I had begun in standard driver career. But that was more to get up to speed with any changes with the new version. In F1 2020 I had really enjoyed the My Team mode. My Team puts the player as owner/driver. Aside from piloting the car, the player is now in control of all aspects, from engine supplier, to livery, to hiring the second driver, to signing sponsors. For many years I had wished a racing sim had this, and with My Team it finally became a reality.

However there was a flaw or two. At the end of each season there may be 'regulation changes' announced. It can be for any of your development departments (Aero, powerplant, chassis or durability) and essentially wipes out all of the development you have done in the affected department. It's a fine mechanic in theory, but the problem was the uneven response from the AI teams. Some dealt well with it, some seemed to ignore it, putting these teams at a severe disadvantage to those who did something about it. Doing something about it means spending resource points to make existing parts 'comply' with the new regs. This requires spending these points on this instead of new upgrades. Any parts made to conform then can be run in the next season. This can give a team a huge headstart, especially in comparison to those who did little or nothing.

The upside is that the hierarchy isn't in stone. Unlike every other racing sim, the fastest cars in the release are not necessarily the fastest two or three seasons down the line. This is great and gives the sim a unique shifting order that makes career modes much more compelling to me. In my last F1 2020 career Mercedes started off clearly the class of the division, as we'd expect, but by season five they finished fifth in the constructors. Some rise, some fall, some do both.

So really, all I want to see is some tweaking to how the AI teams react to regulation changes. I like the concept, it just needs some fine tuning. Too early yet to see if this is any different in F1 2021. The mode is nearly identical to last year's offering. Some presentation changes were made, but the nuts and bolts are the same. Our HQ is a lovely lake-side complex now, which is nice

The real drawback to the My Team mode in my view though was how quickly I was able to go from backmarker to champion. In just a few seasons my lot were winning the championship, and it all felt too fast. So hopefully these two things got some attention and some tweaks. We'll see. If it has it won't be revealed until I am a few seasons in.

There are a number of things different about the new version, but the one I think stands out the most is car handling and setups. I always do my own setups in racing sims, it's a huge part of the appeal. I head out on a baseline setup, then turn laps to dial it in. How is the balance on corner entry? Mid corner? Exit? How is my top end compared to my rivals? How are the tire temps, and wear?

Turn a few laps and come in to tweak. Just a little at a time. Some camber perhaps? Or a slightly stiffer spring or roll bar? Lock the coast side of the differential? Dial out the bad and get the car feeling right and proper to my style. I like a touch of entry oversteer if I can get it. So I have a lot of fun with this part of racing sims.

In F1 2020 I tended to go with a stiffer setup, springs and roll bars on the higher side. Relatively low wing settings. When I got the new sim, I built a car like in F1 2020 as a baseline and good grief, it was nearly undriveable. So right away I could tell the handling physics were different. So I got down to it, running hotlaps to figure out the new physics. In the end it took a much softer setup to feel right, to get the car balance right, to get proper levels of grip, especially on exit. It's a striking difference, but very satisfying to work it out on my own and build a competitive car.

Nearly finished with the first season in My Team. Two races left to go.

I had spoken about how I wanted technical progression for the player to be slowed a bit. And it seems to be the case. In this first season, despite my best efforts, we've really made no progress at all up the performance charts. We have more or less held station, down in about 7th. Partly this is due to my scrub teammate, straight out of F2 not generating many resource points, and partly due to the fact that our fledgling facilities mean we generate fewer resource points, upgrades take longer and the chance of failure is still relatively high. All of this can be improved with investment, but not much is going to get done in the first season. This should start to improve through season two, but of course the competition isn't standing still. Still, it feels slower than in F1 2020. That's a good thing. Careers are ten seasons in this sim and I wouldn't mind taking five seasons to start threatening a title.

Throughout this thread I have praised the weather system. It's the same in F1 2021. Last night I ran Interlagos, which is my favorite track and i usually do very well here. In this race there was a light rain, so light in fact that it was too dry for inters, but enough to compromise grip. It made it very difficult in this sort of traction no man's land. But it shows how nuanced the system is, and how weather plays such a crucial role in this sim. The skies threatened to open, and when I asked the engineer for weather reports he kept saying heavier rain was imminent. But it never arrived, just a drizzle, and finally cleared with a few laps to go. Far and away the best weather system I've seen in all my years in racing sims. For what it is worth I battled hard to run tenth through the rain, and then managed to get past Vettel once the track dried with three to go to finish ninth.

