Race strategies play an appropriately big part in the action and can be changed on the fly, though your team will hit you with some spectacularly silly suggestions from time to time, usually when you're on your penultimate lap. Just when you think you've nailed this whole driving lark, a sudden storm can prove that you haven't mastered anything yet. Weather matters too, with rain that might not have the visual spectacle of the downpours in Driveclub or Forza 6, but has a tangible impact on both grip and lap times. The driver AI is brilliant, never giving you an easy time yet also never hitting you with the kind of raw, dumb aggression that sees you spinning off near the end of a 14-lap race. And if you find it a little too easy or inauthentic, it's not too hard to fix that by disabling the usual driving aids. The handling is accessible but tough, pushing you to drive accurately, brake properly for corners, hug the racing line but take bold, calculated risks. On the asphalt, F1 gaming has never been better.

This means that, not only is it satisfying to complete your practice activities, but it's also good, long-term, for your career.

Resource points can be splashed out on R&D and upgrades, giving you the chance to chip away at, say, the Mercedes team's technical advantage or deal with any failings that are holding you and your car back.

In each one there are three activities, covering track acclimatisation, tyre optimisation and qualifying pace, each one a sort of mini-game played out while you drive around the track.Ĭompleting them, running practice laps and completing other minor team goals will net you resource points – the basic currency of your career.

And that goes double once you're out there on the track.į1 2016's first innovation is to make practice sessions matter. From the short scene-setting clips before and after each race to the goings-on while you sit in the garage, waiting to drive out, it's clear that this is a game developed by people who love this specific motorsport. But if Codemasters can't do drama, it knows all about F1.

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