F1 22 preview: New cars, new Miami GP, no porpoising!

Even if it added no new tracks, no new modes of play, F1 22 was always going to be a bear for the developers at Codemasters. The new regulations that govern the engines and fuel mixtures of the cars and aerodynamics packages has completely changed the order in which Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull are ranked after the four actual races. Lee Mather is responsible for giving Formula One enthusiasts a realistic game, that matches viewer expectations and responds to commentators.

” We have less time understanding the performance order and nuances of each team,” Mather, Polygon’s creative director for the game, stated in an interview. “It’s something we’ve always really focused on — which [cars] were good under braking, which had good traction, which cars were particularly good in the wet, and which engines were strong at a certain type of track. All of these things were well understood. Now it’s all new, and it’s all learning.”

They’re not flying completely in the dark, Mather noted. Codemasters still gets data from all 10 racing teams with each session they run, and the developers will infuse their game’s handling model with it through the Canadian Grand Prix, the last race before F1 22‘s July 1 launch (June 28 for those who pre-order its Champions Edition). In a preview build made available over the past week, I felt out a car that, with the difficulty settings that I used in F1 2021, drove consistently and predictably on standard racing setups — but the game made it clear that finding the sweet spot on the rear wing will be the key to unlocking lap times in the leaderboards’ top 20%.

This stands to reason; in the new rules, the F1 car rides lower and wider, but the rear wing that supplies downforce and traction to the drive axle is also lower, relative to the rest of the chassis, than in last year’s car. F1’s new cars are more dedicated to dispersing airflow and making it easier on trailing cars to overtake opponents, as that creates more competitive racing. It takes a good while to see this manifest in the preview build of F1 22.

The four tracks — Imola and Silverstone as well as Austria’s Red Bull Ring and Miami International Autodrome round Hard Rock Stadium — do not require drivers to tiptoe around corners and only use the brakes when there is straight-line traction. Still, even with the “higher downforce” stock setup, I felt so much more confident coming out of Imola’s infamous Acqua Minerale turn — until I saw that I’d qualified in last place by more than two seconds against the difficulty I usually ran in F1 2021 (95 to 97, out of 110). The bottom line is that serious racers need to expect to spend lots of time in Time Trial mode testing out their setups before they move into career mode.

Getting the new cars’ handling right — while making it approachable, for varying levels of interest and skill — is only part of the picture, Mather said. Though F1 22 only has one new track, Miami, several others have changed, most notably Australia’s Albert Park Circuit, which raced three weeks ago and had a Drag Reduction System zone — where cars can open their rear wings for even greater straight-line speed — removed the day before qualifying. Mather stated that it doesn’t matter if the DRS zone is being changed or a chicane needs to be smoothed out. Codemasters AI must go back to retrain all CPU drivers.

“The AI will come around that track and they’ll hit a DRS zone that they weren’t expecting,” Mather said as an example. “They’ll arrive at the next corner 15 to 20 kilometers [per hour] faster than they were expecting. If I arrived at that corner 15 to 20 kph too fast, I’d go straight off. Every little change, the knock-on effects can have weeks and months of work.”

And that brings up a strange question, of fans asking if a new and unhelpful performance characteristic is in the game, reflecting what they see on TV and read in the blogs. This is called “porpoising” and it’s caused by high speeds. The suspension can rise due to the cars’ ground effects, which are then pushed down by aerodynamics at the front and back. The result is that the car looks like a dolphin propelling itself through the water. Although porpoising has affected Mercedes’ cornering speed, for example, where Ferrari might only encounter it on the straights, it is not present at all in F1 22, Mather said. Not least because Codemasters, like the racing teams caught off guard, could not predict this movement in the new car design.

“It’s not even a concept that we really have,” Mather said. “The detachment and the reattachment of aero is something we obviously have, but for it to cause the side effect of the porpoising […] that’s not something our physics does at the moment.”

This is not to say that F1 22‘s differences are only technical. But they are not on the scale of introducing or remaking big new modes, as F1 2021 did with its “Braking Point” narrative, or as F1 2020 did by bringing in the My Team career that has become an obsession for millions. Sprint qualifying is now available for all three grand prix. It will only be available in career modes for events that have sprint qualifying — Imola and the Austrian Grand Prix.

Presentationally, F1 22 is working toward a broadcast that meets the expectations of newfound fans in the United States. Formation laps and pit stops both have “immersive” or “presentational” settings, meaning players can choose to drive out the noncompetitive parts of a race, or sit back and listen to commentary as the AI brings the field behind a safety car or forms up the starting grid. A new interactive feature is available at pit stops. The driver can press a button and turn in the pit when it’s convenient. This may result in a longer or shorter pit stop. Although the timing of the stop can depend on the efficiency of your pit crew (which can change in career modes), the effect is minimal and resembles hitting the pit limiter at the end.

The locked pairing of Anthony Davidson and David Croft (whose “It’s lights out, and away we go!” has become a trademark akin to Michael Buffer’s “Let’s get ready to rumble!”) can be swapped for new voices such as Alex Jacques, a commentator heard on F1TV Pro; Natalie Pinkham, the pit lane reporter for the U.K.’s Sky Sports; or Jacques Villeneuve, F1 royalty who analyzes races for France’s Canal Plus network. This commentary will be matched to new introductions and fade-outs to give F1 22 a better broadcast feel, Mather said.

And it also means that “Jeff,” the generic racing engineer whom players could order to shut up (literally) for the past decade, has been let go. Marc Priestly, formerly a racing mechanic and pit stop teammate for McLaren, is the new liaison between driver and pit, with audio recorded over an actual Formula One headset, Mather said.

Though the options weren’t available in the preview shown to media, F1 22 promises more customization tools for its rapturous My Team mode, where players create a new racing team and drive it themselves. Codemasters offers a variety of car liveries, including different colors and other changes to improve the look. Additionally, players may begin My Team from one of three starting points: a top-line contender; a midfield competitor, or an all-new striver working their way up. The bottom was where teams began the last two years. Mather said the new options were implemented, again, in the name of accessibility and fun for newer fans.

F1 22 launches July 1 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.