Some more shots of the #21 Black River Racing car. This is at High Settings, although Ultra High runs well too, just a bit on the hot side

Here I lead Leclerc down to turn 11 in Texas



Battling a Red Bull



A good shot of my car. I've since redone the sponsors decals. Not as much echo lol





Check the front wing endplate. Looks like I got in to the back of someone. Or maybe the side




Check out the grime building up on the car




Putting the pressure on Max Verstappen (or maybe he just blew past me)




A cool shot showing the reflections and mirrors at Mexico. Again this is not maxxed out




Battling an Aston Martin

Nice screens DBond. I'll most likely buy 2021 within the next month or two.

Thanks Panzer. Yeah, great sim, having a blast with it. I'm running My Team, custom season length at 16 races, which allows me to remove a couple tracks I don't care for. Once the three missing tracks are released there will be more latitude for season schedules so I can mix it up and keep it fresh. Cannot wait to run Imola, one of my favorites.

AI strength is set to 85. A little lower than in F1 2020 where I ran it at 90 mostly. But I'm still in a slowish car so cutting a half second off the AI laptimes isn't a bad idea really. I suspect I'll bump that as my car improves. Even at 85 the AI laptimes are at least as fast as what the real cars run, with 1:03s at Austria and 1:17s at Hungary for example (fast lap Sunday was 1:18 in the real thing). Race length is 50%, 60-minute practices and full qualifying. Between this year and last I have run seasons with each of the qualifying options. All have their merits, but I dig the Q1/Q2/Q3 thing and that's what I go with usually, and in this season too.

Mercedes are the class of this division in the first season and Bottas clinched the title with three to go. McLaren are right there, along with Red Bull. Six drivers have won races, and all but five or six have scored points. Worth noting that in My Team we are adding an eleventh team, for 22 cars on the grid. I love the shifting performance hierarchy this sim serves up in career modes. Compelling stuff.

Amazingly, I am one of those six that claimed victory. My win was in Austin, my home grand prix no less, and it was in some ways similar to Ocon's win last weekend in Hungary. Five of the top six drivers in the title chase were DQ'd. Not sure how it happened really, but Verstappen, Perez, Hamilton and Bottas were all DQ'd for failing to respect yellow flags. I think something went wrong with the safety car, a bug. Those cars somehow got ahead of it and were disqualified. The fifth car was Ricciardo who ran up my ass end in the esses, and then got piled on from behind to retire. So I led the restart and from there I stayed out front on tire strategy and took the checkers for a shock win.

I finished the opening season, with a DNF at Australia and a tenth at Abu Dhabi. Not a strong finish, but the first year was never about results really. More about working out setups for each track, technical development and facility improvement, and getting a feel for how the off-track stuff is working in the new version. Had a pretty good season nevertheless, with that shock win in Texas, one other podium and a number of points finishes to end the season on 105 points, good for about 7th in the order. Mercedes won both championships.

In anticipation of both regulation changes and driver market moves I began stockpiling money and resource points toward the tail end of the season, putting development on hold. I knew from F1 2020 that prize money does not get awarded until after the driver signing period. So if I want a good driver I had to start saving money to be able to afford it. I was tracking and targeting three drivers to take over for Jack Aitken who had sat in my team's second seat for the second half of season one. I had hired Robert Schwartzman at the start, but he was a scrub, accomplished nothing. But his acclaim rose so much that his contract went from $800k to $2m. No sense paying all that money for zero points so I made the switch in the summer signing period, signing Aitken to save about 1.2m. He accomplished nothing too. But he did it cheaper haha.

The three targeted drivers were Gasly, Leclerc and Norris. I would have loved to sign any of them, but none were interested, due to my spartan facilities. Season-ending prize and sponsor money would quickly correct this, but it comes after the signing period. However, Carlos Sainz had interest. Why he would want to leave Ferrari for my project is a mystery, but no need to point that out and we began a bidding war with the folks from Maranello. It was quite a tussle, each outbidding the other in turn until the bidding reached 7.1m, and I said I can't go much farther. And as luck would have it Ferrari dropped out and Sainz was now driving for Black River Racing. This a massive upgrade over the F2 scrubs. All ratings are significantly higher, he should finish higher and generate more resource points. He had better for all that money I am investing!

