Childhood dream fulfilled

From the PlayStation to the cockpit of a US racing series

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31.01.2025 11:20

When the "storm" called corona hit the world in 2020, many people symbolically built walls. In contrast, an 18-year-old Upper Austrian at the time set sail: he first became an e-sports star before making the leap into a US motorsport series and real racing cars via the game console.  

His story could even be Hollywood material:

Lorenz Hörzing!

The Ebensee native turns 23 on Friday and is training as a pilot for the Lufthansa Group in Germany and the USA. However, he hardly has any time for this because he started e-car racing on the computer at home during the coronavirus lockdown. He raced against millions of others on the simulator, established himself as one of the world's top drivers and "won" a cockpit in a real car. In the meantime, he has also triumphed in a US racing series, the Prodigy Racing League - to the delight of Real Madrid keeper Thibaut Courtois, who owns the racing team and for whom Lorenz Hörzing will be taking off for Miami again on Sunday.

"Krone": Mr. Hörzing, how often do you actually think to yourself "Zwickt's mi, i man i streetcar", to paraphrase Wolfgang Ambros?

Lorenz Hörzing: All I know is that if someone had told me two years ago that I would be able to live out two childhood dreams at the same time, I would have thought it possible.

How did it all come about?

I was already sitting in front of the PlayStation with the controller as a child.

How old were you then?

Three or four! I bought a steering wheel when I was 16 and started playing on the computer. When that got boring, I started driving against real opponents on the simulator by entering the international scene.

How can a layman imagine that?

Because of Corona, some real racing series were converted to digital at the time to give simulator drivers a chance. The 20 fastest in the world were then allowed to drive a racing series - that was my entry.

How many drivers took part in qualifying back then?

Hundreds of thousands for sure, maybe even millions. Hundreds of millions around the world play simulators - online.

Like an 18-year-old from Ebensee in 2020.

Yes, I had a lot of time during corona, I drove for a few hours every day. But it was never my goal to do it professionally. It just happened because the talent was there.

You soon collected your first prize money.

That was in Formula E online. Back then, there was a prize pot of 100,000 euros, which was divided among the 20 drivers depending on their position. I came tenth and got 2500.

How many classes are there actually?

There is no limit. You can drive any car that exists in real life digitally. Even Formula 1 has an e-sports series. You have to be a certain age and get into a team via a qualifying series - theoretically you can do that within a year, provided you have a lot of talent.

But how did you manage to get into the cockpit of a real car?

That was in 2023, when I had actually stopped doing that earlier in order to concentrate on my application phase for flight school. Back then, I was invited to a digital race by Racing Prodigy - a US program I was enrolled in - and the winner got to drive a real racing car in Atlanta.

And you won this "sim race"!

Yes, it was a dream come true, even though it wasn't clear at the time that there would be a whole racing series in real cars, which I now drive. We now have a total of 24 drivers who are supposed to show what can be transferred from the simulator to the real car. There was a draft event for the racing series in July 2024 in London in cooperation with the Williams Formula 1 team. The six teams involved in the racing series were each allowed to choose four drivers.

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois is the team boss of Lorenz Hörzing. (Bild: APA/AFP/JACK GUEZ)
Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois is the team boss of Lorenz Hörzing.

And your current team boss, Real Madrid keeper Thibaut Courtois, made a good choice with you.

He is a racing fan and still regularly sits in front of the simulator.

And will be a Hörzing fan by now. After all, you already achieved an incredible double victory in the second of the five series events with two races each.

That was at the beginning of January on the US race track in Sebring. Because my flight Vienna - Amsterdam - Orlando was canceled, I would have flown via Manchester. But because there was snow chaos there, this flight was also canceled. So I flew via Paris and Montreal, was on the road for 48 hours and missed the only training day. And I still won both races.

Hörzing after his victory in Sebring. (Bild: Lorenz Hörzing)
Hörzing after his victory in Sebring.

Which cars are used in this series?

They are prototypes with 200 hp. Next season I could be in a 500 hp car. The Americans want to turn this series into different leagues in which drivers move up and down.

Where do you notice differences to the simulator?

For me, it's really only the centrifugal forces. At first I had to be careful not to let my feet slip off the accelerator and brake pedals. But that will be better in Miami.

Is that where you're going next?

Yes, I'm flying out on Sunday. The races will take place there on February 5.

And what about the Lufthansa training?

After the end of the racing season, I'll go to Phoenix to practise. 

This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.

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