F1 22 | Physics Deep-Dive Video Released

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F1 22 is scheduled to be released on the 1st of July, and Codemasters has released a video which gives fans a chance to learn more about the underlying physics of the title.

Senior game designer David Greco voiced a video released on the official YouTube channel of Codemasters F1 Games that gave us a technical deep-dive into the physics and handling behind the upcoming F1 22 game.

Greco spoke about how the new FIA regulations for F1, and the cars that resulted from the updated regulations, affected the game design and physics approach versus recent editions of the title.

Among the changes are a reduced ride height for the vehicles. Bottoming-out effects, how the cars take curbs, and aerodynamic effects were affected in kind.

When asked if the new handling and physics design could introduce scenarios that were previously unseen in the F1 series, Greco mentioned that it is now possible to "beach" the car on a sausage curb. He noted it would be a rare circumstance, but the new, lower ride height makes this a possibility.

Stiffer tire carcasses will also play a factor in the new F1 game, and players can expect sharper slip angle, more possibility of understeer, and staccato force feedback forces from taking curbs aggressively. This will introduce setup challenges as well, as tire pressures will affect the handling in a different manner than recent installments of the F1 game.

These handling and physics changes will also affect legacy setups. If you were hoping to copy your 2021 setup into this year's edition, you likely won't find much success.

The video concluded with tips for beginners, which you can listen to by watching the video linked above. There are also a lot of points covered by Greco that I did not include in this article, so be sure to give the video a watch if you're interested in the physics that will be implemented into this year's F1 title.

Let us know in the comments or on Twitter @RaceDepartment if any of these physics and handling changes have you excited to try the title when it is released on July 1st.
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Mike Smith
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

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Comments

T
Patrik Marek said:
with proper sim handling I think 80-90% of the peopel will realize they can't drive these cars and it will be the end of the franchise
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Totally accurate, I've been noticing this trend since the grand prix legends era: a lot of people come attracted to the allure of a hardcore simulator thinking that it is going to be easy. After they learn to barely keep the car on the track then they connect to a random server and discover that they are not as highly skilled as they though. In fact most of the server wipe their asses and it frustrates them to no end. So they leave to take part in an endless search of the next kind of cars or game in where they are going to get their almost effortless instant gratification.

I remember how in a lot of forums and leagues back in the Rfactor 1 hayday a lot of people went from playing the very excelent CTDP F1 mods to F1 mods in where it was almost impossible to have a powerslide, and then to F3 mods, then Formula renault mods, and gt cars. I also remember how the WTTC game with very underpowered cars was so popular for a while, or how the original GTR game never was as popular as the second one: the first one had cars with a handling that demanded a lot more skill from the driver just to keep the cars on the track.

We only have to look what kind of cars are the most driven in Assetto Corsa. People come mostly dreaming to dominate in the F1 cars, and then a lot of those people discover that they can't even keep them on the track nor drive them without traction control and ABS.

So they go to the next big thing: GT cars, those are quite a lot more underpowered than a F1 car, everything happens slower and the cars have traction control and ABS. A part of those people still are going to be frustrated that even with electronics they can't be as competitive as they think they are entitled.

So they go to the next big thing: the Drift cars, but then they find that while drifting is incredibly easy, doing the kind of things that the top guys in any server do requires a lot of skill.

So they go to the next big thing: the average road cars in cruising maps.

A big amount of people when they don't find instant gratification from a simulator and they discover that they need to put hard effort and they need to have some level of innate skill they get very frustrated and then they try to find the easy escape to slower cars in the hope of finding themselves to be magically faster in a slower car.

A skilled driver is faster in any kind of car, slow or fast. And because they keep finding skilled drivers driving any kind of car, they keep desperately changing between cars in a desperate pursuit of an instant gratification that is never going to happen with that mentality of 0 effort.

I think that this describe a big amount of the people that purchase any racing game, people like us that enjoy the challenge of learning proper technique, that enjoy overcoming personal limits and drive around handling problems are a drop of fresh water in the middle of the ocean. That people at some point throw the towel and drive the official F1, nascar, motogp game or gran turismo and similar games and finally find their instant gratification.
 