This was the most wild and woolly driver market I've seen in this sim. All moves happen simultaneously with your team's signing, so you can't see how the dominos fell. Which move came first and caused all the others to follow, which would be interesting. No, once you leave the screen from your signing, all others are already at their new teams. The most jarring move was Max to Merc! Just shoot me haha. Alonso retired, Vettel to Red Bull. Bottas to Ferrari, Russell to Aston Martin and plenty more. Driver moves is one more neat touch in this sim and adds much to the career modes.

Then the windfall, nearly $40m in prize and sponsor money which was immediately invested in our facilities, which lowers failure chance, generates more resources points, and gives the AI driver boosts among other things. I also decided to switch engine supplier. Used Ferrari in season one, and they currently have the best durability. But I switched to Mercedes for season two, a little less reliable, but better performance. Unfortunately I don't like the sound it makes when throttle off but I am stuck with it for a year. It should win us a few points anyway.

But the main thing I wanted to see was how the AI teams reacted to the regulation changes. It was the worst possible changes, to both durability and powertrain, since those two departments were the ones I had focused on in season one. Our car has the division's worst aero and chassis, but the best durability and powertrain. And to save all these parts, to make them conform to the new rules, took every point I had saved in advance. Other teams would have had fewer parts to 'save', so the regulation changes came down on the two departments I least wanted them to, and that affected my team the most. In the end, a few teams saved theirs, most did not. We did, so remain level with where we ended season one. So in a relative sense we improved a little. Essentially it all seemed to go exactly as before, and I can see no real difference in F1 2021.

For what it is worth, I mistakenly said earlier that we hovered around seventh all year on the performance charts. It is actually ninth, third from the bottom, which is ninth not seventh, doh! Only Haas and Williams were worse off through the first season. My finish position in the title chase therefore suggests I might have the AI set a bit too low, but then again, many of those points won were due to strategy and not pace. I didn't set a single fast lap of the race all season.

Season two is off to a good start. Black River Racing is now primed to begin our ascent in earnest. All of the money invested in our facilities is already paying off, and at the halfway point of season two we are now fifth on the performance chart, up from ninth, where we finished the previous season. On one had that's great, building a faster car is the main point. But once again, like 2020, it seems a bit fast, for us to overtake those teams in half a season. If this rate keeps up we will be nearly topping the chart at season's end. Our car is now level with Ferrari. Plus, durability development doesn't factor in the performance ratings, and we lead the grid in durability. My suspicion last year was that I generate more practice resource points than the AI does, since I focus on it and ensure I take a maximum haul each race weekend. With perhaps more points to spend than the AI teams, I can overcome their superior facilities. But that's speculation since I cannot see these details for other teams, only their place on the performance order.

Unfortunately, new and expensive teammate Carlos Sainz has yet to score. It's only a matter of time, but I would have hoped to see some points in the bag at this stage. He now has a top-ten car, so I'm expecting him to convert that in to points. At season's end I will make another run at Gasly, Leclerc and Norris. With our improved HQ they may be keen. We'll see.

Mixed results for me through the first half. I sit fourth or fifth in the table. Max is leading the title chase for Merc. I have trouble writing that lol. But he has grabbed his chance with both hands and looks odds-on favorite for the title. My best race may have been my worst result, the most recent race in Hungary. Qualifying was frustrating. I drove well, but couldn't crack Q2. The AI is really fast here (pole was 1:15-flat). It's a difficult track, very tight and twisty with plenty of off-camber corners. When I saw that I couldn't reach Q2 in the driving rain I swapped all my parts for new ones, taking a grid penalty, which only dropped me a few places to the back of the grid. From there I ran to 13th at the flag, which seems poor but I felt like it was one of my best races, making no mistakes at all, no flashbacks, just really consistent and despite not scoring felt really good about the drive. I also failed to score in Spain, but have done everywhere else. Had really good finishes in Bahrain, China and France.

So we go to Spa for the next race and I like my chances there. Our car is fast down the straights due to our focus on powertrain dev and Spa will reward that. I'm good at the remaining tracks save Suzuka, where I tend to struggle to be consistent. I removed Australia for this season (replacing it with China) since I suck at Albert Park for some reason.

