Written by James Harding edited by William Stephens
The internet is a daily source of news, socialising, and entertainment. And content creators in the Formula 1 world are not uncommon. In the final part of my miniseries ‘Internet Icons’, I will be looking at Formula 1 YouTuber and Gamer, Aarav Amin (Aarava).
On the 3rd of June 2012, Aarava uploaded his first video with gameplay of the F1 2011 game. Since then, his uploads have been frequent, delighting us with videos from the annual F1 Game, MotoGP, Assetto Corsa, and Motorsport Manager.
Aarava’s most popular and prominent in-game series must be his F1 My-Team Career Mode which he uploads almost every day. On top of this, he frequently uploads Formula 1 Geoguessr, reacting to memes on Subreddit, and F1 game experiments. This means he uploads a video every single day, routinely amassing over 100,000 views.
In addition, Aarava competed against fellow content creators like Benjamin Daly (tiametmarduk) and Matt Gallagher (WTF1 presenter) in the F1 2015, and F1 2016 YouTuber Championship.
In the summer of 2019, Aarava was appointed as Team Manager of Alfa Romeo Esports Team. He led them to a third place constructors title finish in the 2019 F1 Esports Pro Series, with Hungarian Daniel Bereznay accumulating the majority of the points.
In April 2020, Aarava raced Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc in the F1 2019 game, with Leclerc saying Aarav was “quite quick”. The video has since gained over 1.1 Million views, making it his fifth most viewed video since his channel began(channel total 328,725,091 views).
The first episode of his F1 2020 My Team Career Mode is his most viewed video, now with over 1.8 Million views.
Aarava is also part of ‘Team Quadrant’; a Formula 1 esports team and lifestyle brand that was founded in 2020 by Formula 1 driver Lando Norris. He is one of seven other content creators, including FIFA gamer and roommate Niran Yesufu (FNG).
Alongside thrilling gameplay, Aarava gives us insightful and profound in-game commentary, highlighting his devotion to captivating his audience.
To reward Aarava’s dedication to the Formula 1 game, Codemasters showed their support for him by making his custom decals available in the game. For example, Aarav’s iconic white, fluorescent yellow, and black car livery is accessible for players to use world wide, alongside his special helmet, gloves, boots, and driver overalls. On Twitter, he expressed his joy at the feat: “[I’m] So gassed to share that I've been given my own complete set of in-game items…My YouTube name and logo…in the official F1 game, worldwide…speechless”.
Aarava has now amassed over 630,000 subscribers on YouTube, over 100,000 followers on both Instagram and Twitter, over 28,000 Subreddit members, and over 55,000 followers on Twitch; evidently being rewarded for uploading daily.
It’s obvious that Aarava does not compare with YouTube megastars like Logan Paul and KSI. But for a humble Formula 1 gamer, the viewership he has acquired is staggering. And to have connections with Formula 1 drivers, like Norris and Leclerc, just for playing video games at his elite level shows that hard work will be rewarded. Aarav’s motivation, commitment, and determination to deliver us a video every single day is mesmerising, indisputably making him an internet icon.