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

Premium
Raceroom is unfortunately more arcadish than Codemasters. Infinite grip. FWD cars are the only thing people should ever play in Raceroom.

I gave some AC and rF2 mods a try. Formula Pro from rF2 is not by any means worse than AC. Formula ISI is somewhat different, less grip and generally more difficult to me.
 
But as much as I like how F1 22 looks, the problem I have with Codemasters' (and now EA's) F1 franchise, which is now believe it or not 15 years old (i.e. not really an entry game), is that despite holding the official F1 license for so long, it was that it never even tried to become the go-to Formula 1 car simulator to start with, and that is because they've never targeted this franchise to be a sim or invested in an engine to allow that.
I don't believe it. 12 years 2010-2022 on PC. Just to ensure the facts. 12 years of top notch Formula 1 simulation. And for Formula 1 fans, it is the go to F1 sim. Your other study sims don't simulate an entire season anywhere near as good as these do. :thumbsup:
 
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Quality over quantity...

Automobilista 2 all the way... By far the best quality physics and tracks...

For quantity it's AC obviously so much choice and so many tracks...

But for quality, nothing comes close to AMS2...
 
F1 season ≠ F1 car, unfortunately. Detailed liveries and plenty off grid stuff don't make a sim. Physics can. The last sim EA released is F1 Challenge 99 - 02.
What is the point of driving an F1 car if you aren't getting all the feeling of being an F1 driver? Completely context-less single races in Assetto Corsa are a far cry from what actually being an F1 driver would be like.
 
AC + RSS + F1 Rules App + Pyyer track extensions + CSP + CM + Simhub = heaven

NB: for the F1 game fans, even their Las Vegas track public presentation was made with AC...
I agree with this....Its amazing...AI breaks it for me tho....Can you manage to get the to behave itself and not crash on turn one and beyond?
 
D
another "What / Which ....... " article from RD
great way to interact with the audience
and simulate interaction and provoke hard feelings
 
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What custom AI do you use and could you share it? If I could finally get the F1 AI in AC to work I could die happy!
Well, the custom AI is that every car has a different level of strength, so every car is different I can do it with CSP. But there are some tracks that have different AI lines which makes it better for racing.
 
Premium
Yeah really. The best one is not in the list. Why? For F1 cars, rF2 is my favourite, by far. It drives way much better then anything else. F1 is looking the best in AC if that is what you like, and as a complete game, Codemasters F1 is the best. Driving in the 2022 edition is very decent compared to how it was when Codemasters started this serie, but it is very simple compared to a sim like AC or rF2.
 
The opening question is this:

Which Simracing Game has the Best F1 Content?​

Many people have answered correctly. The Codemasters F1 simulations obviously. No other sim comes close. The last one before that series was F1 99-02 and before that it was the legend that is Geoff Crammonds Grand Prix 4.
So answering AMS 2 or AC etc is just factually incorrect. They might have the odd car and track but that is hardly a simulation of Formula One.
I rest my case M'lord. :thumbsup:
 
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Premium
Oh boy here we go.

So let's see the excuses rolling:

For those out there saying that F1 22 is NOT a sim, please explain WHY any of the modern F1 cars in any other game are better physics wise.

And let me already tell you this:

NONE of the "sims" we have simulate even the electronic diffs or active brake bias that real F1 cars have.

So please, fire away...

As for the topic at hand, its obvious, its the Codies game.


Edit: of course i mean for current modern F1s. If we are talking historic then other games come into it, with some mods.
That is a very easy one. The force feedback in Codemasters F1 games have no detail at all compared to other decent sims. It is hard to feel understeer and oversteer or how the car feels on different road surfaces or kerbs in it. And the 2022 ground effect cars even made it worse. I admit, this has also to do with the ground effect itself, these cars drive different in all sims, but now the detailed feeling is even more important.
 
That is a very easy one. The force feedback in Codemasters F1 games have no detail at all compared to other decent sims. It is hard to feel understeer and oversteer or how the car feels on different road surfaces or kerbs in it. And the 2022 ground effect cars even made it worse. I admit, this has also to do with the ground effect itself, these cars drive different in all sims, but now the detailed feeling is even more important.
FFB is a contentious topic accross diferent sims, so i don't think that disqualifies the codies F1 game from being a sim or not.
 
That is a very easy one. The force feedback in Codemasters F1 games have no detail at all compared to other decent sims. It is hard to feel understeer and oversteer or how the car feels on different road surfaces or kerbs in it. And the 2022 ground effect cars even made it worse. I admit, this has also to do with the ground effect itself, these cars drive different in all sims, but now the detailed feeling is even more important.
So how did us veterans of sim racing get on before FFB wheels were invented? Or were we not sim racers because of that? :thumbsdown:
 
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Premium
So how did us veterans of sim racing get on before FFB wheels were invented? Or were we not sim racers because of thta? :thumbsdown:
It is not abouth being a sim or not. You can argue abouth when a sim is a sim or not. It is about the difference between sims like AC en rF2 at one side and Codemasters F1 at the other side. I am used to decent ffb. I still have some old wheels without ffb. Driving with them really feels like a joke. When used to drive in a real car or kart, driving in a sim without decent ffb feels like you are missing something essential and it is difficult to drive.
 

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Angus Martin
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