There's a bit of a bug with the rivalry mechanic, that affected the second half of season one and first half of season two. As the ninth rated team out of eleven I was only given the choice of the best and fastest drivers to choose as my rival. Max, Hamilton, Perez and Bottas. No way I can compete with them at that stage. This should be choosing drivers closer to the player's level, but something isn't working right. Now that our car is better it's not an issue anymore, but I went a year with no rival because I knew I couldn't compete.

The team management aspects sounds so realistic. Can you compete against another player or players controlling different teams? I can see a path of the game becoming an amazing simulator with multiple players on one team (manager, mechanics, drivers) competing against one or more teams also controlled by multiple players.

Hey Patrocles, how's things? Yes there is a two-player career mode, added this year, and as far as I know the players can join the same team or race for different teams. But that uses the standard driver career mode, not My Team, so the team control is mostly missing. The player can still run the research and development side, but engine suppliers, sponsors, facility upgrades and teammates and that sort of thing are out of his control, as far as I know. I have yet to try it. I had posted a few weeks ago seeking a partner for this mode and got all of zero replies lol, so even though it seems to me to be an amazing thing, this two player career, there isn't much interest seemingly, at least around these parts. I'm still very interested in doing this if anyone decides they'd like to do it.

Perhaps if it proves successful they may add additional player slots to this mode and have more than two. But first I want the missing tracks haha

So we went to Spa for round eight of sixteen and I lit it up. I knew Black River Racing would be strong here due to our powertrain development, and we took advantage. I got a poor start from pole and dropped to fourth before Eau Rouge, then settled in behind Ricciardo. It's interesting how the teams shake out, some you can tell at this stage have better aero and some more power, and their performance reflects it depending on the track type. For example McLaren are very strong at horsepower tracks like Spa and Monza, and Ferrari, who are weak at those tracks, are very strong on the downforce tracks like Hungary and Zandvoort. It's pretty neat dynamic, which is constantly shifting, and makes for an excellent, interesting and variable career mode. No two should ever play out the same.

I was able to hang on to the back of this breakaway pack of four cars, we got a bit of a DRS train going and pulled out from the rest of the field. I tried very hard to stay within DRS range and went for an undercut at the first stop. I was first in to swap softs for hards and came back out and went all out on the outlap. I then undercut the two McLarens on consecutive laps and finally Max to take the lead. He would nip at me the rest of the way but not enough to get by and I took the win, first of the season. My teammate Carlos Sainz was running sixth and then retired due to mechanical failure. Of course he did. Same thing happened next race at Zandy and he is still scoreless after nine rounds. I am paying him 8.2 million for this.

There's another new mechanic is this year's version, called Focus. It essentially reflects the driver's form and morale. When high he will perform at the top of his game, and when low he will struggle. Jury's still out on this one for me, but it's one more thing the player needs to monitor, and it can certainly affect the race outcomes. Something else to add variability to the career mode and that's something I can get behind. A driver with a run of poor results can see this plummet and find himself in a bit of a hole that is hard to get out of. Conversely, a good run of results can snowball down the line. What's at question is if it it ebbs and flows at reasonable rates. In my season many drivers seem to be on the low side at the moment, but it will take time to gauge how it goes over a longer haul. Those consecutive DNFs for teammate Sainz has him very down, and I need him to snap out of it and get scoring.

A few shots of the presentation

Abu Dhabi



One of the most famous, and diabolical, turns in motor racing



A cool shot showing the elevation at Spa.




Zandvoort, just a marvelous track to drive. One of my favorites going back to GPL.




Hey it's Will Buxton. Sup

And boom just like that, Black River Racing is topping the performance chart. By the Russian Grand Prix, which is round 10 or so, we were top. That's way too fast. Season one went at a fair pace, holding station, but season two we vaulted from ninth to first in car performance. Just like last year, for this to be a more compelling long term mode, the player needs to establish some house rules or he is going to dominate. Normally you'd think I could just bump the AI to compensate, but that has the effect of making your AI teammate super fast, because his pace is also controlled by the AI level, and in the fastest car he dominates, not the player. So it all adds up to making My Team awkwardly balanced. I want to be fighting in traffic, not running away in clear air, and finding this balance, while also being efficient and smart with the research and development, is not really possible.