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azaralamouri
Hey, at least they're giving the physics and handling a chunk of their focus, instead if what they usually talk too much about: hero drivers and cinematic seens aka scum aka bs. So Kodus this time!
 
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V
This forum's hateboner for this extremely high-quality series with an incredibly in-depth single player component never ceases to be hilarious. 95% of you do nothing but drive braindead point-and-shoot GT3 cars with TC and ABS that are about as challenging to drive as the F1 games to begin with. And judging from ACC and iRacing lobbies, y'all sure do absolutely suck at driving those without wrecking every three laps to boot!
 
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Slapped
TRASGU said:
Totally accurate, I've been noticing this trend since the grand prix legends era: a lot of people come attracted to the allure of a hardcore simulator thinking that it is going to be easy. After they learn to barely keep the car on the track then they connect to a random server and discover that they are not as highly skilled as they though. In fact most of the server wipe their asses and it frustrates them to no end. So they leave to take part in an endless search of the next kind of cars or game in where they are going to get their almost effortless instant gratification.
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That's me in every game, but as my mother used to tell me - "If you can't be good at something, then learn to enjoy doing it badly".
 
Metla
Premium
Slapped said:
I'll bet you can take an average driver and stick them in an F1 car and within one month of training they'll be doing times of around 95% of what the top drivers do - basically 5-6 seconds off the pace.
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I'd say after the first 40 or 50 deaths the program would be cancelled. People would go to jail, And laws would be drafted to make sure it never happened again.

Can't trust the average driver to get to the shops in a station wagon , never mind putting them in a 1000 hp, 230 mph race car.....
 
C
We will see how it plays out. They have gotten feedback from real F1 teams and that amounts to something. All other sims are just guesswork but to get proper feedback and data is important so I hope it will be great
 
Peter Kerényi
I would not expect an F1 car to be particularly hard to drive.

Hard to drive at the level F1 drivers do? Yes, even impossible with no experience driving downforce cars even near the limit.

Would our collective necks die after 2 corners? Yes, probably 1 corner.

But as far as driving is concerned, they cannot be extremely difficult. Sims, games take away the risk of injury, death, lifelong debt, physical limitations, fear, allowing players to focus only on the driving. At that point the difference between say AC/iR and the F1 games is negligible compared to the difference between the best sim F1 car and real life all things considered.

So if it looks like and F1 car, drives like an F1 car (comparisons can be made, speeds, corner speeds, lap times, etc.), feels decent and communicative enough through a wheel, than it's good in my book. F1 games in my opinion check all these boxes, and you can even have believable offline races which is just as important for me as the actual handling
 
Goozys
8th gear, over 330km/h and the sense of speed is so damn poor. Why!? :(
The rest looks very promising...
 
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B
TRASGU said:
Totally accurate, I've been noticing this trend since the grand prix legends era: a lot of people come attracted to the allure of a hardcore simulator thinking that it is going to be easy. After they learn to barely keep the car on the track then they connect to a random server and discover that they are not as highly skilled as they though. In fact most of the server wipe their asses and it frustrates them to no end. So they leave to take part in an endless search of the next kind of cars or game in where they are going to get their almost effortless instant gratification.

[...]
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There is another trend we see since the Grand Prix Legends era: sim-racers equate realistic handling with hard handling.
 
Boby Kim
F1 2002 from EA was based on the rFactor engine, till today the best physics engine ever. This time however they must do it with the Ego engine, which also is being used for Dirt. All i hope is a goog translation from physics to FFB instead of linear flat force like F1 2021. And a menu that can be navigated with mouse!
 
N
Richard Wilks said:
The elitism already started.

I would really want someone to prove me beyond "it feels not sim", how exactly the driving in an F1 codies game is any less "sim" than any F1 in the "sims" we have.
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In the OP video it is mentioned that they didn't implement induced drag until this year. If that's the case, it is reasonable to think that they are taking some shortcuts. They didn't think the game to be a full simulation from the beginning and every year they make small changes here and there (also mentioned in the video).

That said, I myself am not a fan of defining whether a game is racing simulation on physics alone, mainly because it is an exercise in futility and frustration, but it makes me question fundamentally how they intended this game to work;
I prefer to think about the game in its entirety. Things like pit stop mechanics and lack of in-car adjustments are oversimplifications and I think those alone could justify not calling the game a racing simulation (can't we just call them "racing games" like back in the day?). Same goes for GT games (with the added fault of having an in-game credits system) and pC3. I once again lament the fact the "sims" nowadays lack safety car and similar race related features (AC doesn't even have a pit limiter button!)
 
