With Formula 1 entering a whole new era, we’re about to find out how video games will simulate the many innovations introduced by the new regulations. New cars with sexier designs, the return of ground effect to facilitate head-to-head during each race, significantly larger tires, and even a new track. In short, all the ingredients to ensure that F1 22, the official Formula 1 video game developed by Codemasters, becomes one of the most anticipated games of the year, are there.
Ahead of the race weekend, GLHF had the opportunity to take an in-depth look and play the brand new Miami Grand Prix, which is set in the already iconic Miami International Autodrome. Next week, we’ll have more details about how F1 22 looks and plays overall, as well as the new cars and the new dynamics they bring to the game. For now, though, let’s focus on Miami, as the new F1 game is our first chance to see the track in action.
Looking at the layout of the track, I was a bit worried that the Miami GP would be some sort of Western Jeddah and, in fact, it partially is. Not that I dislike the Arab track – it’s not the best in safety, but the very high top speeds in such a tight circuit are certainly unique. In F1 2021, however, Jeddah was some sort of nightmare, since you could easily compromise your entire race by approaching one of the first super-fast turns slightly wrong.
The track does a nice job in mixing that feeling with parts from Abu Dhabi and Mexico City. The result is a less technical track than the latter, but equally full of overtaking spots.
The first turn is rather tight and slow, but from there you can jump in a series of quick corners to be tackled in fifth gear, barely touching the brake or taking your foot off the accelerator pedal. A left-right that precedes a long swerve to the left, with the grandstand on the right and a row of boats clearly reminding of the Monaco GP on the left – this also looks like decent overtaking spot, even though it looks a bit bold of an effort.
The following three turns look more like a straight than real curves, with Miami Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium on the left, and you speed across that at more than 320 km/h. A right-hander here seems to recall Mexico City’s turn around the Foro Sol (you’ll notice the infamous fake marina on the side), long but with a tight closure. Your temptation to overtake here should stay just that, a temptation.
And here you get to potentially the most iconic point of the track, some sort of Laguna Seca’s Corkscrew-like, a Baku styled left-right on a slight slope. Instead of having the Baku Castle’s walls, though, the chicane features grass on both sides. Still, it’ll be interesting to see how the new cars pass through such a tiny space. At the opening on the left, cars tend to lose the rear a bit, at least from these first tests, so that will also be something to keep in mind during the race.
Get out of this passage and you’ll find another straight where to travel at slightly more than 320 km/h on F1 22. Fans watching from their TVs will have a great time at this point of the track: cars will have to crawl under the Turnpike highway, which is less than 25 meters from the track itself. Together with the stadium, this is perhaps the only section that clearly signals the street track nature of the Miami GP.
Speaking of the stadium, speeding through the straight you find it on the left, and here you can appreciate the new F1 game’s level of detail: the Hard Rock Stadium’s structure is reproduced in its entirety, with the 3D model visible from the outside and the Hard Rock logo on the front. It’s just amazing to see it almost at the side of the road, but moving the view to give the architecture a quick look is not exactly recommended at those speeds.
At the end of the straight, after passing another tight left turn, you approach another slight left-right without braking, leading to the atypical straight. Here you can see the stadium on the right, above the paddock, with some spectacular ray-traced glass structures all over the place and, on the left and very close to the track, the grandstand. The atypical start of the straight and the following, tight right-hand corner means it’s not impossible to defend here, even under DRS, so you should expect some good challenges with fun outcomes.
If you were to describe the Miami International Autodrome with just one adjective, it would be “fast”. As you could easily see in this first press-exclusive demo, the circuit has 3-4 points for overtaking, including the two straights that will really stress those engines out (that’s good news for Ferrari fans, maybe? Thinking of Red Bull reliability…), so there will be plenty of room for spectacular maneuvers, even if we are talking about a street circuit.
While we’ll have more in-depth coverage for you in a week, you can’t really discuss F1 22 without touching upon the new Formula 1 cars. Aesthetically, they’re just delightful: the rounded lines of the cars already made them look like they were inspired by video games, and in the video game itself they do not disappoint at all.
TV-pod cameras allow you to appreciate the details of the new wheel covers, while the Chase near and far ones give you a proper look at the now much bigger 18″ tires, and all of that feeds into a noticeable visual impact. Much of this impact is dictated more by the design and regulation changes of Formula 1 rather than by the actual game – and, if you want, you can play a Sprint Race here too, even though it isn’t included in the real-life calendar. F1 22 also features some less washed out graphics, compared to last year’s iteration.
In that sense, the Miami GP helps the game pop. Palm trees, the luxurious structures, and the visual effects of the warm Florida sun on the screen, together with those light blue materials at every corner, give a pretty good idea of how this track was designed – as in functionality, so in aesthetics – for a new generation of Formula 1 fans.
Will the new Miami track and the game leave a lasting mark on the world of motorsport, both real and virtual? We’ll have a clearer and more in-depth idea about that next week. In the meantime, F1 22 is out on July 1 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
Written by Paolo Sirio on behalf of GLHF.