A title is beyond us this year, Max and Merc got out too far in front, and with two races to go second for me, and third for the team, look most likely. I'll stick with it another year at least to try take a world title. With our ascent up the chart, my teammate Carlos Sainz has come good, scoring in five straight and is now a factor in each race. We have Brazil and Abu Dhabi remaining, two of my strongest tracks, so we will try to finish the season on the up and head in to next year as possible favorites. No regulation changes were announced for this year.

About the two-player career mode. I am very keen to give this a go and want to give a rundown of how I would envision running it, in case it might cause someone to want to join me. I race with a controller. A headset/mic is also required, not only for talking to me, but with your race engineer as well. When the skies open up in the middle of your stint you need the ability to easily change strategy on the fly. Trust me

I am thinking we would run a 10-race season, the shortest option, at least for the first one. The main reason to do this is to allow us to cherry pick the tracks, and avoid all of those that might prove troublesome. Let's face it, some tracks are far more difficult, to lap consistently and with no errors. I can run a whole race at Paul Ricard without a problem, but doing the same at Zandvoort or Monaco is unlikely. We need tracks that promote staying on the track and off the walls lol. In MP there are no do-overs, mulligans or flashbacks so we need tracks where we can compete. So Monza, France, China, Bahrain, Spa, USA, Spain, Russia, Brazil, Abu Dhabi would make a good schedule, as one example. Of course if anyone decides to join me we will discuss it and set the schedule together.

I want to allow aids to make it easier to achieve this. Low brake assist and medium TC, pit assist and assisted start. Reduced damage or none at all.

Event settings would be 50% race length with a shortened practice. To save time maybe go with the one-shot qually, but I'm open to all qualifying options. 50% race length means we need to pit, so that tire strategy is a thing and the race isn't simply a sprint. I would expect a typical event to take about two hours, and we could run one a week or whatever our time allows. AI level is up in the air, and something we would need to play around with to find the right one, but it needs to be set where a couple of mistakes don't ruin chances. The flip side is setting it low means a driver running a solid race may be way out in front of the AI. This would take some trial and error, and will be guided in some measure by our respective skill levels and pace.

I'm happy to share my setups, in case they may prove useful, and to help anyone get up to speed if they feel they need it, even running spontaneous practices or whatever to gain experience and track time.

We could drive for rival teams, but I'd rather be teammates, competing together. And I'd suggest that we leave Red Bull, Merc and Ferrari to the AI, to give us capable rivals. Instead we would take a midfield team to the top. Alpha Tauri, Aston Martin, McLaren, Alpine or similar. Or even see if we can restore Williams to glory

So if anyone is interested let me know.

No applications have been received at the time of this writing, so there's still time! Reserve your seat today. It's not often you get a shot at a world drivers championship you know.

Season two done and dusted, with two strong finishes. I finished second behind Max, and Black River Racing also finished second in the constructors behind Mercedes. I won four of the sixteen races, at Monza, Austin, Spa and Interlagos. Carlos Sainz scored in each of the last seven. I tried to sign Lando Norris after the season but I messed it up and get another season with Carlos which is fine. I ditched the odd-sounding Merc engine for a Honda for season three. Sounds a little better, especially throttle-off and has a very pronounced and defined turbo whine, which I like so far. So we started with Ferrari, then Mercedes and now Honda in three seasons. Sponsor and prize money were reinvested in our HQ facilities, which opens the 'ultimate' level of car upgrades. With no regulation changes after season two we should reach a fully maxxed out car around the middle of season three. At that point any technological gaps to other teams will begin to close. We start season three dead even with Merc on the performance chart

So I am expecting a shot at the title. We'll see how the season shakes out. Same schedule, but I swapped out Hungary for Canada. I have no street courses in the lineup.

Monza was a good one for BRR, with our excellent powertrain package we are always a threat at horsepower tracks, and I got a great start, first to Rettifilo, a turn that's easy to get wrong, and early on the throttle to pull out as the tight field negotiated it. By Parabolica I had pulled out of DRS range and eventually victory.

Here I lead the field through Rettifilo. Looks like every car started on softs





Diving in to Parabolica with a nice gap back to the Mercs, out of DRS range at least.





