I’m a sim racer with a passion for Motorsport, good racecraft and the tech side of sim racing. I made SIMRACINGCOCKPIT.GG as a place to share my experiences. I hold an International Class C race licence and write for sim racing store G-Performance and Motorsport resource Driver61.com
Featured image: a big pile of sim racing gloves, new and old – all ours!
As well as a good pair of race or karting boots, sim racing gloves are (in my humble opinion) an important accessory. In my updated 2024 buyer’s guide, I’m looking at my favourite gloves (all of which I own myself). In this article, I’ll talk you through the most important features what features that decent sim racing gloves offer.
Most sim racers wear gloves in their simulator, and that’s been the case for as long as I’ve been racing. As a writer, it’s an interesting challenge to meaningfully describe the difference that wearing gloves in the simulator makes.
I’ll cover off the obvious stuff, like touch sensitivity, grip advantage and protecting your Alcantara or suede rims, but, so many wheels have rubber compound / PU grips today. Does that make wearing gloves less important?
Gloves on, Gloves off – Does it Make a Difference?
Yes actually, it does. And I’ve driven with them, and without them. Reflecting on my experience, you jump in the simulator, forget to put your gloves on and drive anyway. That’s fine, as your bare hands don’t make any significant impact on rubber compound grips. They’re easily cleaned.
Gloves Off
There’s a significant tactile difference, as you can feel the buttons more accurately through your fingertips, and you get a stronger sense of the materials and quality of the wheel.
If your wheel is made from more metal than plastic or carbon fibre compounds, you’re far more likely to feel temperature differences and the texture of the materials used. My Ascher Racing McLaren Artura Pro is mostly aluminium and initially cold to the touch – which I quite like.
Gloves On
Wearing gloves is a game-changer. You may lose some awareness of the manufacturing detail of the wheel, but tactile differences are negligible. Paddles and buttons still communicate their “feel” and there’s no additional concern around accidental presses or mis-shifts. The biggest difference is grip. Wearing gloves improves the grip between your hands and the sim racing wheel exponentially.
Of course “grip” is a subjective thing. Grip around the wheel has nothing to do with holding the wheel tighter. It’s the opposite.
Wearing gloves gives you more grip by adding friction between your palms, the imprinted grip features on the gloves and the wheel. The outcome is that you have to do far less work holding the wheel, which means you’re far less likely to experience tiredness.
Sim Racing Gloves Buyer’s Guide: Which are Best for Sim Racing?- F33L Sim Racing Gloves
- SimHound
- Alpinestars Radar
- Freem
- FreeM Trak Racer Sim Racing Gloves
- Advanced SimRacing Gloves by Moradness
- Alpinestars Tech-1 K V2 Gloves
- Trak Racer Multi Use Gloves
- The Best: SimHound vs F33L
With gloves, you can keep a suede / Alcantara rim in much better condition, for longer – I have wheels I’ve owned for years that still look brand new because I’ve never driven them with bare hands. The grease and sweat (gross, I know) can build up in the Alcantara and the result looks pretty bad.
It also ruins the resale value of the sim wheel:
Here’s the list of my preferred gloves, with the revised, externally stitched SimHound Gloves and the F33L SR2’s (below) being my two favourites.
F33L SR2 Sim Racing Gloves
If you’re looking for something ultra-lightweight, then F33L’s SR2 washable sim racing gloves are worthy of consideration. Here are mine:
I chose these gloves because of the bright, bold pattern and the fact that they’re on offer from Sim-Lab, a manufacturer who needs no introduction to a sim racer.
When you slide them on, the inner lining feels smooth on your hands. I’d class my hand size as “medium” but actually, the smaller glove size is the better fit for me. You always want to have a tightly fitting glove, or you’ll lose that all-important tactility – this is how we approach glove fit in Motorsport, too. The tighter, the better!
The velcro strap is super strong, once you’ve got these on, they’re not going anywhere. As you can probably see from the photos, they’re co-branded by F33l and Sim-Lab, as I understand it Sim-Lab acquired F££L a few years ago. High praise indeed.
