The latest update to F1 23 sees the return of an Aussie fan favourite. As well as changes to the Marina Bay circuit and more in patch 1.10.
Daniel Ricciardo may have been absent from the Dutch Grand Prix last weekend due to injury and will also miss this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix. But his F1 game counterpart is back, and Codemasters will not be rushing around to get his temporary stand-in Liam Lawson in AlphaTauri overalls.
When the eight-time Grand Prix winner was announced to be returning to the grid with AlphaTauri, Codemasters wasted no time in declaring they would add him to F1 23.
De Vries out, Ricciardo in
The return of Ricciardo is of course to the detriment of Nyck de Vries. The 2019 FIA Formula 2 champion endured a torrid time with the Red Bull sister team. He scored points on debut last season filling in at Williams for an unwell Alex Albon at Monza.
The Dutchman was never able to replicate that form this year and was out after ten races. Ricciardo took his place and now on F1 23, de Vries can only be found in pre-existing saves that were made prior to the update. For example, in career modes or Grand Prix mid session save files.
If you have a pre-existing career mode save, it’s not possible to apply the de Vries/Ricciardo swap. Codemasters state on their patch notes that Ricciardo will only be available to those who start new careers.
So unfortunately, MyTeam players who were hoping to hire Ricciardo, you will have to begin a new save. Whether Codemasters will rectify this in future, we can’t say. Nevertheless, whilst de Vries remains an option on pre-existing saves, he’s not even present in the driver market on new saves.
For a MyTeam career mode, it could have been possible to have both de Vries and Ricciardo present as teammate options. But alas, that isn’t the case.
F1 23 Patch 1.10: Other Changes
Another change made in patch 1.10 is to the Singapore Grand Prix circuit. The track has had changes made many times over the years, such as to Turn 10 in 2013 and Turns 11-12 in 2015. Codemasters had always kept up, updating the track before the game was released.
For 2023, that wasn’t the case. From launch up until now, the Singapore track resembled its layout from 2022. Codemasters announced before launch that they would be updating the track but that it would be in a future patch.
For this season, the section from Turns 16-19 – where the drivers drove underneath a grandstand – have been completely bypassed. This section was where Nelson Piquet, Jr. deliberately crashed to help his teammate Fernando Alonso cycle to the front and win the inaugural race in 2008.
Additionally, there’s a new F1 Pro Challenge game mode in F1 World and McLaren have received a big performance buff to reflect the gains they’ve made in the real world. Since the British Grand Prix, the Woking outfit have gone from a tailender to a near frontrunner, and will now perform relatively similar with realistic performance.
There have been some other general stability improvements and minor fixes, and even a change to ranked multiplayer races. F1 game content creator Tiametmarduk echoed the consensus from the community that strict corner cutting should be enabled in ranked races.
After seeing this, Codemasters were quick to act. After patch 1.10, ranked races will have strict corner cutting enabled.
For any additional changes in patch 1.10, you can see the entire list here.
What do you think of the changes made in F1 23 patch 1.10? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