I climb out of the car to thunderous applause




Sharing the podium with the two Merc pilots, Hamilton and Verstappen, who would go on to sweep the championships

As expected, my team dominated season three, winning both titles easily. By the mid point of the season our car was maxxed out, and had a clear advantage in performance. Of course I think that is too fast, but at the same time Codemasters needs to balance it where players can have progress even if they are not playing this side of the game optimally. But if you do, and maximize resource point production (and save the points for regulation changes), then you are going to outpace the AI teams no doubt. My Team lasts for ten seasons, but unless the player makes some house rules, the climb from backmarker to world champion is just too fast, and for me at least, I have no desire to be in a class of my own, much better to be fighting for places.

It was the same in F1 2020, no difference. As much as I like the My team mode, I think standard driver career is better for long term saves. That's because the player can build up a team, then swap seats, leaving behind a strong team to now compete against. And then start anew with a different team and build them up too. Still, My Team is a lot of fun.

I also finished the new Braking Point mode. This is a narrative mode that puts the player in a variety of situations, with plenty of off-track, behind the scenes, in-the-paddock type stuff. It's not bad, but short. For example one situation sees the player take control with a puncture and a few laps to go. You must pit and then overtake several cars on the track. A couple races are run in full, but only about 13 laps, but most are situations where you run a handful of laps to complete objectives. I chose the "challenging" difficulty level, but it really wasn't, and honestly most of it was no bother.

You start by picking a midfield team, I chose Racing Point. But you start in F2, then to F1. All through the narrative it's said that the young driver's dream is to race for Mercedes one day, and how you are auditioning for the seat, and that even Toto Wolff has called to inquire, and then the mode just ends. I was absolutely certain we'd have a third season, where I get promoted to Merc to fight for the title. But it just ends when your midfield team finishes fourth in season two. It's so abrupt and unexpected that I have to believe this was the plan, but they decided to cut it off there for whatever reason. Disappointing.

Overall though it was decent enough, and quick to get through, about 8 hours I reckon.

Turns out Portimao was released a couple weeks ago, and I had not caught the news. Imola in October and Jeddah in November is the announced release schedule.

With Portimao out now I must return and begin a new career. I've done My Team and Braking Point. So I think a driver career is in order, and can work the new tracks in to my schedule as they come out. These three tracks will give me more latitude for season schedules so I can mix it up year to year. Looking forward to turning laps at a new track!

I did indeed start a new career, once again finding myself in the Alpha Tauri, taking Tsunoda's seat to drive alongside Gasly. The new patch re-jigged the performance to reflect this year's order instead of how it finished last year. So Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren got a nice bump, but Williams seemed to have gotten no love, despite their obvious improvement. Bottom line is season one is no longer the Valteri Bottas show.

The new Portimao track was second in my season schedule. Great fun. Not dissimilar to Hungary really. Twisty, technical with a number of elevation changes. Had a good time learning it and racing on it, and even managed to grab P4 at the flag. Not bad for AlphaTauri!

When I begin a new career I like to choose a midfield team, and Alpha Tauri start as the fifth-best chassis on the grid. It gives a challenge, puts me in traffic, while not being in a car so bad it has little chance of scoring. At the same time I don't want to start with the best teams, not only for those reasons, but because it puts more capable rivals on the track, resulting in better racing against the AI. Because this is driver career (and not My Team) I can attempt to swap teams whenever I want. And that's what I have done in the past. Build a team up through research and development, then move on to a new challenge, or sometimes moving up as if I earned it, taking a seat at Red Bull for example. As great as the My Team mode is, it just isn't balanced properly for long term saves. Driver Career suffers from exactly the same thing for the same reasons, but the ability to move means the effects are temporary, and those teams you build up become your rivals. Playing this way keeps me engaged for more seasons making driver career better suited for long-term saves in my view.

Imola's released!

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...latest-update.xFP94XxolM9ebeDg010gD.html

Check that link, with a video of a lap around the new circuit. Surprisingly, they have also included Red Bull's one-off Turkish Grand Prix livery.

