Earlier this year at Goodwood Festival of Speed, we gave the stars of WRC an exclusive first hands-on with the EA SPORTS™ WRC 24 Season Expansion, featuring the current season’s cars and two new locations: ORLEN 80th Rally Poland and Tet Rally Latvia.
Check out some early gameplay with our video here, and read on to see what they had to say about their experience.
Hyundai’s Dani Sordo is one of the most experienced competitors in WRC history, with almost 200 rally starts to his name. He remarked on the authenticity of the game’s stages while speeding through Poland in the i20 N Rally1 HYBRID ‘24.
“It’s nice to practice the location here as you can remember the stage from real life,” he said. “It’s a new experience for me, I’m not so quick in the game yet! You need to be really focused to succeed. It’s really close to reality, though I’m faster in reality!”
M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux has been the breakout star of 2024, taking the Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID ‘24 to several podiums with his fearless driving. One feature of the Latvian stages stood out to him in particular.
“It looks a lot like the Latvian rally in real life” he remarked. “Like this chicane I’m coming up to, there’s a lot of them on the real stages.”
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, fresh off a second place finish at ORLEN 80th Rally Poland in real-life, felt right at home in the virtual version, with co-driver Scott Martin calling out the notes alongside.
“After some time with the game I have to say the nature of the stages is quite realistic, I immediately recognise a couple of places from the Rally in Poland last week. That’s great and the way the car reacts is similar to the real thing. It’s impressive.”
Elfyn’s team boss, Jari-Matti Latvala, also had a run on our Fanatec rig and highlighted the value of sim racing to younger drivers.
“The graphics really look amazing, a real authentic feeling with the roads,” he said. “I think for the newer generation, like the Japanese Challenge Programme we run at Toyota, it’s good to get this experience.”
M-Sport rookie Grégoire Munster picked up on the finer details of the new EA SPORTS™ WRC stages.
“Straight away with the environment you know you’re in Poland. You can see it on the surface of the gravel, it’s a bit more sandy and whiter than you find in other rallies.”
Finally, Hayden Paddon, driver for Hyundai Customer Racing and 2023 ERC Champion, was enamoured with his time in the sim.
“It’s cool to experience it first-hand, and with those brand new Latvian stages, it feels like you’re there,"" he remarked. “The handling of the car is supreme. Definitely the best rally game I’ve played and I look forward to when the expansion’s officially released.”
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The EA SPORTS™ WRC 24 Season Expansion is available from October 8.
Learn more about it here and follow us online to get the latest news.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1849250/EA_SPORTS_WRC/
