Tony Gardner, the President and CFO of iRacing, posted a new thread on the iRacing forums giving everyone some insight on the iRacing roadmap.
Expanded development team
As always, everyone wants new cars and tracks but it's a very tedious and expensive task to laser scan tracks down to minute detail and bring it into iRacing. The good news is that iRacing has added several new team members, including an experienced engineer that worked on rFactor Pro. he didn't specifically say rFactor Pro, but there's only one sim we know of that has both consumer and pro versions.
They also hired some people that previously worked for Slightly Mad Studios (Project Cars). Hopefully, the extra staff will speed up the process of developing new content which should make the seasonal updates of iRacing really exciting.
New tracks
Algarve, Aragon, Jerez, Misano, Pukekohe, and Lédenon are all on their way to iRacing. This is a huge list of tracks that was unexpected but welcomed. We're quite fond of the Algarve track, or Portimao, as it's known more commonly. This track has considerable variations in elevation with a good combination of slow and fast corners with genuine opportunities for overtaking. It will be a welcomed addition to the iRacing stable of tracks.
Besides the new tracks, Zandvoort has been completely rescanned. The track underwent what was essentially a completed rebuild with several corners being reprofiled in terms of camber. This rebuild was done prior to the track being certified for use for Formula 1. The track layout remains unchanged, but the added banking at certain corners should aid overtaking and this new rescanned version will bring the old iRacing version of Zandvoort bang up to date.
Rain
We've been waiting for rain in iRacing for years. rFactor 2 and Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC) were both released with full weather effects with ACC being a standout with stunning visuals and handling to match. As usual, iRacing won't release something unless they think it's ready, so the day when rain will be available is still unknown. One of the reasons for this is their tire model. The model will have to be rebuilt with rain in mind as well as the way the track surface and the water on it react to the tire. It is highly complicated and is not as simple as lowering the grip level to make it seem like the track is wet.
We're sure that when it is released, it will be amazing and should behave and feel like the real thing.
Final thoughts
The post from Tony Gardner was unexpected but appreciated. We don't normally get much info regarding the plans for iRacing, but this was very helpful and informative. However, he said that rain is planned for this year, but no firm day was given.
We are looking forward to the new tracks, but we think the new tire model and the new weather effects might be a game changer. iRacing has been heavily criticised for being unrealistic when driving at the limits of grip. The car will suddenly let go without much warning, and recovery is nearly impossible. This has been addressed to some degree, but we think that the addition of the new staff combined with the improved tire model should change everything.
