A bug found with tyre wear on equal performance has ground the F1 23 league racing season to a halt. Concerns have arisen regarding exactly how long this bug has existed for.
Codemasters F1 games have never been without their issues, some bigger than others. But this new one is perhaps the biggest that has ever plagued the games, and it has thrown the competitive scene into disarray.
Premier Sim Gaming Leagues had already run their first two rounds of the season with the top F1 Esports Pro Championship drivers. But it has now been discovered that, even when set on equal performance, the tyre wear between cars isn’t the same.
Unequal Tyre Wear
For those who have never raced on the F1 games, more often than not, online races are set to equal performance. This is how a Williams, AlphaTauri or Haas can run up with Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari.
There are minor differences, variety in wheelbases can result in a car navigating a corner with more pronounced rotation or with more stability. But in terms of car performance, they’re effectively all the same car.
Or at least they should be. However, it would appear that isn’t the case. A graphic shared on the F1Game subreddit highlighted how a Red Bull can take soft tyres a few laps longer than a Ferrari.
Ferrari Esports driver Bari Broumand reported to have run a Grand Prix on equal performance with a car other than a Ferrari. Using the same setup he has for the Ferrari, the results came back as claimed, with the Iranian suffering significantly less tyre wear.
If that wasn’t enough, it would appear this has carried over from F1 22. In a post from LeagueR_News on Twitter, another graphic shows the differences between the cars on equal performance using medium compound tyres. Red Bull are still the top dog, but Alfa Romeo are suffer the most on the mediums.
Naturally, these revelations have led to significant questions. Has this hampered the F1 games for many years? How long has the F1 Esports Pro Championship run with this imbalance of tyre wear?
League Seasons Delayed
After running their first two rounds, PSGL have voided the results and suspended their seasons indefinitely. They were already running with formation lap disabled due to issues it has presented since F1 22, but they have decided that this tyre wear imbalance is detrimental to the competition.
Former PSGL champion and reigning F1 Esports champion Lucas Blakeley led the standings after a win in the first round. Shanaka Clay won the second race after Otis Lawrence – who had started 18th – incurred a post race penalty for clipping the pitlane entry line.
Many other leagues are expected to delay their seasons with the revelation of this tyre wear glitch.
Speaking to OverTake, PSGL’s head Connor McDonagh had this to say on the matter:
“It’s a sense of deja vu for PSGL as our season has been compromised once again by factors out of our control. When we learned about the tyre wear imbalance and equal cars not being equal we acted very quickly in terms of announcing that the first two races would be voided, meaning they wouldn’t contribute to the Season 34 championship.
It’s obviously incredibly disappointing and frustrating for us, particularly as it’s unclear how long we will have to wait to resume our season given that there will need to be a patch to fix it.”
Codemasters and EA are yet to acknowledge the issue publicly as of the publishing of this article.
EDIT 30/06/2023: After this article went live, EA stated on their forums that the issue is now being looked into and is set to be addressed for a new patch on 10 July.
What do you make of the F1 game’s equal performance tyre wear imbalance? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
