F1 2019 F1 2019: A Closer Look at F2 and the New Career Mode

[Paul Jeffrey]

Codemasters have revealed some interesting insights into the updated career mode for the soon to be released F1 2019 videogame.

Having taken something of a lead in recent years with their F1 franchise career mode functionality, one of the key gameplay features of recent F1 games, Codemasters have now shared a little more about how this aspect of the new title will interact with the playing experience - including the introduction for F2 for the very first time.

F1 2019: Support peripherals list confirmed - Details HERE.

Career Mode

Let’s start off with F1 2019’s Career Mode, shall we? F1 2019’s Career Mode has a number of changes, not least of which is the all-new F2 Feeder Series.

The Feeder Series is your route into F1. You’ll start by selecting an F2 team, after which you’ll be taken through a series of scenarios that will create the standout moments of your F2 season prior to your entry into F1.

Each scenario has an effect upon what follows later. Your overall performance will earn you Respect, which will have an impact on the contracts to you offered by the F1 teams at the start of the following F1 season. It’s not just Respect though, your contract offers will also be influenced by Reputation, and by picking a driver academy at the start of the game, you can choose which teams you want to earn bonus Reputation with over the course of the Feeder Series.

The scenarios have more than one outcome, for example, did you choose to let your faster teammate past or not? Your choices are key here. That’s not all; the Feeder Series also gives you a number of cutscenes that allow these choices to play out via your interactions with the game’s new characters: Lukas Weber, your teammate, and Devon Butler, your closest rival.

Here’s the thing: the choices you make are remembered by the game, and can continue to inform the kinds of questions asked by the press not just during the Feeder Series, but throughout your career in F1. The range of questions the press can ask has also been expanded beyond those in F1 2018. And it’s not just the reporters – the commentators will also remember the events of the Feeder Series and refer to them when discussing you and your F2 rivals.

Of course, these relationships aren’t just one way, either. Lukas and Devon also answer questions from the press, and you’ll regularly receive transcripts of their interviews so you can see what they’re saying about you – or about the other official drivers on the grid, with whom (like you) Lukas and Devon can form rivalries of their own.

This brings us onto the rivalry system. To start, selecting Devon and Lukas as a rival will award you with bonus Respect, making them an often attractive (but never mandatory) option when choosing with whom to pursue a bitter grudge or a sporting rivalry. Not only that, whoever you have as rivals (whether Devon/Lukas or any of the official drivers), those characters will now feature at the invitational events between race weekends, where they represent bonus objectives and an opportunity to score some extra Respect.

Perhaps most importantly of all, Lukas and Devon aren’t locked to a specific team. They’ll start in teams similar to your own in terms of performance, but beyond that they’re able to pursue contracts with any team on the grid, just as you can. In this way they represent a new challenge – drivers that can move up through the teams and challenge you in a race to the top and the ultimate accolade: Driver’s Champion!

And all of this, of course, takes place against the backdrop of the 2019 championship: all the drivers, all the cars, all the teams, all the tracks. New handling. New tyre classifications. New rules governing the point for the fastest lap. The best-looking graphics ever seen in a F1 game. And if you want to experience all of this without the dramatic elements, it’s possible to skip the Feeder Series entirely, jumping straight into F1 without the new characters and their associated gameplay systems.

Formula 2

Which leads us quite neatly into F2 itself. While F2 serves as the Feeder Series introduction to F1 2019’s Career Mode, there’s much more to it than that.

Not only will you be able to experience the Feeder Series in F1 2019’s Career Mode, you’ll be able to dive into the official FIA FORMULA 2™ 2018 CHAMPIONSHIP via the game’s Championships mode. Here you’ll be able to pick an official F2 driver and make your way through every event in the F2 calendar, aiming to become the F2 2018 drivers’ champion! Beyond that, Championships mode will also include a number of other F2-themed championships for you to tackle.

Similarly, F2 will also be available in Grand Prix mode, where you’ll be able to take the F2 cars out onto not just the official FORMULA 2 tracks, but the entire range of tracks available in F1® 2019.

