After their unceremonious removal from the games after F1 2020, the Goodwood Festival of Speed livestream featured EA Sports' Audio Director recording some classic cars. This might point to them returning for next year's F1 game.
Image: Yu Chu Chin via Wikimedia Commons, available for distribution under the CC BY 2.0 deed
Since Codemasters took over the F1 licence, older cars have featured in a few of their games; firstly in F1 2013 before then returning in F1 2017 and featuring up until F1 2020. Following EA's acquisition of Codemasters, the classic cars no longer featured.
However if you were keeping up with the Goodwood Festival of Speed over the weekend, you may have seen a segment in which EA staff was seen putting microphones on an old F1 car. Therefore, it would appear that classic cars seem likely to return for next year's game.
The B186 scored two pole positions courtesy of Teo Fabi, plus a win (Benetton's first-ever victory) and additional podium by Gerhard Berger. It had never featured in a Codemasters F1 game previously, with the only Benetton cars to have done so being both of Michael Schumacher's championship winning cars from 1994 and 1995.
Porter mentions that they are there recording an additional six cars, which does warrant the question of which ones they were there to scan. We can only speculate here but looking at the full entry list for the event, there is no shortage of F1 cars taking to the hillclimb.
The 1976 McLaren M23D with which James Hunt won the championship that year featured in the event and also in F1 2018 and F1 2019 along with other cars from that era. There were also two versions of McLaren's 1993 car, the MP4/8A which ran the Ford V8 and even the MP4/8B test car that utilised a Lamborghini V12 that they ultimately opted against using, denying us a legendary partnership between the two famous marques.
Williams had a few of their cars represented at the event as well, such as the FW18 (featured previously in Codemasters titles) and the FW11 which won championships in 1996 and 1986 respectively, along with the FW07 from 1979 and the FW08C from 1983. Predictably, Ferrari also had a lot of their older cars at the event, like the 1961 156 'Sharknose', the 1968 312/68, the 1971 312B2 and the 312B that Niki Lauda won the 1975 world title in, which also featured in previous instalments.
There are also a few more relatively recent cars from the Scuderia such as the 1998 F300, 1999 F399, the F1-2000 that Michael Schumacher took to his first of five consecutive world titles with, plus the F2007 and F2008 that saw Ferrari's last driver and constructor titles to date respectively. The F2007 did feature as a classic car in F1 2020, therefore perhaps it might not be much of a stretch to suggest the 2021 SF21 being there might also mean it could count?
There were a lot of cars from either this or last decade, too. Red Bull, for example, brought the RB8 from 2012, RB11 from 2015 and RB14 from 2018. The 2010 RB6 was amongst the most recent batch of cars in the last selection of classic cars in an F1 game, so might these cars count as classics too? They also brought the RB1 which raced in their first season back in 2005.
Speaking of which: The Renault R25 from that year, which won both championships, was also present at Goodwood, with the R26 that succeeded it being featured in F1 2020. Bringing in the V10 and V8 powered cars that brought the French manufacturer so much success would no doubt be popular.
With the exception of a few cars from more recent than 2021, the only other F1 car at the event was the Maserati 250F, the one that Juan Manuel Fangio drove to his fifth and last world championship in 1957. Aside from a few cars that raced before Grand Prix became F1 in 1950, that makes the sum total that were present at the event that could count towards being featured as classic cars in next year's F1 game.
With the series set to move away from the yearly release model and become a standalone title, that would mean hopefully no chance of the cars being removed at any point. With licencing for new games requiring renewals, perhaps the single title will mean that licencing cost upkeep means it will not be required.
Which of these classic cars do you hope gets added into next year's standalone F1 game by EA Sports? Let us know in the comments below, and join the discussion in our F1 game series forum!
Image: Yu Chu Chin via Wikimedia Commons, available for distribution under the CC BY 2.0 deed
Since Codemasters took over the F1 licence, older cars have featured in a few of their games; firstly in F1 2013 before then returning in F1 2017 and featuring up until F1 2020. Following EA's acquisition of Codemasters, the classic cars no longer featured.
However if you were keeping up with the Goodwood Festival of Speed over the weekend, you may have seen a segment in which EA staff was seen putting microphones on an old F1 car. Therefore, it would appear that classic cars seem likely to return for next year's game.
EA Sports F1 27: Classic Car Comeback
Brad Porter - Audio Director for EA Sports - was interviewed on the Sky Sports F1 broadcast for the event, which can be played back on YouTube for those where the channel is available. In this segment, Porter was working on the Benetton B186 which raced in the 1986 season.The B186 scored two pole positions courtesy of Teo Fabi, plus a win (Benetton's first-ever victory) and additional podium by Gerhard Berger. It had never featured in a Codemasters F1 game previously, with the only Benetton cars to have done so being both of Michael Schumacher's championship winning cars from 1994 and 1995.
Porter mentions that they are there recording an additional six cars, which does warrant the question of which ones they were there to scan. We can only speculate here but looking at the full entry list for the event, there is no shortage of F1 cars taking to the hillclimb.
The 1976 McLaren M23D with which James Hunt won the championship that year featured in the event and also in F1 2018 and F1 2019 along with other cars from that era. There were also two versions of McLaren's 1993 car, the MP4/8A which ran the Ford V8 and even the MP4/8B test car that utilised a Lamborghini V12 that they ultimately opted against using, denying us a legendary partnership between the two famous marques.
Williams had a few of their cars represented at the event as well, such as the FW18 (featured previously in Codemasters titles) and the FW11 which won championships in 1996 and 1986 respectively, along with the FW07 from 1979 and the FW08C from 1983. Predictably, Ferrari also had a lot of their older cars at the event, like the 1961 156 'Sharknose', the 1968 312/68, the 1971 312B2 and the 312B that Niki Lauda won the 1975 world title in, which also featured in previous instalments.
There are also a few more relatively recent cars from the Scuderia such as the 1998 F300, 1999 F399, the F1-2000 that Michael Schumacher took to his first of five consecutive world titles with, plus the F2007 and F2008 that saw Ferrari's last driver and constructor titles to date respectively. The F2007 did feature as a classic car in F1 2020, therefore perhaps it might not be much of a stretch to suggest the 2021 SF21 being there might also mean it could count?
There were a lot of cars from either this or last decade, too. Red Bull, for example, brought the RB8 from 2012, RB11 from 2015 and RB14 from 2018. The 2010 RB6 was amongst the most recent batch of cars in the last selection of classic cars in an F1 game, so might these cars count as classics too? They also brought the RB1 which raced in their first season back in 2005.
Speaking of which: The Renault R25 from that year, which won both championships, was also present at Goodwood, with the R26 that succeeded it being featured in F1 2020. Bringing in the V10 and V8 powered cars that brought the French manufacturer so much success would no doubt be popular.
With the exception of a few cars from more recent than 2021, the only other F1 car at the event was the Maserati 250F, the one that Juan Manuel Fangio drove to his fifth and last world championship in 1957. Aside from a few cars that raced before Grand Prix became F1 in 1950, that makes the sum total that were present at the event that could count towards being featured as classic cars in next year's F1 game.
With the series set to move away from the yearly release model and become a standalone title, that would mean hopefully no chance of the cars being removed at any point. With licencing for new games requiring renewals, perhaps the single title will mean that licencing cost upkeep means it will not be required.
Which of these classic cars do you hope gets added into next year's standalone F1 game by EA Sports? Let us know in the comments below, and join the discussion in our F1 game series forum!
