Mega Review: F1 2020. Codemasters' finishing touches to a whole generation

The Formula 1 season starts, and with it comes F1 2020 on our screens. The latest installment in the Codemasters saga faces the end of the generation with significant new gameplay and more polished track handling than ever before. Let's find out.

I'd pray for the Melbourne Circuit right at the start of My Team's race. The Australian Grand Prix usually - in a more normal year than this - kicks off the Formula 1 season, and the newly formed Aritz Racing Team makes its debut in the premier motor class ready to eat up the world. But in a sport as competitive as this one, you can't expect to be given the free stuff. The debut is not what I dreamed of for my team: the performance gaps and wear problems meant I was left in the middle of qualifying, and my team-mate had to drop out with engine problems. But we weren't the last ones, and for a new team, that's a victory.

F1 2020 is coming into the shops as the latest in a saga of Codemasters who, year on year, have reinvented themselves to go further in representing the competition. Where race mode has been its flagship in recent years, the new installment goes a step further by allowing you to create your own Formula 1 team in a My Team mode that combines the excitement of the track with the management aspects off it. While this is the most important new feature on paper, the telemetry indicates that there are also good improvements under the bonnet, where gameplay is even more polished, and driving a single-seater is more satisfying than ever. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. There will be time for overtaking on the track.

Now it's time to talk about everything that comes with this game, which, although it is conservative in many aspects, knows perfectly well the adjustments you must make in your settings to keep your proposal fresh. The professional career is back - now called the Driver Mode - with its interviews and rivalries, super license, and online leagues, but the entire 2019 F2 season debuts with all its teams and the split-screen mode that has been missing from the genre for so many years is back. There's a lot of new stuff and a lot to deal with, but nothing as remarkable as the My Team mode, which is this year's big star.

The 11th team

Taking the reins of a team in F1 2020 is a lot more fun than I could ever have imagined. Don't be fooled, it's not a way with the depth of a Motorsport Manager or similar, but it's not what you're looking for either. It's more of an extension on the basis of last year's race mode, which maintains elements like interviews, or development points, and R&D trees, and expands them with new systems that add richness to the experience.

The first thing is to build the team itself. Choosing the logo and colors, designing the look of the car, choosing the main sponsor and the supplier of your engine - I went with Renault, I didn't have the budget for more - and finally the driver who will accompany you. Because the first driver in the team will always be you, and as soon as you start, the game allows you to choose from a range of F2 and similar drivers to wear the colors of your team. This is where the first management elements come into play. The higher the prestige of each driver, the higher his cost, and each one has different attributes to take into account: his experience, his pace on the track, his reflexes, and his skill.

These attributes can be developed with training during the season. Between races, we have days off to spend on different tasks: some improve the drivers, others increase the morale of each department, some bring extra money from sponsors or a higher prestige for your team. Prestige is, in its own way, the most important resource after money, since more prestige means better sponsorship for your team, and more drivers willing to sign for it. Then there are the development points and R&D, which as in F1 2019, allow you to improve the car throughout the season. There is also the development of each individual department, be it the four R&D departments or the marketing and personnel departments.

Improvements in these departments are permanent, and are vital to the long-term development of the team, unlocking better training and revenue, faster development, and higher performance parts. All of these systems combine into an experience that doesn't reinvent the wheel but keeps you hooked at all times. After each race, you just want to get to the next one, and then the next. To see how your team evolves compared to others, to assess a change of riders, to negotiate new sponsors, and to manage well the little time you have every week. You could have used the approach a little more. Team rivalries are one of my favorite aspects of Formula 1 and here they could have been tested more. There is also not much real interaction with the second driver in your team, nor has there been any deepening of the strategies or the 'political' aspects of the competition. Although, as the first contact, the result leaves me satisfied.