Good timing, as I'm coming to the end of my current season, and can work Imola in for the next season. Which track to boot off, that's the question. Canada probably

Even though I stated in a different thread that I couldn't get in to this sim again because the cars were an entire generation ago, haha, it's all I got, so yeah, back to turning some laps. Great sim. But I'm hoping the new one comes along before too long, with the new cars, driver and livery changes. Maybe we'll get the new Miami track too.

If anyone's keen on hooking up for the co-op career mode hit me up.

As you may have seen in another thread, I have a new wheel arriving today. First thing I'll do after drivers, calibration and firmware stuff is fire up F1 2021. Can't wait. I'm sure there will be an acclimation period, but I'm hoping -- no, I expect -- that my driving will improve and my laptimes will tumble (or I'll shave a couple tenths)

Or maybe I won't be faster necessarily, but maybe the wheel, or pedals actually, will allow me to back off the brake and traction control aids I am using. I'll be sure to report my findings haha. Wheel is Thrustmaster T248 in case you didn't see the thread. I was ready to pull the trigger on a Fanatec setup but they were sold out of the base and I went a different route. Haven't ruled out a high-end setup, but if the T248 proves good enough I should be set for a while.

Having a proper wheel also allows more stuff at my fingertips than I could get with a controller. The most obvious of these is I can switch back to manual shift, now that I'm back to having paddles. I just couldn't work it out with controller buttons, upshifting and downshifting. It was awkward to hold the controller and both steer and apply throttle/brake and shift at the same time. But paddles are second nature.

And I can now have controls on the wheel for brake bias, differential and more. I had to ignore these with a controller. You can still do those through the display menus, but doing that while driving at speed is beyond me. But now this can all be right there where I don't have to take my eyes off the road. Before, I only had pit radio, ERS and DRS I could do while heads up.

And I also expect that having force feedback will make me a better driver, able to feel the onset of traction loss before it happens and counter it. More consistency perhaps, better feel. If I appraise my ability honestly, I kind of feel I suck at chicanes in this sim. it's a relative thing, but I do feel I struggle to nail chicanes. Tracks like Canada or Imola have chicanes where I'm just not able to consistently hit these right. Will the wheel be better? The final turn at Spa, the first turn at Monza. These sorts of turns I'd like to improve.

And finally, having good pedals will be a godsend, giving me fine control over the brake and throttle that I've been missing. I do fine with the controller. But if I'm honest I could improve under braking and corner exit and good pedals with full range should be a big help.

What would it take for someone here to agree to try the co-op career mode in F1 2021? I just need one brave soul who loves F1 and has a headset

F1 2022 has been announced with a release date of July 1. The new Miami track is in, along with the changes to Abu Dhabi and Australia. Sprints included as well

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...me-additions.2RmYSL1qgVVcNBWHOQrvU5.html

Everyday, Sintax says to me I need to buy F1 22, the newest iteration of Codemaster's F1 sim series. So I did. Fair warning, the sim has been EA'd. When EA bought it I speculated the name would change (it has, but not to F1 2K22 as I guessed) and that microtransactions and cosmetics would become a thing. They have. There's a whole new side to the game, F1 Life, where you own supercars, and an apartment and live a virtual life as a F1 racer. That's not for me. Even in F1 2020 and 2021 I ignored all the pitcoin stuff. I come for the brilliant racing on the track and career modes.

So I'll probably ignore the expanded side to the game, and I certainly won't drop any dimes on it. After all, this series has the best career mode(s) in sim racing and that's what interests me.

I played for about an hour. I had issues when I bought my new wheel a few months ago with F1 2021. I couldn't seem to get my controls right, especially steering ratio, and I was poor as a result. I barely gave it a sniff after getting the wheel since I had trouble controlling the car and I had six other new sims to play. But in F1 22 it all went seamlessly. There's a steering ratio slider, set to 360 by default, which is what I would have chosen anyway in a modern F1 car. And I hit the track at the A1 Ring without changing any setting and it all felt great. Did some time trialing in the Red Bull and had a blast. Having a nice racing rig setup now I can use manual shifting, and shut off all the driving aids like anti-lock brakes and traction control.

Career mode is the thing though, and I'll start one straight away, probably My Team, to see how that is in the new version. I love this mode, it's what I always wanted in a racing sim. A few years ago I played a great little strat game called Motorsport Manager. And it drove home how great it would be if that sort of stuff were combined with an excellent racing sim. Because beyond liveries and chassis setup, which options have ever really existed in racing sims? Sponsorship, engine supplier, hiring drivers, performance development and engineering, all these things are missing from every other sim.