The F33L gloves have a slender, ergonomic design that fits snugly. They have touchscreen patches on the forefinger and thumb (as all sim racing gloves do now – this used to be a unique selling point!
I’d say most of the time, the smaller sizes will probably offer the best fit. Even while gripping the wheel you can see (pictured above) how the material stretches to my hand without offering significant resistance. With all that grip on the palms, there’s no question of their suitability for a sim steering wheel – they’re just, really, really good gloves.
If you’re buying F33L gloves, make sure you’re going for the best fit. There’s nothing worse than gloves that are too big! Measure the circumference of your hand. During the first use, the anodized rubber may take a few hours to adjust to your hand, but you can adjust the fingers for optimal comfort. Here’s the official glove sizing chart from F33l:
The F33l SR2s are available in sizes S to XXL, refer to the size chart to find your perfect fit. Sim-Lab also provides a 12-month warranty period, which for gloves is exceptional value. According to the label, they’re washable at a maximum temperature of 30c.
SimHound Gloves
I owned the original SimHound Gloves which have since been significantly updated:
Simhound uses an elasticated fabric construction that is snug-fitting with a touchscreen-compatible forefinger and a nice grip pattern on the palms. This philosophy has reigned true with the latest iteration of their gloves, which feature external stitching:
Something Simhound gets very right is in the construction. The gloves have the right amount of stretch in the outer fabric providing a nice sensation of support when you’re holding on to the wheel.
The material doesn’t stretch quite as the F33l gloves do, but nonetheless, they’re grippy and very nice to work with:
The fabric is hard-wearing with a firm feeling to it and good breathability. Here they are being tested (at Sebring, in rFactor2, in the Radical)
You’ll notice a slight overstretch between my thumb and forefinger – Simhound has always fitted me like this. It’s not an issue in the slightest and these gloves are certainly a bit cheaper than the F33l gloves, so no issues for me.
There’s a variety of colour options on their website including these:
Alpinestars Radar Gloves
Cycling gloves are perfect for tactility and staying cool. The best gloves are very thin, like these Alpinestars Radars. Price-wise they’re slightly cheaper than sim racing gloves. Given their cycling pedigree, they offer the same level of grip as any glove for sim racing, making the Radars a fantastic all-round option.
It’s worth pointing out that sim racing glove designs are based on lightweight cycling gloves. You get the breathability and lack of thermal retention, and any sweat is still wicked away from your hands. There’s support in all the right places, and the Radars give you a nice snug fit. This makes them ideal for working with complex steering wheels.
Freem SIM21 racing gloves
Freem is a well-known high-end Motorsports manufacturer that has dipped its toes into the sim racing world. They’ve come up with the higher-end, higher-priced Freem Sim-glove, the SIM21.
This is a photo of my FreeMs from last year. After quite a lot of use, they still look brand new:
Freem has manufactured sim racing gloves with input from the “world’s top sim racers” and have all of the features you’d hope for grip, screen compatibility, and so on. The only catch, aside from the price, is finding somewhere that has them in stock.
They’re very light, using a thin and very stretchy fabric.
As with all items from Freem, the SIM 21 gloves are made in Italy. Freem has revised the fabrics on the palm surface with what they call “L-Grip” which is intended to provide high levels of grip on the steering wheel and wheel controls.
I found these gloves to be extremely light and breathable and, they fit very snugly, almost like a second skin. In total, they only weigh 32 grams! These are touchscreen-compatible on the index finger and thumb. My only mild complaint with Freem’s design is that the fingers are slightly too long for my hands.
Trak Racer offers custom gloves, manufactured by FREEM, called the “FreeM Trak Racer Sim Racing Gloves”
These are much the same as mine but have the shorter (more average-sized) finger cut. They’re made from the same breathable L-Grip fabrics, and feature grip on the entire palm surface. That’s a nice feature. If you want a FreeM glove but you’re uncertain about their measurements, I would trust the Trak Racer variant.