G
Well, pre-order the game to give the poor employee a new headset because the sound is horrible.

I also don't understand what software or in-game settings they used to make the video, everything is pixelated, the audience is horrible, the sky is horrible and on a large majority of the video is it just me or do the shadows of the cars only appear at times or very close?

In short, the more gameplay videos are shown the less appetizing it is and brings us back on our feet -> see you next year to make the shareholders happy.
 
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MachChouffe
Vadara said:
This forum's hateboner for this extremely high-quality series with an incredibly in-depth single player component never ceases to be hilarious. 95% of you do nothing but drive braindead point-and-shoot GT3 cars with TC and ABS that are about as challenging to drive as the F1 games to begin with. And judging from ACC and iRacing lobbies, y'all sure do absolutely suck at driving those without wrecking every three laps to boot!
Click to expand...
Lmao why you so mad big boi?
 
Richard Wilks
NobodyKnowsReally said:
In the OP video it is mentioned that they didn't implement induced drag until this year. If that's the case, it is reasonable to think that they are taking some shortcuts. They didn't think the game to be a full simulation from the beginning and every year they make small changes here and there (also mentioned in the video).

That said, I myself am not a fan of defining whether a game is racing simulation on physics alone, mainly because it is an exercise in futility and frustration, but it makes me question fundamentally how they intended this game to work;
I prefer to think about the game in its entirety. Things like pit stop mechanics and lack of in-car adjustments are oversimplifications and I think those alone could justify not calling the game a racing simulation (can't we just call them "racing games" like back in the day?). Same goes for GT games (with the added fault of having an in-game credits system) and pC3. I once again lament the fact the "sims" nowadays lack safety car and similar race related features (AC doesn't even have a pit limiter button!)
Click to expand...
Lack of features means a game is not a simulation?

There are lack of features in all our sims, accross the board. So none of them are simulations by that account.

Again, i dont see anything that proves that the codies F1 is any less a simulation of an F1 than any other F1 car in the so called "sims".
 
Richard Wilks
TRASGU said:
Totally accurate, I've been noticing this trend since the grand prix legends era: a lot of people come attracted to the allure of a hardcore simulator thinking that it is going to be easy. After they learn to barely keep the car on the track then they connect to a random server and discover that they are not as highly skilled as they though. In fact most of the server wipe their asses and it frustrates them to no end. So they leave to take part in an endless search of the next kind of cars or game in where they are going to get their almost effortless instant gratification.

I remember how in a lot of forums and leagues back in the Rfactor 1 hayday a lot of people went from playing the very excelent CTDP F1 mods to F1 mods in where it was almost impossible to have a powerslide, and then to F3 mods, then Formula renault mods, and gt cars. I also remember how the WTTC game with very underpowered cars was so popular for a while, or how the original GTR game never was as popular as the second one: the first one had cars with a handling that demanded a lot more skill from the driver just to keep the cars on the track.

We only have to look what kind of cars are the most driven in Assetto Corsa. People come mostly dreaming to dominate in the F1 cars, and then a lot of those people discover that they can't even keep them on the track nor drive them without traction control and ABS.

So they go to the next big thing: GT cars, those are quite a lot more underpowered than a F1 car, everything happens slower and the cars have traction control and ABS. A part of those people still are going to be frustrated that even with electronics they can't be as competitive as they think they are entitled.

So they go to the next big thing: the Drift cars, but then they find that while drifting is incredibly easy, doing the kind of things that the top guys in any server do requires a lot of skill.

So they go to the next big thing: the average road cars in cruising maps.

A big amount of people when they don't find instant gratification from a simulator and they discover that they need to put hard effort and they need to have some level of innate skill they get very frustrated and then they try to find the easy escape to slower cars in the hope of finding themselves to be magically faster in a slower car.

A skilled driver is faster in any kind of car, slow or fast. And because they keep finding skilled drivers driving any kind of car, they keep desperately changing between cars in a desperate pursuit of an instant gratification that is never going to happen with that mentality of 0 effort.

