What the latest F1 2020 trailer tells us!

Enhanced graphics

The first observation we can make is that the game looks very beautiful. Whether it’s in the 3D models of the drivers that are very true to their real-life counterparts or simply the graphics and lighting management of the game, which have been further improved compared to last year when Codemasters had already made a significant leap forward in this area. We already knew this thanks to the latest gameplay that Codemasters had shared, but this new trailer allows us to see again the work that has been done to make the tracks even more realistic.

The career in F2 reviewed

This is also the first time we see a representation of the F2 cars. However, these are not the 2020 cars but indeed the 2019 ones. As with last year’s game, the English development studio will add the 2020 season of the Formula 1 feeder series in a future free update that will be released later this year. It’s the perfect opportunity to inform us that from now on we could, if we want, do a full season in Formula 2 before moving to the top category of motorsport. But don’t worry. If you’re only interested in diving straight into the deep end, the game offers you the option to do a half-season, just 3 races, or, very likely as in F1 2019, to skip it entirely.

With the possibility now to complete a full season in Formula 2, it most likely means that the small storyline created with Lukas Weber and Devon Butler in F1 2019 will no longer be relevant. Because if there is no longer this scenario invented by Codemasters to develop a rivalry in career mode, then what is the point of replacing real drivers with virtual drivers who will no longer serve any purpose in the game? Especially since Weber had a bug in F1 2019 that made him almost impossible to beat by other AIs once he had a car capable of competing for the victory.

The latest trailer for F1 2020:

Historic cars are still present.

In addition to the four classic cars offered if you purchase the Michael Schumacher Deluxe edition, Codemasters delights historic F1 fans by preserving the list of retro cars featured in F1 2019 and adds four more cars that were paid DLC last year: The 2010 Ferrari F10, the 2010 McLaren MP4-25, the 1990 McLaren MP4/5B, and the 1990 Ferrari 641. While making these four cars free is a nice addition, removing the six classic single-seaters that were present in F1 2019 doesn’t make much sense. We can say goodbye to the 1972 Lotus that made Fittipaldi the youngest Formula 1 champion at the time, or even the 1982 McLaren, which was the first F1 car to have its chassis made of carbon fiber. It is now apparent that the oldest car on the list is from 1990, which is somewhat disappointing for purists, considering last year we had 5 cars from the 70s, an era immensely appreciated by fans.

News from ERS

As mentioned in a previous article, our hypotheses about a potential button offering an overtake mode are starting to become more than just a simple hypothesis. We can briefly see on some steering wheels that “Overtake” is sometimes written in a green bar or in an orange bar. The green most likely means the boost is available, unlike orange. We will have to wait for some explanations from Codemasters to know exactly how to manage it.

New celebrations

Also, this trailer allows us to see unusual podium scenarios with, for example, Ricciardo or Gasly as the winner or the McLaren of Carlos Sainz. Either these clips were taken from an absolutely crazy race, or the podium comes from the end of a race between two players on split-screen, or we would finally have the ability to equalize car performances in offline mode. A feature that would facilitate competitive players’ training, who until now had to either go online or necessarily take the Mercedes to have the most reliable data possible.

To conclude, we notice that the celebration Ricciardo performs on the podium had never been seen before in the Codemasters games. This could mean two things. The first is the fact that now each driver has their own unique celebration rather than simply using one of the celebrations imposed by the game, or it could mean that we can customize the celebrations: something players have been waiting for a long time. A possibility reinforced by the fact that last year Lee Mather, director of F1 games, stated in an interview that they were currently working to make each player’s experience even more customizable.