The Trak Racer gloves are also incredibly light – 32g, which is barely anything. I wonder if you might forget you’re wearing them..
Advanced SimRacing Gloves by Moradness
I like these new gloves from Moradnesss. The Advanced SimRacing Gloves by Moradness are another comfortable pair of gloves that you can go with for your Sim racing setup.
The padded grippy palms along with pre-curved fingers ensure that you have a strong and comfortable grip over the wheel.
And with the outside seam, you can have a slightly better precision and it also helps you find your sweet spot on the steering wheel. And since these gloves are from Moradness (Daniel Morad is a professional racing driver), there’s no doubting the quality of these premium gloves.
Aesthetically, the mesh of black and purple colour with Moradness branding on the front gives a charming look to the gloves. All things considered, these are a nice pair of sim racing gloves and if you have a reasonable budget for your next pair of sim racing gloves, these come highly recommended
Alpinestars Tech-1 K V2 Gloves
If you’re after lightweight gloves with a strong grip, the Alpinestars Tech-1 K V2 Gloves are worthy of your hard-earned money. Aesthetically, you have a plethora of options here and you can choose anything from lime colour to the standard Black Targray colour.
Personally, the pair with the black and yellow colour scheme is my favourite.
As for the grip, you’ll get a textured palm and fingertips that ensure a strong grip over the steering wheel. These long-sized gloves offer a snuggle fit as you only have to slide your hand and the soft fabric will take care of the rest.
There’s a mesh material found between the fingers which can improve the airflow as well and even after marathon gaming sessions, your fingers won’t be very sweaty. Overall, a pretty decent pair for your sim racing, and you can even use them for real-life driving.
Trak Racer Multi-Use Gloves
Don’t want to spend a fortune on racing gloves? The Trak Racer Multi-use gloves give you the best bang for the buck without making a dent in your bank statement. Some of their designs happen to look amazing, too. Despite the low price tag, you’re getting a nice pair of gloves that come with strong palm and finger grips for optimal driving experience. These are going to be my next acquisition.
The gloves are also touch-screen friendly and with the breathable material, you won’t be sweating after long gaming sessions. Also, these aren’t as long as some of the other professional racing gloves on here and you can easily use them for other sports such as Karting and BMX.
For this price, you’re getting an excellent deal on the Trak Racer Multi-use gloves, and if your main purpose is to protect your Alkantara steering from regular wear and tear, these are some pocket-friendly options for you.
Opinion: What are the Best Gloves for Sim Racing?
Well that’s the question, isn’t it? I’ve tried all of these gloves and more (my favourite Augury gloves became obsolete and wore out in the end).
I think it comes down to F33L vs SimHound.
(left) vs F33L
(right)
It’s a difficult choice as they’re different in a few critical ways. The SimHound gloves have a more supportive feel while the F33l gloves are softer and stretch more. Fit-wise, for me, the F33L gloves are a slightly better match to the shape of my hand, but I’d be equally happy to wear the SimHounds for the next year or so.
If I was pushed to make a choice, I think the F33L gloves are the best choice for sim racing.
They come at a slight premium, price-wise – especially if you live outside of the EU which adds a bit of extra delivery cost. But, with all that said, the difference between the two is so marginal that I think you’d be happy with either choice.
Need a hand? How to Measure Yourself for your Next Pair of Sim Racing Gloves
Measuring your hands to fit your sim racing gloves is very easy. Just measure the circumference of your hand with a tape measure:
As you can see from the diagram above, measure the circumference of your hand following the path of the red line in the image. Then take that measurement and compare it to the manufacturer’s size guide.
Each size guide will be slightly different, so just because you’re an “M” for a set of gloves from Alpinestars doesn’t mean the same thing with Freem, SimHound, Sparco, and so on. I think the safer choice is always to go slightly smaller than you think you need, not larger. And always check the sizing guide on the product page!
Whatever you choose, gloves enhance your sense of enjoyment in the simulator. I recommend all drivers choose a pair of gloves and then get onto a good pair of boots, too.