You can join any of the 11 teams from the get-go, deciding which driver to replace. The personalisation doesn’t go so far that you can don Hamilton-style tattoo and diamond piercings, but maybe that’s a blessing… It finally returns for 2016, with a depth of addictive immersion we’ve not seen before.Ĭreating your character, designing your crash helmet, picking your career race number… it all helps make it feel like you’re part of the racing calendar. The car might feel as though it’s on rails in the fast corners, but slower bends can be a handful.It’s the totally revised career mode where you’ll find the biggest changes. For the first time ever, F1 cars feel like the 900hp rockets they are, and with all driving assists off, putting together a good lap is surprisingly challenging. There are two areas where F1 2016 really sets the pace, and the first is in the handling. While their ghosts are enabled by default, you can disable them if they get too distracting.

As you’d expect from a game in 2016, the latter also comes with leaderboards, so you can try to beat other player’s times from across the world. The result? You can dip in for something longer, something shorter or just barrel around Monaco in Time Trial mode trying to set the perfect lap. There’s also a Multiplayer mode, along with Time Trials, Championship Season and Quick Race. What’s more, you can either start in pole position or choose to work your way up through the field and earn a drive with the big teams. You have an agent, contracts to sign and targets to beat, and during practice sessions you’ll be asked to carry out setup work for race day. It’s the longest and most immersive yet, and after creating your driver, it throws you into the F1 paddock. Take the game’s career mode, for instance.

To make up for that limitation, F1 2016 fills its starting grid with a myriad of different modes to fill in the gaps. Where games such as Project Cars and Assetto Corsa can offer you a multitude of cars from different years and different manufacturers – including some retro F1 cars – F1 2016 is limited to using this year’s lineup of 11 cars and 22 drivers. F1 2016 is the only game that has the licence for this year’s Formula q championship – and in some ways that’s a gift and a curse.

F1 2016 pc game controls