The addition of Formula 2 cars to the official Formula 1 video game was one of the features which we singled out as a reason to buy the latest instalment in the franchise back in June.
When the game released later that month, it hit shelves with the entire 2018 F2 grid fully playable around all of the 21 circuits on the F1 calendar. From the offset, Codemasters promised that the 2019 F2 lineup would be available via a future update, and that’s now become a reality.
When you download version 1.12 of F1 2019, you’ll be greeted with an option to drive the 2019 F2 cars in Grand Prix and time trial mode. This is the update we’ve been waiting a long time for and here’s the juicy details of what you can expect when you fire up the game!
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What’s included?
You’ll notice when you go into a mode like Grand Prix or time trial that you’ve now got the option to select F2 2019 cars. All 10 teams and 20 full-time drivers are there to pick from, complete with official liveries, overalls and accurate faces.
Mechanically speaking, the cars are identical to the 2018 ones, Formula 2 cars don’t get developed race-by-race or even year-on-year, instead having identical cars which evolve every 3 years or so. Although these drivers are very young, there are some standout talents in the field, here’s some of the brightest stars to look out for!
The 2019 F2 championship was wrapped up by Nyck de Vries in this weekend’s Russian rounds and the former McLaren young driver is in with a shot at a Formula 1 seat in 2020, he lined up for ART this season. Williams reserve driver Nicholas Latifi currently lies second overall in the driver’s championship, he too has a good chance of an F1 seat next season.
Renault academy drivers Jack Aitken (Campos) and Guanyu Zhou (UNI-Virtuoso) are some of the most promising drivers for the future, as is McLaren’s test and development driver Sergio Sette-Camara (DAMS). Tatiana Calderon is the only woman in the field and races for BWT Arden.
And of course, the Schumacher name returns to Formula 1, as Mick Schumacher (son of the great Michael) races for Prema!
If you want a full rundown of the 2019 grid, F2 kindly provided the video below for your information:
We think that having the 2019 F2 roster available to gamers is fantastic, as and will give the feeder series more of an audience moving forward and is more relevance to what’s going on now than the 2018 field. If you’re wondering about the 2018 cars and drivers, don’t worry, they’re still in the game and fully playable.
READ MORE: How to Master the F2 cars in F1 2019
How does this affect Career Mode?
One of the few complaints we had with F1 2019 was that the F2 mode at the start of this year’s game didn’t follow through into the Formula 1 racing enough. Another gripe was that the Formula 2 sections which begin the game weren’t long enough, so has this changed with the update?
We booted up a new career mode to find out! And, in short, nothing has changed, the three events you have in F2 are exactly the same. The drivers aren’t even updated to the 2019 line-up, but I suppose that is realistic, given that you begin your Formula 1 career in 2019, not 2020.
It would’ve been nice to have the option, but we should be thankful despite this, as the 2019 F2 update is the largest and most significant I can ever remember Codemasters producing for an F1 game.
READ MORE: F1 2019 Beginner’s Guide
Is Hubert in the game?
There was one name omitted from the earlier run down of the F2 names, and that was Anthoine Hubert. The late 22-year-old won the 2018 GP3 (now Formula 3) championship and was promoted to Formula 2 this year, winning 2 races in the 2019 season.
The update was being worked on when the Frenchman tragically lost his life at this year’s Belgian Grand Prix. This was a huge loss to the F2 community and motorsport as a whole and it created a moral and ethical dilemma for Codemasters. The question of whether Hubert should be included in this update was one without a definitive answer but also one which Codies had to do their best to deal with.
I believed that the Renault academy driver should be included in the game, as the viewpoint with regards to his legacy, intentions and the game’s accuracy outweighed the “it’s too soon” argument. It appears as though the game developers agreed with me on at least some of those points, as when you choose Arden, Hubert is one of the two playable drivers for the pink car.
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