-party steering wheels on the company's latest Alpha Evo wheelbases. Priced at $89, the CNC-machined aluminum adapter supports common bolt patterns from popular brands like Ascher Racing and Cube Controls and features a grooved design for clean cable management.
Smarter crashes are here: The third early access update for Wreckfest 2 has just dropped, adding two new cars—a brutish American muscle car and a tiny European hatchback—along with a brand-new folk racing track and more layouts for existing circuits. Beyond the new content, the update delivers a significant overhaul to the AI opponents, which are now faster and have the intelligence to give up in prolonged collisions, while also adding initial telemetry support for advanced sim rigs. Looks good, but who’s waiting on the VR update still?
If you enjoy this content and you’re looking to buy some gear. Please check out our list of affiliate links with discounts here: GRID GEEKS DISCOUNTS
MOTORSPORTS REPORT
Meme dreams: Ferrari's Charles Leclerc accidentally secured his spot in the F1 meme hall of fame after a collision with a rookie Mercedes driver sent him crashing out of the Dutch Grand Prix, leading to a now-viral photo of him contemplating his fate on a nearby sand dune. The incident was salt in the wound for the team, as teammate Lewis Hamilton also crashed, handing Ferrari a dreaded double DNF right before their crucial home race at Monza.
Finally, an Aston Martin leads laps: Formula 1 has new Vantage S Safety Car and a busy debut at the Dutch Grand Prix, controlling the race three separate times after multiple on-track incidents. This isn't just a street car with a light bar, as the upgraded machine packs a 671-hp twin-turbo V-8 capable of hitting 62 mph in 3.4 seconds, making it the fastest official safety car Aston Martin has ever built.
Sargeant's back on track: After his future in motorsport was left in question following a sudden exit from two teams earlier this year, former Williams F1 driver Logan Sargeant is making a high-profile return to competitive racing. The 24-year-old American has signed with PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports to compete in the final two marquee endurance events of the IMSA SportsCar Championship at Indianapolis and Road Atlanta.
THE SPOTLIGHT
Monza's Century of Speed and Soul
Nestled in the royal park north of Milan lies the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, a circuit known globally as the "Temple of Speed." For over a century, its story has been a relentless negotiation between the intoxicating allure of velocity and the brutal consequences of its pursuit. Forged in a frantic 110 days in 1922 as a symbol of Italian industrial might, its original design featured a terrifying banked oval engineered for speeds previously unimaginable.
That pursuit of speed came at a staggering cost. Early disasters, including the 1928 crash that killed driver Emilio Materassi and over 20 spectators, forced change. A monstrous new concrete banking was built in the 1950s, only for its fate to be sealed by the 1961 tragedy that claimed the life of driver Wolfgang Von Trips and 15 fans. This ended the era of the great banking, forcing the track to evolve. The chicanes that now punctuate its long straights were a reluctant but necessary concession to safety, forever altering the circuit’s flow but not its soul.
Even today, Monza remains an outlier. It’s a place where teams run unique low-downforce setups and engines are pushed to their limit for nearly 75% of the lap at full throttle. Its true spirit, however, lives in the Tifosi—the passionate Ferrari fans who transform the grandstands into a sea of red. From the closest finish in F1 history in 1971 to Ferrari’s emotional 1-2 victory in 1988, Monza is more than a track; it's a living monument where the magic of motorsport endures.
MEMBER FEATURE
Meet Sim Racing Nation community member Ernie Francis Jr, a 27-year-old professional race car driver from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who has built a career on pure speed and consistency. His resume is nothing short of legendary, with a staggering seven Trans Am Championships to his name. But the accolades don't stop there; he's also an SRX Race Winner, an F3 Race Winner, an INDY NXT podium finisher, the 2024 Super Trofeo Champion, and a 2025 Trans Am Hall of Fame Inductee.
While his main goal is to continue winning at the highest levels of motorsport, the passion for cars doesn't switch off when the season ends. Ernie is currently in the garage building his off-season project: a 2006 C6 Z06 Corvette destined for time attack. When he's not behind the wheel or planning his next build, you can usually find him doing what he loves most—wrenching on cars with his friends.
You can follow Ernie's professional career and his C6 build below:
Instagram: instagram.com/erniefrancisjr98
Linktree: linktr.ee/ErnieFrancisJr
Do you want to be featured in an upcoming newsletter? Fill out our form and we’ll reach out to you if we choose your story!
SRN RECAP AND UNFILTERED THOUGHTS
We took our community public status down and have now had random individuals interested in Sim Racing Nation send an application through first, this will help increase the quality of our members over time. I think this is a good direction for us to go to help create an exclusive environment that is helpful for everyone and can create a positive impact and reduce spammers.
Today’s email was created by Alan at Grid Geeks. A division of Sim Racing Nation.
Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.