With Formula 1 being more popular than ever before, the pressure is on F1 23 to deliver an experience that can reach the high bar set by its surge in interest.
With the 2023 F1 season now very much underway, and the sport's regulations largely remaining the same compared to the previous year, Codemasters has been able to refine handling and physics in F1 23, and it's a big upgrade compared to last year's title.
From what I've been able to experience in a pre-release preview version of F1 23 over the last week or so, ahead of the game's release next month, the handling and physics changes introduced for this year mean that the cars behave much more like their real-life counterparts, with a renewed focus on three key areas: acceleration, braking, and cornering.
F1 23 has managed to avoid the problems present in F1 22, which was released just a few months after Formula 1 went through arguably the most ambitious transformation in the history of the sport. The cars were radically different in 2022 compared to the previous year, not just from a visual design standpoint, but in how they behaved on track too. I won't bore you with specifics, but it was all about reducing the cars so-called 'dirty air', which ultimately led to better racing and more overtaking.
Codemasters engaged with real-life F1 teams ahead of the launch of F1 22, to try and make the handling as realistic possible; but realistically, this was always going to be a difficult undertaking. There was a significant discrepancy between how we saw F1 cars behave in real-life and how they behaved on the virtual track in this series instalment as a result.
But with F1 23, the devs have implemented more feedback, working with teams and drivers once again, and it feels like they've nailed it this year. The cars are much more stable, with the traction out of slow corners being the biggest improvement over last year. Physics calculations have been updated for the slip of the tyres, and the way the cars engines delivers torque for F1 23 has been noticeably refined, with it now being more progressive relative to gear and throttle output, giving you more control and more confidence to push and find the limit.
In F1 22, you had to be very, very careful with the throttle pedal out of slow corners, and it often felt like it was out to get you, waiting for any opportunity to spin you around. But in F1 23, the throttle is your friend and works with you, instead of against you. In addition to that specific area, you can look forward to enjoying more grip overall in most corners, with added stability in fast corners and a more predictable handling model. As Martin Brundle would say, the car feels like it's on rails.
For example, Copse corner at Silverstone is easy flat in F1 23 and doesn't even need a downshift; you can feed the car in and keep your foot down, having confidence that it will stick. Essentially, these cars are now easier to drive, which is something we've heard the F1 drivers often speak about in real-life, as they just have so much downforce and grip.
You can also hear these changes too, with the engine and gear ratios sounding noticeably different. The familiar bottoming out sound is now very present on long straights, just like the real thing. There's also more general feel and feedback from on-track surfaces, thanks to some clever improvements to make the underfloor of the cars more realistic, but that also means that kerbs and rumble strips hit harder than ever.
As someone who plays racing games with a dedicated racing wheel, I wasn't sure what to make of the new Precision Drive feature, which claims to give controller players a radically overhauled experience. And although I still prefer my trusty wheel, I will say that playing F1 23 with a controller is a much improved experience compared to previous titles, with the steering being more responsive and accurate, and thanks to the handling changes, even racing without traction control on a controller was pretty fun!
I can't say I had any issues with how F1 22 looked graphically, but there have been some noticeable improvements for F1 23, largely down to a new colour encoding system, which makes the game look richer overall, particularly with darker colours.
It was a lot of fun playing F1 23, whether it was pushing the car right to the limit on a hot lap, or doing a longer race stint. The additional grip on offer makes a huge difference to the experience, and crucially, brings the game much closer to real-life which is exactly what fans of series want. In that respect, F1 23 is on track to deliver.
