McLaren Formula 1 team Exec Dir Zak Brown said that all F1 teams "could eventually have their own virtual counterpart, while gaming can become the new grassroots of the sport," according to Alan Baldwin of REUTERS. Speaking at an event to promote McLaren's "World's Fastest Gamer" initiative to recruit an F1 simulator driver from virtual racing, Brown said that the world of esports "was to be embraced." He said, "I don’t see how any F1 team can ignore the power of esports, the audience, the people it produces. So I’d like to think most F1 teams will do something in some way, shape or form. This is building the grassroots of motorsports. If the grassroots has historically been karting, which is still a narrow audience because it’s still expensive, I see this (gaming) as being the ultimate grassroots of motorsports, being wide and deep and everyone can afford it." Darren Cox, "Chief Maverick Officer" of the Ideas+Cars agency working with McLaren, said that gaming was "bigger than Hollywood" and pointed to the "Real Racing 3" mobile app that had 300 million downloads. Cox said, "Kids are finding sports through their virtual equivalent first before they actually find the real sport." Brown said that motor racing, as a sport that could not be practiced at school and required a substantial outlay, "needed to consider other ways of engaging younger audiences." He said, "I see esports as another racing property for us in the McLaren ecosystem" (REUTERS, 5/22).