Boat Lagoon, Phuket
SIMPRO Academy runs a professional-grade Formula 1 simulator at Boat Lagoon, inside Soho Pool Club. Book sixty minutes at the wheel with our team on hand, or add one-to-one coaching if you want to understand what the data is telling you. No experience needed either way.
You sit in a fixed racing rig with a direct-drive wheel, load-cell pedals and three curved screens. Our team sets you up, gets you comfortable and starts you off. Then you drive for an hour.
Staff are on hand throughout. Ask a question and you will get a straight answer — where to brake, which reference points to use, what the car is doing under you. Prefer to be left alone and just drive? That works too. It is your hour.
If you want to go further than pointers, that is what coaching is for. See the two ways to book below.
Direct-drive wheelbase, load-cell pedals, triple curved displays. The same class of hardware serious drivers train on.
Setup, a proper start, and suggestions whenever you want them. Nobody is left staring at a menu.
First-timers start in a car that teaches good habits. Experienced drivers go straight to lap time.
Most people come for the drive. Some want to know exactly where their lap time is going. Those are two different products and we price them separately, so you are never paying for something you did not ask for.
Run by SIMPRO staff
1,300 THB
60 minutes · extend by 30 minutes for 500 THB
One-to-one with Paul Chappell
2,000 THB
per hour · race simulation or flight simulation
Which one should you book? If this is your first time, or you are here with friends, book the simulation session. If you already drive at home, or you have done a session and want to get properly quicker, book coaching. You can also add coaching to a later visit — there is no need to decide everything now.
| Simulation session — 60 minutes | 1,300 THB Setup, circuit introduction and a full hour of driving, with staff on hand for suggestions. All equipment included. |
|---|---|
| Coaching with Paul — per hour | 2,000 THB One-to-one, with a structured brief, coaching in the car and a telemetry debrief afterwards. Available for race simulation and flight simulation. |
| Session extension — 30 minutes | 500 THB Added to a 60-minute session, so ninety minutes at the wheel comes to 1,800 THB in total. Worth it if you are still finding time in the last few laps. |
| 6-session package | 6,950 THB Six 60-minute sessions, valid for six months. Works out at 1,158 a session — 850 less than booking them one at a time. |
| 10-session package | 10,950 THB Ten 60-minute sessions, valid for twelve months. 1,095 a session, saving 2,050. |
| 20-session package | 21,500 THB Twenty 60-minute sessions, valid for twelve months. 1,075 a session, saving 4,500. |
More than 50 drivers have come through the academy since we opened. The rig is used one booking at a time, so booking ahead is the safest way to get the slot you want — weekends fill first.
The rig is built from parts you would find in a professional driver's own setup. It is the main reason an hour here is different from an hour on a home wheel and a monitor.
| Wheelbase | Simucube 2 Pro direct drive. High-torque force feedback — you feel the front tyres losing grip before the car actually goes. |
|---|---|
| Pedals | Simtrecs load-cell pedals. Braking is measured by pressure, not travel, which is how a real brake pedal behaves. |
| Displays | 32-inch curved triple monitors, plus a dedicated telemetry display alongside. |
| VR | Available on request if you prefer a headset to the triple-screen setup. |
| Software | iRacing — the platform used by professional and semi-professional drivers for practice and competition. |
| Training car | Mazda MX-5 Cup. Low power, high feedback. It rewards clean inputs and punishes sloppy ones, which is exactly what you want when you are learning. |
One thing we are not. SIMPRO does not sell, install or service sim racing equipment. If you are researching a home setup, come and drive a professional one first — you will make a better decision. But we are a simulation and coaching facility, not a retailer.
Seat and pedal position, wheel settings, and a short introduction to the circuit and the car. Enough to get you driving properly rather than guessing.
Your hour, at your pace. Staff are nearby the whole time — ask about a braking point, a corner that keeps catching you out, or what the car is doing, and you will get a useful answer. If you would rather just drive, that is fine too.
Decide on the day. Most people who are still improving in the final laps take the extension.
Six, ten or twenty sessions booked up front. Same rig, same staff — just banked and ready, and cheaper per session.
A structured brief, coaching in the car, and your telemetry on screen afterwards. This is where the detail lives.
The simulator records every input you make, whether or not you book coaching. A coaching session is where that data gets read properly, with you, by someone who teaches for a living. Most drivers are surprised by the same thing: the lap time is rarely lost where they think it is.
How hard you hit the pedal, and — more importantly — how smoothly you come off it. Abrupt release is one of the most common time losses we see.
Where you get back on the power and how progressively. Early and gentle almost always beats late and aggressive.
Your actual path through the corner, overlaid lap on lap. Consistency shows up here before speed does.
A running comparison against your own best lap, metre by metre. It tells you which corner to spend the next stint on.
Session three against session one is usually the clearest picture. The data does not flatter anyone, which is why it works.