But in this series it's there, and adds so much to the experience for me. Add to this the fantastic dynamic weather system and the ability to talk to the pitwall, and it all adds up to what I think is the best single player experience in sim racing. I used to say this too, but I hadn't actually driven many other racing sims while making this claim. Of course now I have them all, and can make this claim with conviction. Nothing else comes close. Other sims have fabulous driving experience, but the career modes are sparse, with Assetto Corsa Competizione the best of the bunch in my view. To be fair I've not but scratched at the rally sims I bought, and those have good career modes too reportedly.

As you can tell from this thread I really enjoy this series. When the new cars on the new regs came out it sort of dampened my enthusiasm and I shelved F1 2021. I wanted the 2022 cars, drivers, liveries and tracks. Now I've got them. It's a $60 price tag, and there are not many games I buy at full boat, and if I get the same sort of mileage out of it I did with the last two titles it will be well worth it.

But perhaps the best thing might be I now have a willing partner for the two-player career mode, and very much looking forward to giving that a go. For nearly three years I invited anyone at all here to join me and never got a single reply, even to say they weren't interested, or might be down the line. I need some time to acclimate though, learn the new cars and tracks, build setups for each track and generally get accustomed to it again. And if we do run this I'll do an AAR on it.

So should you buy it? Probably yes. If you like this series, are a F1 fan and sim racer. It looks to be the best edition in a top-notch franchise. Some knock it as 'simcade' and I get it. Probably some truth in that. But honestly I couldn't care less. The sim is brilliant, the racing on track is breathless and the career mode is the best of it's kind.

I'm still on 2011 career, occasionnally launch a 2020 single GP to get modern colors, but with the 6 hours diff timezone , family and away from home job, I don't see how I could arrange a career coop.

Maybe when retiring ?

Anyway thanks for this review I can trust, will buy it on sale next year or in two years, still have not played enough of the previous iterations.

In two years I reckon you should buy F1 24.

No worries if you couldn't arrange a player career. But I'd like to do it with you, since you're a veteran F1 fan and the French accent would be perfect over the R/T.

I'm struggling a bit in the new sim with corner exits and getting the power down. It's bad enough that I couldn't run a race as it stands. Is it a matter of getting used to it? I'll be clipping along at a high rate of speed with no issues and then bam, back end comes around. I'm not new at this, and these spins just seem to come out of nowhere.

Normally I could take care of this with suspension adjustment, but here both the rear springs and roll bar are already as soft as they'll go. Not sure what the fix is. Seat time? Better throttle application? Traction control enabled? Can I run a reverse rake in a ground-effect F1 car?!

I chose to start a standard driver career first, I'll move to My Team later I think. I took Ricciardo's seat to drive alongside Lando. McLaren start the career as the seventh-best marque, which is fair for where they were at the start of this season, although they are better than seventh now. But yeah, they were all at sea at Bahrain weren't they? So that's a pretty good challenge to start this low on the performance charts. We'll see if we can restore papaya to the top. This is a big part of what sets this sim apart from the others. In other sims, the performance hierarchy is fixed. The fastest car is always the fastest car. But in this, the teams rise and fall over time and this dynamic is a huge part of what makes it good for me. In the past two titles I found that I would outpace the AI in engineering over time, and we'll see if the balance has been altered in any way in F1 22.

The cars look fantastic in F1 22. Everything does. It runs very smoothly too, even on my modest box. I had to hook up a controller too, to navigate the menus. Mouse doesn't work.

I've been annoyed already with all the notifications that pop up related to the F1 Life thing. Supercar token! Yeah, who cares? The supercars can be driven too, and there's a separate hotlap mode for them. I haven't given them a go yet, but the word is they aren't very good. Not sure why, but anyway I have a bunch of other sims for that sort of driving. I'll check it out at some point I'm sure.

I set the season up with 16 races, which allows me to cull some tracks like Monaco and Singapore. Full Q1/Q2/Q3 qualifying and 50% races.

My new MCL36 at the car reveal. I had to take the number 21 as 9 is not available. But I don't think anyone is using 9 this year. Mazepin did, but he's gone.