SAN DIEGO—Shamir has announced a multi-year extension to its partnership with Alpine Formula 1 Team, as its optical performance partner. Shamir will become the optical performance partner of Alpine Esports Team, providing ophthalmic assessments, and improvement of gaming performance and endurance through cutting edge lenses and safety equipment. Shamir joined the Alpine family in May 2021 in partnership with Alpine F1 Team to enhance the visual quality and safety of every race team member. Now, the company is taking its first step into gaming by providing its world class optical assistance for Alpine Esports’ stellar sim-racing and gaming roster.

By providing ophthalmic assessments, Alpine Esports’ team of drivers and staff members will enjoy a visual performance benefit in events such as the F1 Esports Pro-Championship and this weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours Virtual, Shamir's announcement said.

The current Esports squad trains for up to eight hours per day on simulators to best prepare for prestigious online events. To aid their training, Shamir will also supply the sim-racers cutting-edge gaming glasses with enhanced lens technology and increased protection to blue light.

In addition, the partnership will see Alpine Esports and Shamir collaborate to develop new technologies to improve the visual quality of sim-racing to benefit performance and improve safety of the human eye. This research and development program will be based around the relation between the brain and the eye to lower response timings, ensure less visual fatigue and improve cognitive abilities.

Richard Arnaud, team principal of Alpine Esports, said, “Sim-racing and competitiveness in Esports is all about precision, endurance and cognitive abilities. In a championship as competitive as the F1 Esports Pro-Championship, for example, where the entire grid is split between 0.2secs in qualifying, every ounce of detail and support that we receive makes the difference. Vision is one of the most important factors related to high performance in Esports and sim-racing. Having the support of Shamir, one of the most advanced companies in the world in optical performance, will certainly contribute greatly to the success of Alpine Esports.”

Cédric Journel, vice president, sales and marketing, Alpine, added, “We’re very pleased to announce an extension to our partnership with Shamir by introducing them to the fast-evolving and exciting world of Esports. We are pleased with the success so far of our Alpine Esports squad, but we know we can go further and do better. Visual and cognitive performance is integral to sim-racing, so this collaboration between Alpine Esports and Shamir is very exciting to improve how our team of sim-racers operate at the screen. We’re looking forward to working together on this project and bringing home some virtual silverware.”

Shamir CEO Yagen Moshe said, "After partnering with Alpine F1 Team, becoming the Optical Performance Partner of Alpine Esports represents for us another step in our mission to provide improved visual experience in all areas of activity. We are very proud to support the team with our know-how and technologies. We will be focusing our R&D efforts on developing specialized lens products for gamers and for high digital users, thus expanding our line of lenses personalized and dedicated to particular needs."

Shamir announced its partnership with Alpine F1 last spring, as VMAIL reported and the company announced further development of the partnership last fall.