until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Some will associate him with the yellow wing-mirrored Audi A4 that crushed the opposition in the 1996 British Touring Car Championship before being ballasted out of contention the following year; others will remember him more for five Le Mans 24 Hours wins.
Frank Biela is a true legend of motorsport.
But even at 56, the German-born driver is still finding ways to reinvent himself. His name has been lent to an esports collective – Biela Racing – but Frank has done so much more than offer a name. He’s a founding member of the club.
For him, it all goes back to the 1990s, where many will have their fondest memories of Biela.
“Like a lot of people, I would play on Playstation or other games for the PC like Grand Prix,” Biela tells The Race. He won his first major title, the DTM, in 1991 – the same year Grand Prix was released.
“I was doing a little bit from time to time, nothing serious. Just if someone was visiting you or you were visiting someone else, we’d switch the thing on and drive a little bit.
“In those days the best thing was, maybe you were doing your laptimes at home and by text you would send your times to your friends and vice versa!”
Biela’s always been a big fan of playing racing games in a group and when technology began to allow, he would meet 10 or 15 friends at 8pm to race in a lobby online.
This merged into a group of over 30 people, and like for many grassroots esports teams, this group had to make the decision of whether to stay just for fun or to evolve into something more.
Inevitably at the grassroots level you get a huge range of abilities and the elite few will want to push on and compete at a higher level while others will want to take part for the enjoyment and bonding experience.
Two years ago, this “football club”, as Biela dubs it, decided – with eight of the members – to form a tangible team and it’s now sponsored and racing in big competitions like the VCO 24H Series Esports championship.
“Some people just wanted to do it for fun, some took it more seriously,” says Biela. “At the end of the day we decided to create our own team and it was a handful of people – seven or eight – and one of the first things to decide was ‘what will be our team name’.
“Somebody came up with Biela Racing and asked if I minded, I said ‘oh my God, no, of course not’. So we became Biela Racing.
“Even at that stage it was still a hobby but with the goal of being more successful in bigger events, so if something was coming up we’d test and try to be more prepared with testing and set-up work, which is very important on iRacing. That’s how it developed.”
Biela’s an attractive asset for the team. Not only did his motorsport connections help to bag its Euronics sponsorship, he adds gravitas and helped raise the profile of the team immediately.
His support doesn’t end there; his knowledge of set-up work and strategy is second to none as someone who has succeeded in the hardest long-distance circuit event – the Le Mans 24 Hours – no fewer than five times, but also made his name winning quick-fire touring car races. That makes him an excellent confidant for drivers with such diverse experience.
Biela typically understates his importance but there’s no doubt over the value he has brought to the team, even if he feels he isn’t good enough to race in the most prestigious events!
The last 12 months have been a strong period for Biela Racing, especially with two consecutive wins in the 24H Series Esports competition, where its duo Lukas Jestadt and Sven-Ole Haase have scored back-to-back wins at Silverstone and Monza to lead the championship with two races remaining.
Of course in true Biela fashion, they race an Audi, the marque’s R8 LMS GT3. Even if it is a bit disappointing the car isn’t silver with red accents in true Biela BTCC fashion, it does at least have yellow mirrors synonymous with his BTCC heyday.
BELLA MACCHINA!💥🏆Second victory for car #45 with Sven & Stefan after a great fight at Monza! Car #46 with James & Lubo managed to achieve the best season result by finishing in 4th. GRAZIE RAGAZZI! 🥂#YES #VICTORY @EURONICS @24H_ESPORTS pic.twitter.com/WeULlx6bA8
— Biela Racing (@bielaracing45) February 14, 2021
Trying to break into bigger competitions comes with its own issues for the team, especially when it’s so common for simracers at an intermediate level to rotate around teams, race for more than one or even just join a new team mid-season or each year.
“Things are getting more professional so sometimes there’s a bit more pressure, on the other hand it’s difficult to put pressure on people in a way if it’s still a hobby,” adds Biela. “They are not paid with a fixed salary, at the moment this is something we cannot afford, but I’m pretty sure that’s the way it goes.
“A lot of other teams do have the possibility; that makes it more and more difficult to get good drivers. Especially young guys, 16-18, probably still going to school, and if you pay them €400-500 per month, for a student it’s a lot of money!
“So that makes it more complicated at the moment. I’m pretty sure in a few years we’ll have more people doing it for a living and I’m sure in the future we will find more and more real-world motorsport talent that has come from simracing.
“Whether it takes two, five, 10 or 20 years is another question!”
So at the moment the team appears to be approaching a bit of a crossroads in its ethos. But speaking to Biela you get the sense that the social construction of this team will always be just as important as the competition itself.
And that’s coming from someone as fiercely competitive as Biela himself is.
“The social aspect is something very important to us; sometimes you cannot avoid it but in general we don’t want people turning up five minutes before the race, do the race, then they are gone again,” he says.
“In our team we work together a lot, but in the off time we are talking a lot and discussing things. It’s a friendship somehow between the guys and that makes it very nice.
“As a team, we always say ‘if it works, fantastic, if not, we like what we are doing even if it is just for fun’. We will continue this way or that way. Of course if it were bigger and more professional it would be even nicer.”
Of course Biela has help and isn’t the sole person running the team, but it’s still a new bridge for him to cross in terms of predicting how esports trends change and how to tread the best path for the squad moving forwards. It’s almost always difficult when friends and business mix.
Biela is at least seeing things on a practical level. He’ll race as the real-world pro in the Biela Racing team’s entry into the RCCO World eX Championship on rFactor.
It is with massive excitement that we can finally announce our latest project for '21: We’re going #electric! We will take part in the new RCCO World eX Championship on #rFactor! Our drivers will be F. Biela as the real-world pro & young gun L. Kita as our sim-racer! @EURONICS pic.twitter.com/sNXjMnFL1k
— Biela Racing (@bielaracing45) March 4, 2021
Despite feeling like he’s a step behind his team’s stars in terms of pace, Biela wishes that the level of technology nowadays was available to him as a young up-and-coming driver, especially knowing how primitive early gaming could be.
“I remember, the only time I could test something on a simulator or a PC was getting ready for a Jerez test in Spain, I’d never been there before and so it must have been the end of the 90s when we started our prototype programme,” Biela recalls.
“On the PC, Grand Prix 1, I learned the track and it was a really big help! And that’s not even comparable to what’s possible these days. It was a big help even then.
“The skills are 1-1. Physically it’s not as hard [in simracing] because there’s no G-forces, and if you crash it doesn’t hurt. Those are the two things that are different. You have to be mentally and physically prepared.
“Strategy, as a real driver you don’t worry about so much as you have people to help. The simracers are learning [this] because they have to, especially if you’re not in a big team with a spotter and a strategist.
“At the beginning you have to do it yourself, [decide] when to pit, when to try an overcut or an undercut. They get used to it. Even though in real life you have your engineers and people doing it, it helps if you know what you are talking about and what they are talking about.
“Simracing, it’s unbelievable how well it compares with real racing.”
Biela raced last year in the Audi SS R8 Cup, completing his first proper on-track racing outings in four years. He was still a podium finisher.
Even if his regular competition days are coming to an end, his on-track motorsport achievements will live on. And now his name and experience is helping a crop of esports drivers attempt to transition to a professional level.
It’s a new legacy for a motorsport icon.
