With the Canadian Grand Prix wrapping up just last weekend, E3 was the prime opportunity for Codemasters to show off its latest rendition of the sport. F1 2017 creative director Lee Mather was on hand at E3 to have a chat with GTPlanet about Codemasters’ latest creation.
Following on from the success of last year’s F1 2016, this year’s game brings back a fan favorite feature from F1 2013 — classic content. Twelve legendary Formula One cars will feature in F1 2017, three of which will be Ferrari machinery. But how will this distinguished dozen feature in the new game?
The answer is multi-class racing. Not so much Le Mans, more a hybrid race format of the old mixed with the new. For this, Codemasters took inspiration from the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The famous event showcases motor vehicles from bygone eras as well as the very latest in the automotive world. Current and former F1 cars are often showcased at Goodwood, but what if they could be on the track at the same time?
While we won’t be racing a 1980s McLaren-Honda MP4-4 with a newer generation Ferrari F2007 directly, both cars will be on the track at the same time. It’ll create an interesting scenario as players will get the chance to experience the evolution of decades of engineering while on the track. Those who always wondered what it would be like to race cars from different eras will have their fantasies realized in the new game.
In a further fantasy move, Codemasters will be implementing a new mode in F1 2017 named Pursuit. In this mode, players will start at the back of the grid in a fast car and will have to try and catch and pass the slower cars ahead. By adding in an element of fun to offset the simulation, the appeal of F1 2017 will be significantly broader.
While there’ll be a market for the arcade players, F1 2017 will stay true to its roots as a simulation of the sport. Formula One took some flack from the fans by banning in-season testing a number of years ago in a bid to cut costs. In more recent years, however, this form of testing has returned.
Codemasters took it upon itself to attend these testing sessions with the objective of developing the handling characteristics of the 2017 cars. This year’s regulations overhauled the sport. The new cars are faster and much more aggressive, but are also a lot harder to keep on the track than in past seasons. Codemasters’ knowledge from attending the tests should help recreate the behavior of the 2017 beasts. Players will experience their crazy speed as well as just how much of a handful they can be!
The advantage of being the official Formula One game opens up many doors for Codemasters as it looks to make the most realistic game it can. The team studied telemetry data from the F1 teams to discover where the real world drivers were gaining or losing time. Having access to this normally top-secret material should enable Codemasters to deliver a promising sim-like experience in F1 2017.
F1 2017 releases August 25. It will be available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC platforms.
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