F1 22 review – the best F1 game yet can't quite match last year's model

F1’s bold new era is just hitting the halfway point of its inaugural season, and it turns out it’s a lot like the F1 of old; a different team dominating, perhaps, and a slight shuffle of the running order, but there’s a feeling 2022’s regulations have introduced as many problems as they’ve fixed, and that the positive impact of the new ruleset won’t really be seen for some years to come.

F1 22 reviewPublisher: EADeveloper: CodemastersPlatform: Played on Xbox Series X and PCAvailability: Out July 1 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox S/X and PC

F1 22 isn’t exactly a bold new era for Codemasters’ long-running series, and a familiar racer it most certainly is. It features the cast and cars of the new season – including Ferrari’s achingly beautiful F1-75, perhaps the best looking race car to roll out of Maranello since Enzo himself was calling the shots – plus the season’s new track that runs around the car park of downtown’s Hard Rock Stadium (if you’re wizened enough to remember the Caesars Palace race, first off condolences – but also isn’t it funny how what’s old is new again?)

The race in Miami always felt like the endgame for F1 owners Liberty Media’s initial push for the sport – a push that, of course, has seen the face of F1 change immeasurably, and mostly for the better thanks to the swell of new fans introduced via Drive to Survive and a new breed of social media savvy drivers.

F1 22 reflects that, for better but mostly for worse, with its new F1 Life feature that lets you kit out your avatar with fresh threads while decorating your pad with gaudy artwork on the walls and a supercar on display in the living room. I love the idea of embracing the more glamorous side of the sport, but rather than having the luxury of browsing the rails of a Monaco boutique it feels like you’re rifling through the bargain bin at Sports Direct with a handful of Puma t-shirts and EA Sports-branded caps and not much else in between to choose from.

It’s a bit pointless, basically, and certainly nowhere near as engaging as F1 2021’s ‘Braking Point’ story mode that’s on hiatus this time out, but the introduction of F1 Life does bring a small selection of supercars into the mix – a welcome addition that lends some variety to a series that was previously solely focussed on single seater machines. They’re very different beasts, demanding a more lairy approach to driving and always inviting you to throw the rear end out in an act of bravado. The challenges within often ask as much, modelled lightly on the Pirelli Hot Laps that use the downtime on a circuit over the course of an F1 weekend to fling lucky passengers about.