A dream that starts from afar, from the pen of a child who at 5 years old was already unconsciously drawing his future in a very specific color: green. It is no coincidence that it is the color of hope. On the street, both virtual and real Amos Laurito he has done a lot and his path has been marked by challenges and significant changes that led him to create his own Esports team, which bears the name and color that that 5-6 year old child had chosen, without thinking too much . Tatum Racing Team is an ambitious project dedicated to guiding young talents in the Esports world. A project that aims to train not only competitive drivers but also aware individuals. In this interview exclusive, Amos Laurito shared the details of his new project with us, revealing the expectations and challenges in this new chapter of his life.
The path of Amos Laurito, between dreams and challenges
Amos, first of all, this project started from you, from your experiences, from your path in SimRacing and from your dreams. What path was it?
"It's been a very long journey, in truth. Just consider that my first online race was in 2010. September 2010, 13 years, almost 14 years of virtual experience behind me on a professional level. But even before that I drove video games with the joystick, with the steering wheel and the equipment that existed at the time. A very long journey which also introduced me to a lot of people and gained a lot of experiences."
Would you change anything about this journey?
“I would change the mentality. In 2018 I went through a bad time: my YouTube channel and email were hacked, and in just 5 minutes I lost 5 years of work. This event changed my mentality, making me less sensitive in many aspects. But I understood, going forward, that in the virtual world, if you are not determined like perhaps Max Verstappen in real life, it is difficult to excel. When I moved to Ferrari, I felt the pressure but I wasn't at the level of the best, in terms of preparation rather than mental having had less training than them. Maybe I should have persevered more after the hard blow suffered with Toro Rosso the year before. The fact of not being accepted into the team despite being very close to the announcement led me to abandon racing for 8-9 months.
This influenced my path at Ferrari in 2019. For a series of reasons I found myself having to cover the role of second driver, rather than the third one that had been assigned to me. I had to face many more races than expected and the results were not very satisfactory. At the end of the year, I decided to abandon that role, but Ferrari still involved me in roles such as analyst, mental coach and guide for the GT categories, where we won several international championships. Overall it went well but I would have liked to believe in myself more in that period and not underestimate the possibilities that other companies would have presented themselves, such as Ferrari, after the call from Toro Rosso".
The desire to change things with your own esports team: the story of Amos Laurito
Speaking of the path, you recently updated it with an exciting new project namely the Tatum Racing Team. Here, explain to us what it is, how and why you chose to create an Esports team and what your journey in this new project is.
"Let's start with the name, which also has a very long history. When I was 5-6 years old I drew toy cars that all had one characteristic in common: the color green and a name: Tatum. I don't know where this name came from but I liked it. Then over time purple was added. There is so much of me in Tatum, there is everything of me in reality. I created this reality myself. I relied on friends and on a financial investment that will be needed to keep the project going. The objective is not to make a profit from this project, but rather the desire to reach as many young people as possible.
Amos Laurito is different from Tatum who will move forward based on what the riders do and the team's path. However, I decided to use my face, my name to publicize the team and to make it known to as many people as possible. And it will be the only form of advertising I will do, perhaps leaving aside the arrival of sponsors later on who will still be linked to the world of esports and motorsport.
The biggest goal I have is to train young talents, boys and girls to take them where they deserve, to sign with official F1 teams or even a team of some other category, acting as an intermediary and not binding the kids who want make a career. One thing I really went for with Tatum that I haven't seen a lot out there is the fact of give space to Mental Coaching, the psychological and mental part, of the pilot. Physically, in Esports you don't need a great physique, but you need the head because it takes time to improve but it takes very little to be destroyed mentally.
By working on that we could help kids feel better about themselves, to understand that a game must be fun first and then competition arises, the desire to do, if you have the passion. With a specific path behind it that trains kids on a mental level."
Team Tatum's categories
As you said, Tatum Racing Team was born from a desire, namely to give many young people the opportunity to test themselves by creating a sort of 360-degree Academy on SimRacing, which is not just about F1. Which categories will you cover in the team?
