F1 2019 Review

By Luke Reilly

There have been a touch over 100 Formula One Grands Prix since the sport’s controversial engine revision in 2014. Over half of them have been clinched by a single bloke, and more than 80 of them won by the same manufacturer. Terms like ‘boring’ and ‘predictable’ aren’t exactly the types of adjectives F1 bosses would want associated with the world’s top-tier motorsport, but they’re being levelled at F1 with increasing gusto from all corners.

However, while real-life F1 may be flagging somewhat after more than half-a-decade of spirit-sucking Mercedes dominance, Codemasters’ F1 games have only become stronger with each instalment. The crew at Codemasters have whipped the studio’s F1 franchise into one of the best racing series on four wheels, and F1 2019 continues that winning run. The improvements over F1 2018 are only moderate, but F1 2019 is not only the best F1 game to date, it’s one that’s frequently more thrilling, more interesting, and more rewarding than watching the real thing.

This year’s biggest bullet point is the addition of the Formula 2 World Championship, which exists in F1 2019 as both a standalone championship to complete a full season within, and also as a heavily-truncated appetiser to kick-off F1 2019’s returning 10-season career mode. Tackled separately, all the unique elements that distinguish F2 from F1 seem to have been captured here, from its two-races-per-round format to its spectator-friendly reverse grids. It even comes with its own bespoke commentary duo.

Codemasters has been adding retro F1 cars to the F1 series for some time now, all with their own handling nuances that set them apart from today’s bleeding-edge F1 cars, so it’s no surprise the studio has been able to squeeze in the Dallara F2 chassis and have it feel equally distinct. They’re not as fast as F1 cars but they have less downforce, so they’re actually slightly trickier to drive in certain situations. Unlike F1, F2 is a spec series so all the cars are identical in terms of performance.

If you want to hop straight into the regular career mode, however, F1 2019 condenses a season of F2 down into a brief string of three late-race scenarios plucked from what’s destined to be your racer’s final year in the feeder series before snaring a contact in the big leagues. Here Codemasters introduces a pair of fantasy drivers – the shrewd but sportsmanlike German Lukas Weber and the cocksure Devon Butler, an arrogant Brit who appears to be using his racing career as an audition to appear as the next Die Hard villain. You’ll move to F1 regardless of how you perform in these set-ups but, depending on your decisions and finishing positions, your first-person cutscenes with Weber and Butler will change. It’s the closest Codemasters has flirted to an engaging story mode within a racer since the Race Driver days, but don’t get used to it; unfortunately, it all dries up following your driver’s promotion to F1. Weber and Butler will make the leap alongside you (at the expense of the number two drivers for the teams they join) but the animated interactions cease and are replaced with the occasional text interview emailed through to your inbox by your agent. Weber has praised my F1 debut and Butler has continued to be a dick but, without the face-to-face interactions in the garage or paddock, the rivalry between these former F2 drivers just fades into the background and it’s business as usual.

The F2 content can be completely bypassed if you prefer (and doing so will prevent Weber and Butler from usurping real F1 drivers during your first season) but it’s not something I’d recommend. One, the F2 prologue is top fun and two, without it, little else has changed to set F1 2019’s career mode drastically apart from last year’s version.

The Song Remains the Same

The same contract and perk system has returned from F1 2018, as has the spectre of incoming regulation changes that threaten to derail months and months of R&D gains on your car. The R&D tree system itself is the same, too, and like F1 2018 you can still gather enough points to launch regular part development even if you skip the practice sessions (which, after four years of running on the same tracks, can definitely be a bit of a slog). Morale in each of the R&D departments can still be impacted during post-session interviews, which are identical to F1 2018 – same effervescent Scottish reporter, same surly camera chap, same questions. There still doesn’t seem to be any point in selecting destructive answers that’ll only serve to put your R&D crew(s) offside and slow down car improvements, but I still like the concept; it just hasn’t really gone anywhere since F1 2018. Invitational events in retro cars are still sprinkled between F1 championship rounds but we’ve played this sort of gear before. It’s crisp and gorgeous (and there’s a new garage section to ogle cars from any angle) but F1 2018 was already no slouch in the beauty stakes. The fonts and HUD have had a slight spruce up but the video interstitials between the on-track action haven’t changed; experienced players will have seen these fist pumps and victory animations a thousand times.

If I seem like I’ve begun to repeat myself from previous years, it’s because F1 2019 is doing the same thing. Admittedly, there’s probably only finite wiggle room for reinvention when you’re already an authentic, class-leading simulation of a real-life sport but, if things like R&D and practice programs are going to remain set in stone, perhaps added flavour can come from elsewhere? F1 2019 does add long-awaited driver changes so, just like in real-life, AI-controlled F1 stars are now free to take on new contracts with rival teams (mid-season shuffles add a bit of drama to proceedings and drivers finally being able to change teams definitely keeps the grid a lot fresher as you own career progresses through the years). Yet I can’t help but wonder about how much more personality F1 2019 would’ve had if the loose thread Codemasters plucked at during the F2 prologue had been tugged on a little longer.

Apex Legends

On track, F1 2019 feels just as spectacular as we’ve become accustomed to and, as usual, Codemasters has successfully crafted a game that can be either a satisfyingly taxing simulation or an easy-to-grasp, arcade-esque experience smoothed out by an array of potent driving aids. The AI is absolutely the best I’ve seen in the series’ 10-year stint at Codemasters; it’s assertive and racey, it exploits gaps, and it protects itself effectively. F1 drivers are amongst the best on the planet and F1 2019’s terrific AI does a bang-up job of making them seem that way.

The AI is so good I personally don’t know why one would subject themselves to racing against other players online; I certainly have barrels more fun going head-to-head with the authentically precise AI opponents than I do subjecting myself to ranked or unranked races against random players that usually unfold with all the civility of a bar brawl. I don’t really have the patience to be punted off track in collisions that F1 2019’s incident tracking system fails to even register. To be fair, however, plenty of pistonheads live for this sort of malarkey and F1 2019 features the series’ biggest and boldest multiplayer component yet.

There’s now a multiplayer spec car designed to 2019 regulations that can be customised with a variety of liveries. It’s not a fully-fledged livery editor like Gran Turismo Sport or the Forza franchise (sponsors are locked and the designs are limited to premade templates) but colour schemes can be changed. Leagues can now be formed from a dedicated hub within the game, allowing keen online racers to more easily seek out like-minded players to regularly play with (whether that’s just you and a few friends playing out a championship against the AI, or a full field of fellow humans scrapping for the podium). Codemasters has also integrated scheduled weekly GPs that you can complete practice and qualifying sessions for leading up to the weekend race, which begins at pre-set times. There’s a lot of multiplayer to chew on here – even F1’s strong, official esports culture is baked right into the front end now – so feel free to ignore my general disdain for racing online. There’s generally several thousand kilometres of ocean between me and my nearest competitor (and they have faster internet in Kosovo than we do in Australia).