Interview with Bernard Vella - The Young Maltese SIMRacing Prodigy

For those that don't know, SIMRacing is a sector of esports which deals with simulated racing, giving racers the opportunity to get on the track without opening a single door - this is made possible thanks to the recent leap in technology within racing simulation. One other thing which you may not know is that Maltese talent is viciously present in many competitors. An example is the young Bernard Vella, a 16-year-old who has just won an international Sim Racing competition by taking down a renowned competitor. We decided to learn more about the youngster and SIMRacing in general through an article interview, which you can all enjoy below!

1.) Let’s kick off the interview by focusing on you – please introduce yourself in terms of personal life, work, esports and anything else you’d like to mention! 

My name is Bernard Vella; a 16-year-old sim racing driver at GT Omega RPM Esports. I am currently a student and I’m preparing for my first year in sixth form at St Aloysius College. My passion is to become a race car engineer and to work on what I love.

2.) This interview is being carried out on the back of an incredible achievement by Bernard Vella at an international simulation racing event – the ADAC SimRacing Expo. Could you break it down for us? 

The ADAC Sim Racing Expo is the biggest simulator expo there is, which is held annually in Germany, and together with my team we competed in various competitions against the best drivers in the world. My teammates Keith Camilleri, Brandon Tabone and Terence Grech competed in the GT 500, while me and Omar Barbara competed in other competitions at the event. I focused on the Wave Italy Championship because I love to drive F1 cars and there was also a great prizes for the top 3 drivers.

3.) To win it all, you took down a reigning champion in Brendon Leigh by a mere 0.016 seconds! Describe your journey as a racing competitor up to this point in both the virtual and real sense. 

I started sim racing last November and from the start I loved the competition it brings and I would balance training on my simulator and my school work. I competed in my first race on the 14th of December in the Sim Racing Malta GT3 Casual Race, where me and Keith Camilleri battled it out, which led to me being fastest in practice and qualifying and also winning both of the races. The main reason that I got used to sim racing quickly was due to me racing in real life with a go kart which helped me adapt to sim racing. I never expected to win against Brendon Leigh the current F1 Esports Champion that I watched win his championship when I had just bought my steering wheel last November, but it goes to show that with dedication and hard work, anything is possible.

4.) SIM Racing is a sector of esports which many people are not familiar with. Of course, one can easily bridge the fact that it is digital racing – but in your opinion, what makes SIM Racing as a competitive genre different to other genres such as MOBAs, FPS and Fighting in terms of gameplay and strategy? 

Unlike other sectors of esports, skills learned in sim racing translate to real life racing which I experienced in my first few months of sim racing where I saw improvements in my real life racing almost immediately. One of the main reasons sim racing is becoming recognized by many professional racing teams is due to the fact that it can become the grass roots of motorsport which currently is karting, that is very expensive and not many people can get the opportunity to show what they’re capable of.

5.) With this in mind, how does one practice and become better at SIM Racing? How much does actual karting help out? 

Real life racing and sim racing go hand in hand and just like in real life; to improve in sim racing, the main goal is to focus while training. Training sessions don’t have to be extremely long like most people think, for example I train usually for 2-4 hours a day depending on my school work with training being split throughout the day as to not exhaust myself. Actual karting helped me from the start because I already had the feeling of how a car will respond to my inputs in the simulator.

6.) What are your views on both the local and international scenes when it comes to SIM Racing? How could both be improved? 

Sim racing in Malta has taken a massive step forward with events being organized by Sim Racing Malta and World Pro Racing locally, which gives opportunities to sim racing drivers to show their worth in a simulator locally. Internationally, sim racing is constantly growing, shown even in Formula 1 where actual F1 teams are picking simulator drivers to compete in events and even help on the actual F1 simulator which teams use to set up the actual car during a racing weekend. There aren’t major improvements that have to be made, but if sim racing continues to grow and small problems are polished out it can definitely become better in the coming years.

7.) You also form part of a team – GT OMEGA RPM Esports. Describe the process of being picked up by the team. How does the team support you in your competition? 

When I competed in my first two races I competed against drivers of GT Omega RPM Esports where I showed I am capable of matching and even beating them, therefore Justin the manager of the team selected me, Brandon Tabone and Omar Barbara to join the team last January. The teams gives us constant support in our competitions, they help us find sponsorships, find engineers that can help us work on the setup of the car to make it faster and give us exposure to help further improve our image as drivers.

8.) Let’s take a look to the future; what are your goals as an individual competitor and what are your goals as part of a team? Do you have any separate goals for real and simulated racing? 

My main goal is to push myself to the limit so I can extract everything I can from myself and earn respect from other drivers and teams, along with my team who have the same ambitions of winning. In both real life and virtual racing I try to improve as much I can, so if I ever get an opportunity to prove myself I know that I would have given everything that I have. 

9.) Advice time; we like to conclude our interviews by asking for advice on behalf of our viewers. What advice do you have to offer to any Maltese trying to make it as a professional racer in any dimension? What does it take to arrive at your level of competition? 

It’s important to train seriously, this means that it is important to balance all things and to put hard work and dedication in to all of your ambitions in life which in my case were racing and school. It’s also very important to look at how other people drive and think while racing to learn from them. To compete at a high level it is important to remain level headed and even if you reach a certain level, to look at the small things that prevent us from reaching our limit.

Some phenomenal answers out of Bernard- prior to this interview, I was completely unaware of any local SIMRacing scene and as an esports journalist, I appreciate the enlightenment. I was also fascinated by how young the competitor is; just one year younger and attending the same sixth form, he's off winning international races and I'm here writing about it. Overall, Gamers.com.mt wishes him the best for his future in both virtual and physical racing, of course, also wishing his team a similar amount of luck.