"It all comes from the fact that my experience has led me to meet many guys, many people behind the scenes beyond the drivers. So I decided to immediately open three sections, or rather four. I did the fourth because it is a passion that I have found now. There will naturally be F1, a section dedicated to Assetto Corsa Competizione and therefore the official GT SRO championship; iRacing, which is a slightly more open world where there are various prototypes. Not that one day, if all goes well, I would like to have a category dedicated to the WEC. The last category is WRC which is a little more solo. But I found two guys who are really smart, a real driver who has decided to believe in the project and who I can't wait to announce."
Why did you choose to immediately focus on expansion by integrating more than one category?
"I decided to start with four categories because I have a lot of experience with all simulators and video games. Even on the WRC, in which I have less experience, I rely on dear, super passionate friends. Although there are different sections there will be different people behind it, a little more experienced who will work with the younger ones bringing their experience, starting from the bottom. I don't expect to arrive and win immediately, but I would like them to grow from scratch, in all four categories, making no distinctions either between the categories or between the drivers. There will be no 'series A' or 'series B' drivers. There will all be riders of the same level and between them there will also be a natural selection and competition, as it should be."
The organization and choice of candidates
Such an ambitious project inevitably requires many resources. How will Tatum be organized and who are the figures you are looking for for this project?
“As for the drivers, I will need talent scouts to go and see some young talent, including non-Italian ones, to bring the team to an international level. We need track engineers who I think can help the drivers on the track in various aspects such as the set up to be set and the strategies to be adopted. Above all, Formula 1 is more dynamic than other video games like iRacing where there are much longer races and it's more about management. We will also need actual engineers. I am in contact with people who have created a portal where you can have, create and make telemetries that can be applied to simulators and therefore help pilots understand where they can improve.
Within the team we will also aim to have female participation, precisely because there are several girls interested in competing, even if they are difficult to find. However, I hope to see an interest, especially because a distinction is not and will not be needed in the virtual world since it is mainly about the head."
In addition to skills, what are the characteristics that in your opinion someone who wants to perhaps become part of it should have?
“Starting from scratch, I expect you to start with passion and the desire to get involved. Everything must be done calmly, and the main thing is that we believe in the project because then all the results that come from it will be useful for the whole team, not just for the riders."
You've said several times that Tatum must be like family to you. Why is it so important for you to obtain this complicity and what difference does it make, also based on your experience, in an esports team?
"At Ferrari I noticed that I had a fundamental role in understanding the guys when they were driving and when they left the station. I was at home, with two Italians, a Pole and an Englishman, with different cultures and different ways of thinking. And I was that person who tried to act as a glue, get the kids to do anything even behind the scenes. This characteristic of mine made me understand that it was very useful for some kids to grow on a mental level. I realized that I can give something to people and all it takes is to simply be empathetic, to understand people's problems and try to fix them. I am the founder of the team but I don't want to be seen as 'the boss'.
I don't want distinction between human beings. They need to understand that the environment that is created must be one made up of passionate people who have the aim of becoming incredible Esports drivers, where they can earn money doing what they like and where they can find themselves at home once they find themselves talking to each other, respecting each other, loving each other and also establishing bonds of friendship".
Here, precisely regarding this, what owner will Amos Laurito be? How do you see yourself running the whole thing?
“I am very emotional but I will also be able to be, I won't say authoritative, but determined. It's not that I won't change my mind, but they will have to work hard to make me change my mind. I will never expect the moon, I don't want to generate any kind of pressure but I would like to see commitment. As time passes, the thing that scares me the most is when the time comes to perhaps not confirm someone. That will be a moment in which I will have to gather courage and face the problem, making it clear that something is wrong. But in my opinion, I will be a very good leader, even too good perhaps. I would also like the boys and girls who join the team not to forget that there is a world beyond the virtual.
Many young people, very young people, are incredible phenomena in the Esports world and my fear is that they forget what's out there. I would therefore like to make him understand that training after a maximum of 2-3 hours starts to be detrimental and that it is in that period of time that we need to focus on the virtual. Then dedicating the right amount of time to going out and studying."
One last question that arises spontaneously... you won't hang up the steering wheel right?
"No. So it depends on how many commitments I have in the future, but no, I won't always have time to spend on the simulator. The management side is one thing and the pilot side is another. That spirit of competition that I thought I had abandoned when I was at Ferrari has returned, or rather it has never left me. Competition will always remain part of me, both as a manager and as a driver."
