FRANKIE DeGROOT | News | CONTACT

After the cancellation of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne over Coronavirus fears, F1 fans are finally getting good news with word that the Grand Prix will go ahead after all, with some minor changes to the format.

These changes include Coronavirus testing for all participants, isolation of all drivers before and after the race, and the race now taking place on a 2-player Daytona USA arcade machine instead of on a track.

Released by Sega in 1993, Daytona USA is still an extremely popular arcade game and can be found in many video arcades around the world.

“It’s actually a very professional setup” said Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.

“We’ve set aside a spot in one of the corporate reception areas for the Daytona USA machine, and the drivers just line up to race each other. The winner of each race then plays the winners of the other races in a tournament and we keep going until we have a winner. The arcade machine itself will be inspected by officials before and after each race to ensure the team mechanics haven’t illegally modified it somehow.”

Although fans have been sceptical about whether the new format will be as entertaining as the previous arrangement involving real cars driving around a real track, the Premier was certain the tournament would be popular with fans.

“We understand some die-hard fans might think that playing Daytona USA is not the same as a real race with real cars. But I would like to personally assure those people that we will be using manual transmissions and the Expert track. You get 4 camera angles, plus we’ll even splice in footage from earlier races of people in polo shirts standing politely next to the track so it will be just like the real thing”.

