F1 2020 has revised the realism of the circuits and the ERS

If things are moving slowly in the small world of Formula 1, this is not the case in the world of virtual Formula 1, which is racing full speed ahead. In addition to increasingly promoting large-scale eSport events on F1 2019, the younger sibling of the Formula 1 game series is starting to become increasingly demanding. A week after the unveiling of the first F1 2020 gameplay at Zandvoort with Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, this time it’s behind the wheel of Carlos Sainz’s McLaren on the Barcelona circuit that Codemasters’ future release is making an appearance.

A new gameplay feature is very interesting because it allows us to see the adjustments made by the developers to make the tracks more realistic. Indeed, it is with the help of certain Formula 1 drivers who have played the game, such as Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, or George Russell, that Codemasters sought to understand which parts of the circuit were not faithful to reality. For example, players have complained for many years about the bump in the last corner at Suzuka, which makes this turn unnecessarily complicated since the bump is not present in reality. But let’s return to Spain, specifically to sector 3 of the Circuit de Catalunya, which has been made much less bumpy, making it more enjoyable to drive and much more realistic. It is now wider and more undulating at the chicane. An approach that is much more faithful to the track layout, delighting fans.

This gameplay also shows us something very intriguing. The ERS is indicated at 0 next to the DRS deployment bar on the MCL35 steering screen. However, above this same bar, it reads “overtake.” Indeed, since the introduction of ERS management, each mode corresponds to a number between 0 and 5 (with 5 being the fastest mode), and normally 4 corresponds to the overtake mode which provides a certain speed boost on the straight, allowing you to overtake your opponent more easily. However, in F1 2020, mode 0 is activated, yet it reads overtake. We can therefore deduce several hypotheses from this, but one deserves more development than the others:

It’s the fact that F1 2020 has revised its ERS system as we suspected from the first gameplay where mode 3 was engaged in what seemed like time trial mode, whereas normally mode 5 is used without the possibility to change. This would mean that now we have only 3 or 4 ERS modes (depending on if mode 1 low is still present or if it will be replaced by 0 since it’s not used much) but, on the other hand, we have an overtake button as is done in GT Sport with the Super Formula notably. But then how to activate this button? This hypothesis is reinforced by a certain Barry, part of the Codemasters staff, who stated on one of the forums: « We hope that our time trial in Spain gives you some information on the change we’ve made to the ERS and on how to use it. »

To see if other surprises are still hidden for the delight of fans fond of realism.