Paul Chappell has been a professional airline pilot for more than 23 years and is a Lead Captain on the Boeing Business Jet as well as a Qualified Flight Instructor. He has spent thousands of hours in full-motion flight simulators and, just as importantly, thousands of hours teaching other people in them. Structured briefing, objective debriefing from recorded data, and incremental progression are standard practice in aviation training — that is the method he applies to driving.
On the motorsport side his experience is hands-on rather than certificated: motorbikes since childhood, more than a decade on high-performance road bikes, track days in high-performance cars including an AMG 45S, a completed rally driver training course, and years of recreational kart racing. He holds no formal racing qualifications and does not claim any — the value here comes from the instructional method and the telemetry, applied by someone who genuinely rides and drives.
Coaching is 2,000 THB per hour and covers flight simulation as well as racing. Email to arrange a session.
You have never driven a racing simulator. The MX-5 and a proper setup mean you will be lapping cleanly well inside the hour. Book the simulation session.
You already race at home and want a direct-drive wheel and load-cell pedals. Add coaching if you want your data read with you.
Track-day and karting experience transfers well. Sim time is the cheapest way to build circuit knowledge and consistency.
Corporate groups, stag and birthday groups, or a team social. Timed sessions with a leaderboard, then drinks at Soho afterwards.
Suitability depends on reach to the pedals more than age. Message us with a height and we will tell you honestly.
Fully indoor and air-conditioned. Phuket's wet season runs May to October, and this is a good use of a rainy day.
SIMPRO Academy is inside Soho Pool Club at Boat Lagoon, on the east coast of Phuket — about 15 minutes from Phuket Town and 20 minutes from the airport. If you have been searching for an F1 simulator near you in Phuket, this is the address.
View SIMPRO Academy on Google Maps — Boat Lagoon Marina, Koh Kaeo
Parking is on site. The sports lounge and pool at Soho are a few steps away, which makes the academy an easy place to bring a group — race first, sit down afterwards.
A 60-minute simulation session at SIMPRO Academy is 1,300 THB, including setup, a circuit introduction and all equipment. You can extend by 30 minutes for a further 500 THB, so ninety minutes comes to 1,800 THB. Session packages are 6,950 THB for six sessions, 10,950 THB for ten and 21,500 THB for twenty. One-to-one coaching with Paul is priced separately at 2,000 THB per hour.
A simulation session is your hour at the wheel, run by our staff. They set you up, get you started and give you suggestions whenever you ask. Coaching is one-to-one with Paul Chappell at 2,000 THB per hour: a structured brief, coaching while you drive, and your telemetry reviewed with you afterwards. Book the session if you want to drive; add coaching if you want to get measurably quicker.
No. Plenty of the drivers who book have never used a racing simulator. The setup and the Mazda MX-5 Cup are chosen so that a complete beginner is lapping cleanly well inside the hour.
It is a fixed simulator running iRacing on professional-grade hardware — a Simucube 2 Pro direct-drive wheelbase, Simtrecs load-cell pedals and triple curved displays. The physics and the force feedback are what serious drivers train on. It is not a motion rig and it is not an actual Formula 1 car, and we would rather tell you that plainly.
It depends on whether they can reach the pedals comfortably and apply the brake, which is about height rather than age. Send us a height by email or phone and we will give you a straight answer before you book.
Yes. Coaching with Paul covers flight simulation as well as racing, at the same rate of 2,000 THB per hour. He is a Qualified Flight Instructor and a Lead Captain on the Boeing Business Jet.
Yes. The 30-minute extension is 500 THB and you can add it while you are in the seat, subject to the next booking. If you know in advance you want ninety minutes, tell us when you book and we will hold the time.
Six sessions are 6,950 THB and stay valid for six months. Ten are 10,950 THB and twenty are 21,500 THB, both valid for twelve months.
They contain the standard session — same rig, same staff on hand — so they simply cost less per session than booking one at a time. Twenty sessions works out at 1,075 each against 1,300 single. Family and group discounts are available if you buy more than one package.
Coaching with Paul is separate, at 2,000 THB per hour. You can add it whenever you want it, including if you already hold a package.
Yes. Timed sessions with a leaderboard work well for team socials, birthdays and corporate groups, and Soho Pool Club next door handles food and drinks afterwards. Email info@simproacademyphuket.com with your group size and date.
We recommend it. The rig is used one booking at a time, so slots are limited and weekends fill first.
No. SIMPRO is a simulation and coaching facility and does not sell, install or support hardware. You are very welcome to come and drive professional-grade equipment before you buy your own — plenty of people do exactly that.
Sixty minutes on professional-grade equipment, 1,300 THB. Add coaching whenever you want to go deeper.
Book a sessionMore at SIMPRO: Flight simulation · Race car simulation overview · Soho Pool Club, Boat Lagoon