F1 22 Preview

Another year, another season of F1. The end of last year’s season certainly was an exclamation mark on the closely fought battle between Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes throughout 2021. However, with new regulations and a completely different car, 2022 has started to shape up to be quite different altogether, with the new battle seemingly being between Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen. Showing that nothing is guaranteed year-on-year, Hamilton has been struggling in the mid pack for the first handful of races.

What does this have to do with F1 22? Just like the real world season, the game has been given some sizable updates, and some things have been left in the midfield to sort themselves out later. First and foremost, the game features the updated 2022 car, with significant aero, suspension and tyre model developments allowing them to match the real world equivalent making for more closely fought battles on the virtual track. There’s also the inclusion of the Sprint Race weekend format to ensure all race types are covered.

Those of you who dislike David Croft’s voice will be glad to know that there’s a whole raft of new talent for F1 22 meaning you don’t have to listen to his dulcet tones anymore. Nat Pinkham, Alex Jaques, Jaques Villeneueve and Sascha Roos can be your new commentators for races. Series veterans will also be saddened to learn that Jeff is no longer your race engineer instead being replaced by the venerable Marc Priestly, who has been in and around Formula 1 since being hired by McLaren back in 2000.

Presentation has seen a massive overhaul also, with pre, post and even during race segments polished up to match the level of quality you see on the TV broadcasts. Podium celebrations and pit wall animations have been polished, and should serve to make you feel more like you’re taking part in the real world series than ever before. But - if one hundred percent realism isn’t your thing, these new broadcast displays can even take over for pit stops or in the event of a safety car, allowing you to sit back and watch for a moment whilst the safety car period rolls on. Ideal if you're only really driven by the high octane side of the sport, and less so by trailing behind a road car for a few laps. However, let that pendulum swing back the other way, and the game will allow you to set up on a full formation lap now, and has an additional challenge in forcing you to enter your pit box correctly from the pit lane at the right time. 

My Team and Career make an expected return, with My Team having three levels at which you can “enter” the sport; scrappy newcomers without much funding, middle of the pack challengers, and as a team contending for the championship title. This is further expanded by department events that have been prevalent in earlier F1 titles becoming more varied in what they are and how they will affect the team.

Rather notable, however, is the inclusion of Miami, a track that hadn’t yet been finished in the real world but appears finished in the preview build we got our hands on. Codemasters has managed to work with the team that designed the track in order to get the layout into the game. Other tracks have had some tweaks and upgrades, such as Spain and Abu Dhabi’s changes from previous years and Australia’s new layout which sees it being a faster circuit overall.

Also quite surprising is the inclusion of VR support for PC, something players of various Codemasters titles have been asking about for a long time. It’s not particularly new ground for Codemasters — they have supported VR in the DIRT Rally series, and it feels like it’s taken an age for it to come over to another one of their titles. The feeling of speed in these cars was already immense, VR will step that up another notch entirely, short of being able to virtually pull the tear offs from your visor.

Now, onto the elephants in the room (yes, plural). Many people have heard from a friend of a friend about the inclusion of supercars in this year's game and whilst that certainly is an aspect of the title, the new “F1 Life” section of the game seems to be more about adding an aspect of collectability. You’ll be able to customise your character in different outfits and whatnot, whilst also collecting the supercars that you’ll be able to drive in special events, like the Pirelli Hotlaps and others like autocross and rival duel. The essence of it is to bring the rest of a Formula 1 weekend into players' homes. Alongside, you’ll also be able to drive the Mercedes and Aston Martin safety cars, which will be a bonus for Deluxe edition owners. Think of it less as core gameplay, but a little added reward to what you’re likely already playing the game for — the racing.

The second elephant, sadly, is that the Braking Point story aspect is not in F1 22. I found it to be quite a gripping aspect of last years title, and whilst saddened by the lack of a story mode this year, I can fully understand from a development aspect that changing the cars, physics, new tracks, aero and suspension, VR support, presentation, new audio - and more. If cutting the story aspect allowed more development support to be given to those other new and updated points, I believe F1 22 will be stronger for it.

Lastly, whilst there’s no mention of cross play anywhere in the notes, it will at least be cross-gen at launch. Further down the line, we should see cross play making its way into the title, something that will keep the player base healthy into the long term.

Overall, F1 22 seems to be living up to the “New Era” moniker that’s been branded around it, with all the changes to the technical side of the game all the way through to the presentational aspects, it should be another one in the bag for Codemasters, which hopefully will be good to see, especially with this being the first F1 title from them under the wing of parent company EA.

F1 22 will be available 1st of July, 2022, with early access for pre-orders from the 28th of June.