Grand Prix mode offers you the opportunity to play with the a full suite of gameplay options, and it’s here where you can clearly see the level of fidelity to which FORMULA 2 has been realised throughout the game.

F2 offers players a brand new driving experience, and delivers a number of differences that make it distinct from FORMULA 1, including:

• The weekend structure differs from F1. It has just a single practice session compared to F1’s 3x sessions. Secondly, instead of a single race it has two races each weekend: a longer “feature” race (with a mandatory pit stop) and a shorter “sprint” race the following day.
• While the grid for the feature race is defined by qualifying, the sprint race is formed from the previous race’s finishing order, but with the top 8 drivers being reversed.
• The points scoring is also different, with bonuses being awarded for pole position in qualifying, and for achieving the fastest lap in each of the two races. There are countless other details included in terms of the sport experience and presentation – pit crews, broadcast elements, and of course the inclusion of official F2 commentators Alex Jacques and Davide Valsecchi.

F2 is also available in Time Trial mode, with all new F2 leaderboards for you to battle over.

But that’s not it for F2! The full 2019 FORMULA 2 roster, including new drivers such as Mick Schumacher, Callum Ilott and Tatiana Calderón, will be added to the game as a free update post-launch – this won’t only add the drivers, but also the teams and the cars as well. This isn’t this only update we’ll be adding though, as we’ll also be bringing F2 content into multiplayer post-launch too.

There’s no doubt about it – if you’re a fan of FORMULA 2 then F1® 2019 is the game you’ve been waiting for. And if you’ve yet to experience the thrills of F2, this is the perfect time to dive in.

F1 2019 is due to release on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC June 2019.

Catch the latest news and discussion at the F1 2019 Sub Forum here at RaceDepartment - join in with your fellow community members and share some of the F1 2019 love!

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[falster]

Its certainly nice to see something new and a bit different added like an extra series.

Already pre purchased and looking forward to seeing the improvements in graphics etc in action

EDIT: a disagree.....how "surprising"

 

[RobertGracie]

That would be quite interesting having Tatiana Calderon as a teammate, it would be quite interesting too I am quite happy they have got her in the game as well, at least they are willing to break the barriers in the games about gender and stuff, what matters is, do you have that raw hardcore talent to take it to the max and get the max out the car?

But also its good to see the depth they will go to in the pits, I wonder if they will have a situation if you take out your teammate that they vent their anger against you or something, more than likely that will happen, but who knows, I see promise for this game!

 

[ppnhzk]

Not really interested in the "new characters". These types of people felt immersion-breaking in other games, like FIFA. I would have liked to have a proper 2018 F2 season with drivers getting promoted based on real life or maybe even based on in-game performance. We already got 3 F2 drivers in the 2019 season, they should have went with them for authenticity rather than adding 2 more to whichever team. Obviously I want to beat real people not some imaginary guys. Some driver movement would be good, especially from season 2 and on but I likely going to do the same thing as last year, going with McLaren and trying to beat Norris this time.

 

[falster]

That would be quite interesting having Tatiana Calderon as a teammate, it would be quite interesting too I am quite happy they have got her in the game as well, at least they are willing to break the barriers in the games about gender and stuff, what matters is, do you have that raw hardcore talent to take it to the max and get the max out the car?


But also its good to see the depth they will go to in the pits, I wonder if they will have a situation if you take out your teammate that they vent their anger against you or something, more than likely that will happen, but who knows, I see promise for this game!

Man you virtue signal hard dont you.

 

[Sky]

looks annoying.

will this creepy sack full of ham be your race engineer too?

 

[BrettSinclair1]

"a series of scenarios that will create the standout moments of your F2 season"
Why not give us full F3 and F2 seasons? It should be rather easy to do so: Same rights holder, same tracks, spec cars in both series.
Another half finished game it seems. At least these "scenarios" are not a DLC for a full price game.

 

[Weke]

"a series of scenarios that will create the standout moments of your F2 season"
Why not give us full F3 and F2 seasons? It should be rather easy to do so: Same rights holder, same tracks, spec cars in both series.
Another half finished game it seems. At least these "scenarios" are not a DLC for a full price game.

