Which Simracing Game has the Best F1 Content?

Is F1 22 really the ultimate Formula 1 racing game.jpg

Which racing games do you use to drive F1 cars?

  • Raceroom Racing Experience

    Votes: 21 2.3%
  • Automobilista 2

    Votes: 237 26.1%
  • F1 22

    Votes: 222 24.4%
  • Assetto Corsa

    Votes: 558 61.4%
  • iRacing

    Votes: 52 5.7%

  • Total voters
    909
Formula 1 is racing again this weekend, and many simracers will be looking to enjoy these beastly cars at home. But which game should you jump into to for the most immersive, realistic and fun experience? Emily Jones has all the answers in this OverTake video.

Image Credit: EA Sports/Codemasters

This weekend, Formula One heads to Saudi Arabia and the Jeddah Corniche circuit for Round 2 of the 2023 season. With the sport returning to our screens, most simracers will be looking to experience the thrill of driving an F1 car at speed in the many games at our disposal.

The big question however is which simracing title is the best for simulating F1 racing? With plenty of games and mods on the market, Emily Jones - better known as Emree online - has compiled a list. In this video on the OverTake.GG channel, find out which game you should jump into for the ultimate F1 experience.


In the video, Emily, who often appears in videos with our good friends at Overtake, lists five games that feature modern F1 content. A lap of the Red Bull Ring in the most recent F1 machinery available in Raceroom Racing Experience, Automobilista 2, F1 22, Assetto Corsa and iRacing gave her a good idea of each game's handling.

F1 simulator: More than just driving​

Whilst Emily clearly has a favourite car to drive, handling and feeling isn't all one wants from a good F1 game. In fairness, each simulator brings its own unique selling point to what an F1 sim should be.

While iRacing certainly has the most accurate representation of a 2022 F1 racer having been created with real-world data, many will argue it is too hard. Furthermore, with little to no participation online, it doesn't get enough love in-game. As such, there really isn't much of a reason to use, or even buy the iRacing Mercedes W13.


When it comes to F1 22, as Emily mentions, the game simply feels off. The handling model requires many unrealistic inputs to be fast. From rapid downshifts and excessively early upshifts on corner exit, driving in F1 22 is almost a robotic experience. However, when it comes to the gameplay and visuals, the title is exquisite. One can manage their own team as they rise the ranks all whilst competing as a driver. This is a career mode style only present in the Codemasters and EA release, something that sways many a racing fan.

Despite being an older simulator and having some of the least attractive visuals in modern simracing, Raceroom brings excellent force feedback and a great tyre model to the fray. Simracers around the world praise this game on its feeling through the wheel. In fact, out of the five simulators, Emily claimed the Raceroom representation of F1 was the most intuitive and easy to get into.

Automobilista 2 has lots of F1 content both old and new.jpg


From a content aspect, it's tricky to surmount Assetto Corsa, but Automobilista 2 does a fantastic job. Whilst AC gets almost the entirety of its F1 content past and present from third party mods, AMS 2 features plenty of cars made in-house representing the pinnacle of the sport. Sure, Assetto Corsa can more or less recreate every F1 race from the past 70 years including full grids and correct tracks. But AMS 2's content hits an insanely high level of quality unrivalled by other sims.

Each game has its own, unique reason to be used for simulating the most prestigious championship in motorsport.

Which racing simulator do you use to drive F1 cars? What do you look for most in an F1 game?
About author
Angus Martin
Motorsport gets my blood pumping more than anything else. Be it physical or virtual, I'm down to bang doors.

Comments

I'd like to sincerely thank Race Sim Studio and Virtual Racing Cars modding teams for making Assetto Corsa into the best F1 simulator with their continuous improvement. No first-party content from other major sim developers has even come close to the accuracy in the pace and physics model made by those modding teams. Even more minor entries like the 1967 Weslake Eagle by Pessio just destroy iRacing and AMS2 in pure quality and driving experience. It may take a bit of work and setup knowledge to get these mods going, but it's always a worthwhile experience that has greatly increased my respect of the work that F1 drivers have to put in every Sunday to run a good race.
 
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I love some of the historic content in AMS2 at the moment. With complete season skin mods & driver AI data it’s a lot of fun.

I’ve also gone back to driving the Mclarens in RF2 lately, I’ve found the M23 a lot of fun! The free 1991 season cars in RF2’s workshop can be exciting to drive too.
 
Premium
AMS2.

Hitting the historical tracks in historical F1's in VR is just a stunning experience.

Its also my go to for modern f1 cars, But mainly due to the VR rather then it being a superior modern F1 platform.

Having said that, There isn't really an alternative in that list that would interest me. I haven't fired up iracing or AC in a long long time, And the short time I spent on F1 22 just reinforced my opinion that I don't want to own it.
 
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If I want the atmosphere of a good offline F1 Championship, then for me you will never beat the Codemasters/EA F1 games. My last is F1 2020 and it is sublime. Great realism, good AI racing and brilliant atmosphere. Our other race sims with F1 cars bolted on will never compete with that.
 
Staff
Premium
F1 22 is a sim, RD?
Yes of course it's a sim. It's simulates the real Formula 1 championship.

And before we are turning this discussion into a arcade vs simulation drama. We all started with an entry game before heading into becoming PC (hardcore) simulation enthusiasts.

To go back to topic: I enjoy the F1 cars in AMS 2 the most at the moment.
 
In terms of base game content (without mods) ams 2 is clearly the best choice, since it have more classic tracks and the highest variety of classic cars.

if we add mods to the equation its tricky cuz AC then would beat AMS 2 content wise but on the other hand AMS 2 offer better single player experience as well as the proper rules that match the corresponding era such as no refueling in modern cars, and it has a better AI than AC

However the real winner is F1 Challenge 99-02 with the VB all seasons mod, i mean you can't compete against a game that have every championship, cars and tracks from 1950-today
 
Assetto Corsa. (some assembly required)
Which racing simulator do you use to drive F1 cars? AC is the one I use the most (by far)
Others have also interesting offering,
F122, now with VR, offers a nice package, but too limited in scope and the driving feeling is weak.
AMS2 as some interesting content, but lacks ultimate accuracy, miss a lot of content and I am not convince by the way cars feel.
R3E offering is very weak for F1, not sure why it is even on the list.
Iracing I do not use at all.

So AC it is for me, not for the fainted hart, as it requires time and work to get everything together from the different modders, but the end result is an unparalleled experience with all the cars, all the tracks (actual and period), all the skins, for all the cars, tracks, even drivers. The driving is as good as it gets, even better than anything else for some and I am one of them.

Thinking how prestigious F1 is, it is a shame that we do not have an ultimate F1 SIM available and if it was not for the modding community to step in to fill the void, the picture would be very bleak.
 
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I love the RSS and VRC stuff for Assetto Corsa. Not just the F1 stuff, but all their stuff is great. For some reason though, for now, I am hooked on the Formula Retro Gen3 cars in AMS2. With the skins you can get in the downloads section, and the new Brabham, they are a my favorite F1 cars to drive in any sim right now.
 

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Angus Martin
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