In my March blog, I mentioned that April was going to be action packed, and it certainly lived up to my expectations. Not only was I lucky enough to spend a week in the Italian Alps, but my girlfriend and I went for a city trip to Prague to celebrate my birthday.

When all of that was done, I got straight back to the grind with fitness training, media and another week at the McLaren Technology Centre.

This started with an invitation to take part in a keynote talk at Luminis Devcon. Luminis is a big player in the software development scene, and they are also the parent company of Studio397, the developers of rFactor2. This is the platform on which my McLaren journey began, so it made sense for me to be involved.

The conference was sold out, so this was an entirely new experience for me. My talk was attended by 550 people, to whom I told the story that I’m currently a part of.

rFactor2 were also present at the event and so as well as the talk, I spent some time encouraging the attendees to try out the two simulator setups that they had on site, trying to get as many new people as possible to try the game in the hope that they love it as much as I do.

The following week, it was time for me to visit the MTC again. The week was packed with meetings and spending time with the McLaren Applied Technologies simulator team.

For these sessions, I was on the other side of the sim in front of the data monitors, going through the process of learning as much I can, and seeing how I can apply this knowledge to the Formula 1 simulator. I’ll be back in the F1 sim again soon, and I can’t wait.

The downside of this week was that I caught the flu, so I ended up needing two days at home to recover. On the flip side, the highlight of this month was definitely my visit to Pure McLaren, McLaren Automotive’s customer event held at the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

These events are for all McLaren enthusiasts who like to take their supercars on track and enjoy it to the absolute maximum.

As well as that, it’s possible to get driver coaching and one of the coaches on site was Gonzalo Gomez. For those who don’t know, Gonz was my coach during the finals week of World’s Fastest Gamer, so it was good to see each other again and to talk about the journey I’ve been on since we last met.

All of the McLaren cars that ran on track looked amazing, and when I was asked if I wanted to be a passenger in a 720S driven by Bruno Senna, I didn’t need to think twice!

We know Bruno is a pro driver, but what surprised me the most was the ridiculous performance from the super car. I’ve never felt such power and braking performance. What a mind-blowing experience. Fun note, there was an intercom system in the car, and me and Bruno were chatting all the way through the lap about his LMP1 campaign this year – all while doing the laps at the edge of what the car could take!

That concluded April for me, and there is more on the horizon to show you guys soon.

Rudy.