Well, there is a possibility to race a full F2 season in other modes. They've tried to do some sort of story thingy to career, hence the scenarios thing.

 

[Lesley Buurlage]

finally we've F2 like so many have asked for over the years, and still people find something to complain about.

of course it would be better if the "story" career mode featured a rivalry vs russell, norris and albon over a full f2 season and then battle it out further in f1, but it's called F1 2019 after all so it seems logical to me that the bigger focus will be on the F1 aspect of things. we can do a full f2 season with the 2018 and (later) 2019 grid, like come on this is the biggest addition to the game in years, be at least a little happy

 

[kraM1t]

Lando Norris thoughts on F1 2019, spoiler.. he doesn't like it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/F1Game/comments/c11svu/lando_norris_gameplay_im_still_very_hyped_but_a/

My thoughts: What he says about the ERS deployment is exactly what I said since 2017.. what is this rubbish? F1 drivers don't switch their ERS 20 times a lap, it's all automated... they change the mode rarely and they have an Overtake button that gives them max ERS deployment for like 10-20 seconds or something and then it auto recharges itself.



The way it is currently is actually backwards and Codemasters have no clue

 

[F1Aussie]

So they can make it compatible with all that fancy controllers but they still can't implement the ability to navigate menus with a fricken mouse on pc? Looks like this will be another one I pass on from them.

 

[Boby Kim]

My career would start buying the game...which will never happen

 

[Omer Said]

I guess they are forced to use fictional rivals as the real drivers cant switch teams in the game due to licensing issues. It will still be nice to not to be the only driver switching teams as these 2 will do it as well now.

 

[ppnhzk]

...
My thoughts: What he says about the ERS deployment is exactly what I said since 2017.. what is this rubbish? F1 drivers don't switch their ERS 20 times a lap, it's all automated... they change the mode rarely and they have an Overtake button that gives them max ERS deployment for like 10-20 seconds or something and then it auto recharges itself.

Yeah, I pretty much use it on auto all the time. I only use the fuel adjustment on the panel.

 

[EduCalza]

Well...F2 car should be amazing to drive...But I don't like these scenarios...for me, looks like a 'challenge games'.
I will start my game with championship mode make one or two seasons in F2.Move to career mode and then skip feeder series...and join in some F1 team..

 

[Danimal5981]

I think it's a positive step: I'm looking forward to this one, more so than the previous two (2017, 2018 have been improvements of a 2016 base game, just like 2012 was the base for 2013 and the disappointing 2014). Codemasters tend to go in three, so 2019 will be the base for 2020 and 2021. Can't wait for 2022

 

[smasha]

LOL,just looked at my F1 Codies library,I have about 4 of the buggers including a cased non steam version of F1 2010,hardly played any of them.

Too old and game acquisition syndrome.

Too many and no time.

I don’t drive to be the best,I do it because it stops depression for me,movement is good.

There is only one other game that stops depression for me,Fallout 4.

Anything too demanding and the mind shuts down.

I own ‘10,11,12,13,17,18 sheesh.

Do we get a 20 percent discount?

 

[ppnhzk]

Having seen quite a few people playing the new career it actually looks worse than I expected. Basically, this new story-oriented design breaks the career. Going with Alfa Romeo for example means that Weber is going to qualify around 10th with Williams (!) rather often and bringing great race pace too while Russell is staying at the end of the grid as usual. This is a highly unrealistic, likely impossible result with such a car. So, as it seems these two guys will provide constant rivalry, moving to equal teams as you and pretty much disregard any power balance. Moreover people already tried to manipulate the F2 scenarios which resulted in even more "unplanned events" like hitting out Butler in all three occasions while having to sit through the same disconnected cinematic after each. This year's career introduced something new but in its current state it actually makes the game mode unplayable. Of course it can be and should be fixed by making the rivalries more dynamic, but that is likely limited by the amount of pre-planned cutscenes and whatnot. Well, maybe next year.

 

[CDwyer]

The F2 has been so far in the two hours I have played today.