We’ve never tried to make a game like iRacing, where you’re spending 99% of your time just trying to stay on the track. Our F1 games should not be that as most people should be able to start the car and complete the circuit, not crash at the first corner.
The better drivers are separated by a few 10ths of a second, not by minutes. We do want players to enjoy lapping in the car, get to a certain standard and then start using DRS (Drag Reduction System) and KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems). We’ve added brake bias into F1 2012 and players can modify that. It’s the tiny bits of time that separate the good from the average player.
In terms of accessibility, we’re really not trying to simplify, we’re trying to make it so that we’ve put a lot of time working on the controls for the game-pad. This makes it easy for the player to drive consistently with a game pad.