F1 2017 Review

One of my first memories of watching Formula 1 (F1) was the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix. A charging Nigel Mansell, in the iconic Williams FW14B, chased down Ayrton Senna who inherited the lead after a loose wheel nut forced Mansell to pit. Coming out on fresh tyres Mansell set a lap record which was two seconds quicker than Senna and with three laps to go was right behind the Brazilian. However, despite the disparity, Senna held him off thanks, in part, to the tight street setting of Monaco but also due to his excellent race craft. It was a tense finish and a memory still so vivid I can almost hear Murray Walker’s commentary.

Some will say modern F1 has lost much of the romance of yesteryear and that the modern cars, whilst looking more aggressive this season, are boring. They may be right on some level but thankfully modern F1 games are going from strength to strength and this year is no exception. Building upon last year’s entry Codemasters have taken things to another level thanks, in part, to the inclusion of historic F1 cars. If you’re a massive F1 fan like I am, to have the virtual opportunity to take iconic cars of the last thirty years such as dominant 1988 McLaren MP4/4, the 1995 Ferrari 412 T2 (the last of the V12s) or Vettel’s 2010 Red Bull RB6 among others, is probably the closest one will ever get to these glorious machines. What’s more, they’re not just tacked on as an added bonus but neatly woven into the career mode as one-off races and challenges. It’s a fun way to include them but they’re even more fun if you just take them out on track and thrash them to within an inch of their life in the time-trial mode.

This year’s cars have so much grip!

The career mode is where the meat of F1 2017 exists. For those of you who are new to the series, it’s here where you get to create your own driver (male or female) and drop them into any of F1s current teams and race for glory. It’s not easy and, if you decide to start at McLaren like I did, requires a lot of patience. Thankfully if you do decide to start at one of the weaker teams all is not lost. At each race, you have the opportunity to complete tasks set by the team for development points which can then be spent on improving your car. One of the more noticeable changes is that there’s a more familiar tech-tree style approach to spending these points and not every upgrade will work. Sometimes, like in life, things fail and my first few upgrades did so meaning I had to spend more points to develop the car. The echo of real life here made me laugh just a little given the torrid time McLaren are currently having with the seeming ineptitude of engine supplier Honda. Both changes are welcome and even though there’s a risk with every upgrade choice it makes you want to take part in all sessions in order to maximise your upgrade points.

However, why would you not want to race in every single session given how fun these cars are to drive!? There were a number of changes to this year’s cars, chief among them was the decision to make them wider with huge rear tyres. This has increased the amount of grip and downforce and as such cornering speeds are much, much higher than in previous years. The handling borders on simulation, especially with assists off, but is tempered slightly making it more of a simcade racer rather than a full blown sim. On-track, this translates into much more controllable cars giving you the confidence to throw them into turns and power out knowing the grip is there. Even the underpowered McLaren is fun to drive even if it does go backwards on any meaningful straight.

Kimi is my hero

Visually things have improved a touch and it’s fantastic to see how much care and attention have gone into the minor details on steering wheels and such, especially on the classic cars. The character models are still somewhat iffy however, with the hair being the most off-putting. I don’t know what’s going on but everyone’s hair seems to float and move in a rather unnatural way. In all honesty, this isn’t a deal breaker as it’s what happens on the track that matters, but given the immersion you feel they’re going for with the career mode it could do with a bit more TLC. I also noticed some screen tearing whilst playing, not a lot, but when it did happen it was pretty noticeable. Overall though it concentrates its graphical effort on where it matters most, the cars and tracks, and each one is wonderfully recreated with some fun additions such as being able to race Monaco at night.

Ask any F1 fan what they, perhaps, dislike the most about the modern cars and they’ll likely say it’s how they sound. Gone is the high-pitch whine of an engine begging for mercy, replaced by a dull whine, flat and nothing like the lung shakers of old. Sound, then, is very important and F1 2017 has captured things beautifully. Listening to the screams of a Ferrari V12 as I pounded round Monza during a time-trial was nothing short of exhilarating. Whilst I recognise the fact that F1 will never return to its gas guzzling ways, it did make me miss them even more. It was a sound that was so iconic, so embedded in the sport, that to hear the current engines sound as they do all rather depressing. Codemasters should be congratulated on how well they’ve captured everything that makes this sport what it is and bundle it up in a game that can make long-time fans of the sport go all misty-eyed.

My favourite F1 car ever, the FW14B

What we have here is easily one of the best F1 games ever to be made, easily up there with the likes of Geoff Crammond’s Grand Prix. The passion the team at Codemasters have for the sport is clear when you see how well they take the concepts of modern F1 and make them into something interesting to play. They’ve even make balancing engine components and gearbox changes engaging by making it simple to understand what everything effects and how long things will last if you don’t change a component. I ran an entire race without 6th gear because I knew if I changed my gearbox I’d be hit with penalties. I decided it was far more preferable to limp around to a commendable 8th than get demoted on the grid and lose any chance of a points finish. It’s this ability to chose your path and have almost complete control over how your season goes that makes the career mode so engaging, it really is utterly fantastic.

You may not find the real life 2017 Formula 1 season engaging and exciting but in the gaming sense it’s the best its ever been. The addition of historic cars is wonderful and weaving them into the career as special events a masterstroke. Codemasters have paid careful attention to where they needed to improve and left well alone the areas that they didn’t. This was mostly in the career mode and the cars themselves as really very little had to be done in regards to time-trials and multiplayer racing. It’s paid off in spades and I’m even more excited to see how much better things will look post-XBox One X release given that F1 2017 is one of the games that will be enhanced for Microsoft’s new console. Gaming F1 fans like myself have been waiting for Codemasters to realise the potential of their past titles since they took up the license in 2010. They’ve taken their time and had a few missteps along the way but my word have they got it right.