Review: F1 2017

My virtual overalls still reek of virtual champagne, but the gloss of my victory has already worn off. Or rather, been stolen from me.

"So, who is your pick for driver of the day?" Sky Sports TV F1 broadcaster David Croft asks colleague Anthony Davidson.

"Tough call," says Davidson. "But I have to go with Lance Stroll. He put in a huge effort and was rewarded with a good result."

Stroll? Stroll? I flick through the menu looking for an option that allows me to write a sarcastic tweet about TV pundits. I've just won the Chinese GP in a Haas, despite losing third gear during the first stint, and Davidson is talking up Stroll? Sure, 10th place is a decent afternoon's work for Lance Stroll, I guess. But on a day when a crippled Haas has just held off Kimi Raikkonen for the win...

Egotistical self-righteousness notwithstanding, F1 2017 feels like a generational leap from its predecessors. My first encounter with the franchise was F1 97, and while the subsequent editions that I've sampled were certainly prettier, and had more bells and whistles, none quite managed to beat it for sheer playability. To this day I have fond memories of watching the engine in Mika Hakkinen's McLaren blow up while he was leading at Suzuka, handing me an unlikely victory in a Prost. (Now that I think about it, Hakkinen losing an engine while leading in 1997 was remarkably true to life.)

But F1 2017 is immersive on a level beyond its predecessors. As an example, practice sessions now include the option of following an expanded set of programs aimed at optimizing fuel and tire management and qualifying and race pace, while the R&D tree has been built out to feature a total of 115 upgrades.

And R&D is far from straightforward. Upgrades are unlocked by spending research points that you earn in the day-to-day process of being awesome, but as in real life spending those points doesn't always deliver the results you were hoping for: Virtual me arrived at the Russian Grand Prix to be told that the slight improvements to the car's floor that were scheduled to be rolled out that weekend had been binned because of a quality control problem. An entire upgrade's worth of research points, gone.

Nursing your powertrain through its lifecycle is almost a game within itself. After a couple of races, the radio remains alive with constant chatter from your engineer about some problem or another that they're monitoring and what, if anything, you can do from the cockpit to try to drag the thing home if the situation becomes really dire. By Russia, a number of my power unit and gearbox parts were absolutely torched, and I paid a price for it when my car became stuck in fourth gear two laps from the finish.

Usually at this point, your engineer comes on the radio to acknowledge the problem and give you a status update. And I need one – I'm leading again, Hamilton and Bottas aren't that far behind me, and fourth gear isn't going to cut it. Especially after I've already been told to stay off the curbs because a problem has emerged with my electronics. Finally, he pipes up.

"Kevin has just pitted," he says.

There's a long list of messages that you can send back to your engineer via the radio, and I quickly scroll through looking for the one that says, "You're fired." My attention returns to the track just in time for me to realize that I've missed my braking point for Turn 15. A slight brush with the wall follows.

"You've done a bit of damage to your front wing," says engineer guy, helpfully.

There are lots of nice touches outside the cockpit. For instance, when you're in the Haas hospitality unit, Guenther Steiner is sitting on one of the couches talking to another team member. (Another sofa appears to be permanently occupied by a pink-shirted guy who resembles RACER's Chris Medland, minus the beard.)

Other new features include the option to race as a female driver, and the opportunity to race an array of 12 classic F1 cars from the past 30 or so years. (One, the McLaren MP4/4, is included with preorders and Day One purchases, and will then become available for separate purchase at a later date.) There are also alternate configurations for some tracks, and the opportunity to race Monaco at night.

We didn't test the game in multiplayer mode, but Codemasters promises "two dedicated 'spectator' spots, and improved multiplayer matchmaking, new online stats and leveling system, and all multiplayer session types."

Oh, and Russia? Somehow, I recovered from the gearbox disaster to claim my second win of the season.

"Who's your driver of the day?" Croft asks Davidson.

"Marcus Ericsson," he replies.

F1 2017 is available August 25th on Playstation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC via Steam. Reviewed on Xbox One.

Official trailer: