Transcription courtesty of Edster, many thanks:
Interviewer: Okay Steve, we're here at Gamescom. You guys finally revealed the safety car; why did it take so long?
Steven Hood: Well we wanted to do it justice. A lot of content went into last year's game but everyone always wants more. There's also a lot of licienses which need to be sorted out that have now been signed.
Int: Okay, before we dive into the mechanics of the safety car in the game let's talk about two other things: Restarts and red flags. What can cause a red flag?
S.H.: It's kind of the situation that could trigger a safety car. For example, when a big accident has occured and there might be cars laying about on the racing line, and if the safety car can't come out and drive around on the racing line, which is where it needs to be; the track is blocked and that can cause a red flag, and we do the restarts on the grid, which is quite cool as well.
Because we've got to account for all these situations, we can't simply send the safety car out so it would drive through all the cars that are blocking the road: It would look ridiculous!
Int: Will we be able to tinker with the car and the tyres during a red flag situation?
S.H.: No! And that's exactly what I'd like the situation to be like in real life as well. Because the worst thing is when an amazing finish to the race is setup when you have been chasing somebody for ages and you think: "I'm gonna get him! I've been saving my fuel, I've been looking after my tyres." then you get the safety car which can't come out, casuing a red flag and a restart. Everybody changes their tyres and you think: "Argh! That's just changed the picture completely!" So you can't do any of those things; that's locked. Hopefully Formula One will copy us next year.
Int: There are so many different rules and regulations surrounding the safety car, let's start with the speed limitations. How do you apply that?
S.H.: The safety car drives as quickly as it can around the track. (It's not an F1 car, it has it's own model) You can drive within 90% of your total speed around the circuit to catch up with the train of cars behind the safety car. When you are part of that train, following the cars, you can drop back a certain distance, but, however, if you drop back too far, which can annoy the other players behind you, what we do is ghost the car. Previously we tested this by picking this car up and putting the offending player to the back of the line, but this didn't look very good; it was a bit disjointed. So, your car becomes ghosted, because you're basically giving grief to the other players. As a ghost all the other cars can drive through you. When you decide to play fairly again, you join the queue and your car solidifies and the train can resume again as normal.
Int: One of the big aspects to having the safety car in real Formula one is: Who does it pick up? because a lot of times it's not the leader of the race. Does the game let the cars through which are between the safety car and the leader?
S.H.: Yes we do. If you come out in between the safety car and the leader you follow the train for a certain period but it does release you and allow you past. We show this on the OSD (On Screen Display) where a message comes up telling you that you can pass the safety car to go back round the circuit and join the rear of the queue, and the safety car lights change to signal this.
Int: One of the most exciting things about the safety car is the restart when the safety car pulls in and racing resumes. Is this mechanism in the game?
S.H.: Yes it is. It's up to the leader to follow procedures and bunch the pack up as the safety car returns to the pitlane. Nobody can overtake until their car has passed the white safety car line. But you will see tactics come into effect where players prepare for the oncoming restart. They will get the tyres up to temperature, they will make sure they can get on the throttle, only overtaking as soon as they cross the line and the racing continues.
I think it's been a good expirience. The safety car works in single player and in multiplayer because you know that all the players have an apprehension towards the restart, so I think it adds something new to the game this year.
Int: So this year you decided to remove the engine settings, replacing them with the fuel mixtures. Why?
S.H.: Because they are almost tied together anyway. The crucial thing for us that has certainly been proven this year, is about your fuel management. When you turn the mix up you are using more engine power, and obviously consuming more fuel. We've done a lot of tests on this and although it sounds geeky I think it's a cool thing in F1 where if there's an interruption on track, such as traffic, then you can use it as an opertunity to save fuel or turn the engine down, knowing you can use this extra power later in the race.
Int: Another hot topic, besides the safety car, has been the brake bias. People want to know: Will it be in? Out? in later maybe?
S.H.: We've been playing around with the brake bias and I really want to put it in the game because we've modelled the levers in all the cars, which looks ace! I love all the animations we've done on the steering wheel, and they're all bespoke this year; propers layouts, shapes and buttons for each team, And I love seeing the driver press the DRS button or Pressing KERS, or turning the fuel mix up or down. We should also have the animation for brake bias in because when I'm watching a driver like Schumacher, he plays with the brake bias all the time, through all the different corners to adapt to the changing conditions of the circuit and the car, and because he wants certain turn-in into the corners. But we didn't have the balance of that working to an acceptable standard. Yes we could have just put it in there in order to say: "Yes, we've got brake bias in and it's all working." But we want these things to have justice applied to them, so when they are really working people notice, and so when they're working in exactly the way we want them to, we'll include it. So it won't be in for release, but there's nothing to say that we can't put it in an update we might be doing for the game...
Int: One of the things players were disapointed in last year was the damage model; they expected more from that. Will they see any improvements this year?
S.H.: Unfortunately there are restrictions set on us by FOM. (Formula One Management) When we ask whether we can completely destroy a car, they're not too happy about that and neither are the teams. You see it in real life, but there are certain limits to what we can do. But we are pushing it as much as we can on that, Cosmetic things
we have improved upon in terms of scratches, general condition of the bodywork, how fragile the cars are which is really important to us because we did make the cars a little too strong last year because we were unsure of how players were going to race against one another. But what I and the rest of the team want is for people to look after their cars and realise that they are precious things and one way of doing that is by making the damage a bit more apparent or making things a bit more lightweight; just true to real life, so you want to look after it.
(