Unfortunately, the My Team mode shares an Achilles' heel with the Pilot mode. I'm talking about the off-track interviews, a monotonous, dull aspect, which quickly becomes repetitive, and which here doesn't offer much change compared to the delivery a year ago. Well, yes, there is a noticeable change. Now, driver rivalries are not chosen from a menu, they are defined by your answers in the interviews. But instead of developing them organically, the interviewer asks you in an unsubtle way to choose from four-driver options as your next rival. Beyond that, the Driver Mode is virtually identical to the F1 2019 race, which is either good or bad news depending on how much you like it, except that you can make a direct F1 debut, do a couple of races earlier in F2 as a catch-up, or race the entire 2019 F2 season to earn your place in the premier class.

The rest of the modes and content offer is also conservative. Grand Prix and Time Trial modes remain, with the possibility of racing F1 cars, F2 cars, or the 16 classic cars (20 in the Schumacher Edition) included in the game. There are also championships to be contested, including the aforementioned 2019 Formula 2 season, exhibition events... in the online super license returns with all your information, as well as the possibility of organizing leagues. Especially noteworthy are the weekly events with Grand Prix-style weekend competitions, where you can participate in training, take part in qualifying and, once race day arrives, compete against other real players for the win.

Within the online, it is important to mention the existence of a Podium Pass. Don't panic, it's not a season pass with DLC, but rather a "battle pass" with cosmetic content to customize your driver and vehicle in the games, with free rewards and others blocked after your VIP mode. It's not something that affects the experience in any way, and those who put in long hours of multiplayer will certainly benefit from it. Finally, the 'novelty' that many will welcome in multiplayer modes is the return of split-screen racing for those picks with friends at home.

Total control over the track

The handling of the single-seaters in F1 2020 is a real delight. The response of the cars is more polished, those little 'incongruities' that were there when you stepped on some pianos or in certain situations have been eliminated, and the feeling is one of total control at all times, even when you lose control of the car (beyond the irony). If I go into detail, I would say that the braking seems a little bit softer and more compact on the track, and as usual, driving in the wet is as much fun as it is challenging.

Of particular note is the new ERS operation, which as I told you in my impressions of F1 2020, is now managed at the touch of a button. If we press it, we put the battery in 'Overtake' mode to give us a boost, and if we turn it off, the car itself manages the charge to always have a decent amount without slowing down too much. And don't forget about AI, which remains as aggressive and challenging as ever in high gear, although it knows how to control itself more when it comes to avoiding a collision, or making it easier to overtake when you're going to pass them by a long way on a straight line.

As always, there is a good range of options when it comes to adjusting the difficulty and aids, allowing you to fully customize the experience if you are looking for challenging races in moderation or pure simulation. For those who have never played an F1 before, a new 'casual' driving mode has been introduced that eliminates the speed (and handling) penalty when stepping off the track, and features assisted turning and return to track functions, in addition to all the traditional driving aids. In practice, this mode makes racing a lighter arcade experience, ideal for getting into the saga or for a quick race with friends and enjoying yourself.

As for the technical side, I played F1 2020 on a PS4 Pro. The performance has always been constant, with no apparent frame drop, although this release doesn't distance itself much graphically from its predecessor. The look of the circuits, and in particular the asphalt, shows subtle improvements, as well as in the general lighting, although it's important to note that the loading times become eternal between each event and each Grand Prix session. As for the single-seater models, these are a delight, although the Williams' design was not updated in the analysis version and will be with the launch patch. Likewise, the updated paintings of Mercedes and McLaren will also arrive soon, given the short notice with which the teams announced the changes.
I must also point out that the balance of the teams before the launch did not quite correspond to what was seen at the Austrian Grand Prix, so to speak. And I don't mean this as a negative thing to penalize. COVID-19 has wreaked havoc this year, and without a Formula 1 season that provided up-to-date performance data, it would have been a miracle if the cars were properly tuned at launch. These are things that will be refined in the first few patches of the game, but I'm warning you in case anyone gets scared when they see how incredibly fast the Ferraris are in the game's premiere.

There are still things to note about this F1 2020. There are, for example, the new Zandvoort and Hanoi circuits, where the former is pure fun, and the latter is one of the most nerve-wracking and exciting tracks in the whole game. But it's time to head back to the paddock, and with that, I can only say one last sentence: F1 2020 is the crowning glory of the Codemasters saga for this generation.