I think that this describe a big amount of the people that purchase any racing game, people like us that enjoy the challenge of learning proper technique, that enjoy overcoming personal limits and drive around handling problems are a drop of fresh water in the middle of the ocean. That people at some point throw the towel and drive the official F1, nascar, motogp game or gran turismo and similar games and finally find their instant gratification.
Click to expand...
If it was about being hard, then why the F1 series is considered harder than the F1 mercedes in iracing, to the point that one of the improvements for this year is having easier control coming out of slow corners?

Your trend is true, except the last paragraph.

In the end the less skilled people don't go to those games. They stay in the "simulations", and demand things to be dumbed down, and go on forums such as this one, parading the mantra that "race cars are easy to drive".
 
ScrewCaptain27
The problem I have with Codemasturbators' F1 games, besides the lazy development (bugs that have been there for 10+ years, Пиздец track limits, tracks that have not been updated since 2012 etc.) is that they are nowhere near laid-back arcade racers, too sophisticated to even be classed as "simcade", yet try so hard and fail to be proper simulators. The handling model is FUBAR. Despite what this guy is waffling about for 20+ minutes, I'm sure that downforce and drag will still not be properly modelled. Braking is probably going to be screwed as always.
Yet it's perfectly possible to have a sim that is also accessible and playable even with a keyboard by adding driving assists, just look at the good old F1C 99-02 which later became RFactor...
 
N
Richard Wilks said:
Lack of features means a game is not a simulation?

There are lack of features in all our sims, accross the board. So none of them are simulations by that account.

Again, i dont see anything that proves that the codies F1 is any less a simulation of an F1 than any other F1 car in the so called "sims".
Click to expand...
Care to adress my first point? Do you even know what induced drag is?
PS: Yes, lack of features means lack of simulation. If a car has a particular system, it should be simulated. If the series has a particular mechanic, such as safety car, it should be simulated.
As a matter of fact, earlier games had such features (e.g. GP4 had on track stewarts), if anything, we are going backawards because of market preferences!
 
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hampa032
NobodyKnowsReally said:
He thinks he is so smart he actually believes that Codemasters game comes close to other racing sims in terms of driving and feel. He wants someone to write him a book on the forums explaining to him why is that. He should just go try some sim games and he wouldn't be asking the question. I have F1 2021, AC, and automobilista 2 installed on my PC at this moment. I played the F1 game for a couple of months and when I installed first automobilista 2 I was blown away by the difference, then when I finally went to the trouble of installing some mods for AC and bought the new VRC formula hybrid I was like yeah I am not going back to the F1 games... And I am playing on a ps4 controller, and still having a blast!
Click to expand...
 
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T
Slapped said:
That's me in every game, but as my mother used to tell me - "If you can't be good at something, then learn to enjoy doing it badly".
Click to expand...

And that's a very positive and very good mentality. I did cycling for some years when I was younger, and I have to tell you that I was a complete trash, everybody was faster than me by a big margin, but I simply enjoyed the sport even if I was so abysmally bad. Nobody trained harder than me, at some points I even over-trained. And still, other people even coming back from injuries with barely any training after that injury were wiping my ass. I learned to stop comparing me with others more naturally gifted than me, and I started focusing on just trying beat my past performances, I was a lot happier after that. I never could be a race horse, but could become a race turtle.

The point is that the person that puts effort on simracing or in any aspect of their life, even if that person still fails time after time after all the effort deserves respect. People that works hard deserves my respect. The people that without putting any effort leave at the first chance when they are unable to find a quick and easy way to have success are the ones that never earn my respect.

I don't care if somebody is 4 seconds slower or faster, at the end of they day that is absolutly irrelevant. Simracing isn't about crushing everybody you find in any server, it is about race other people and about finding enjoyment in the challenge of pursuing your own limits and finding how to overcome them even if by improving just by half a tenth.
 

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What is the reason for your passion for sim racing?

  • Watching real motorsport

    Votes: 180 66.7%

  • Physics and mechanics

    Votes: 116 43.0%

  • Competition and adrenaline

    Votes: 125 46.3%

  • Practice for real racing

    Votes: 52 19.3%

  • Community and simracers

    Votes: 73 27.0%
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