In a MSIMA EXCLUSIVE ARTICLE, we talk to Williams F1’s head of vehicle simulations about changes to their driver-in-loop (DIL) simulator.

While on a visitors tour of Williams facilities, we “accidentally got lost” and wound up talking to their vehicle simulation team! And after a lengthy conversation, we learned that Williams has been struggling as of late with their DIL. The cause? They’re in the process of replacing their entire physics and graphics engine with the ultra-realistic simulator Real Racing 3.

Williams chief simulation engineer Ben Dover had first come across Real Racing 3 (RR3 for those in the know) on his son’s ipad. So thoroughly impressed by the game engine’s technical abilities, he began to wonder if Williams should be using this mobile game as the visual base of their simulation environment instead rFactor 2.

“We first did a trail run using RR3 for the simulation’s graphics, with great success”, Ben told us, “The development team then began playing RR3 for themselves, and that’s when the ideas came”.

The simulation team was incredibly pleased with the physics engine in Real Racing 3, especially when it came to the F1 cars in game. In fact, their development drivers praised the realistic feel of the car, life-like oversteer mechanics, and the uncanny match to real life grip levels.

So, the next step is to make their entire DIL run off of RR3, which hasn’t been the easiest challenge.

“We’ve managed to get in contact with the original devs behind the game in Australia, who have agreed to license a copy of the game to us”, said Mr. Dover. “However getting the game to not only talk to our controls but also output data has been a bit tricky, as this was originally designed for the iPhone 5c. However we do believe that by this time next year, we will have a competitive edge thanks to RR3.”

We at MSIMA cannot wait to see why great things Williams F1 has to show us in the 2026 season! Just like how we are still patiently waiting for the Williams designed Dendrobium EV Hypercar!