The arguments for and against putting F3 and W Series into F1 2022 (and beyond)

(c) @Formula1Game on Twitter

The later editions of the Formula 1 game franchise have included more series on top of F1, with Formula 2 joining the fray as a playable car from F1 2019. But while this is welcome, the time is right to add Formula 3 and W Series to the game. It seems obvious from a gameplay and sales perspective.

Firstly, career mode. The game relies on new drivers coming up from F2 as part of a somewhat oddly-behaved driver market. George Russell moves midseason to Alfa Romeo in mine, for example, with people moving in and out of different teams with no real consideration for engine suppliers or development deals, and there are only around 30 drivers who can move up. 

Instead, having a fuller pathway simulated in the game - both for the player and the AI - would add depth to the game and allow you to track the progress of a driver. The Young Driver Test at the end of the season could also be included to add realism. 

Having a larger driver pool of about 100 (20 F1, 22 F2, 30 F3, 18 W and maybe add 10 free agents or wildcards) and making their cars available (so there would be 13 different cars in terms of machinery but a lot of liveries) would add some options too. Why not include the option of multi-class racing? Similarly, if Codemasters added a race full of drivable safety cars that would also add some novelty value. 

At the same time, driving W Series or F3 cars could act as a great way to learn tracks. Every season I simulate Singapore because it’s Monaco on hard mode. Sometimes I sim Monaco too as it can be an exercise in frustration. I haven’t yet found a way to push and learn the track at the same time, and doing so in slower machinery might be a good first step for people like me. Plus, it’s sometimes quite relaxing to not push and drive around familiar tracks with the slower F2 cars to see where track limits are or just to drive for the sake of it in time trial. 

There’s also the element of representation. Every single driver available in the current F1 game is a man, and adding W Series would see drivers like Jamie Chadwick in the game, and show that even in a virtual world, F1 doesn’t have to be a closed shop. 

Financially, it might also give the feeder series teams a little extra money, although, from my experience of licensing, unless you’re right at the top, having your team name licensed isn’t that lucrative. It might have a knock-on effect for teams to sell to sponsors that they’ll get global exposure by being in a video game, like how Burger King managed to leverage their sponsorship of Stevenage in a really clever way.

However, I can see the arguments against adding F3 and W Series too. They’re not the pinnacle of the sport and they’re not the step below that either, so how much interest is there likely to be from players?  

There is also the pressure of an annual development cycles for the game. With Miami’s street track to add and the new vehicle regulations to implement, it might be a tough ask to introduce two new series and around 50 drivers into the game at the same time. In some ways, Codemasters may have got a break in some way with Imola and Portimão being added to the game, with track scans and information from Project Cars, another driving franchise in the same company that already features those two tracks. 

There is also the news that Qatar is being added to the 2021 schedule, before taking a year off for the men’s football World Cup and returning for another decade from 2023. It means the circuit probably won’t feature in a game until 2023, with Codemasters saying it takes up to a year to virtually build a new track. 

And while there are more pros than cons, that might be the biggest reason that knocks it on the head for a couple of years. There are a lot of discussions about the subject of “crunch” in video game production, and the relentlessness of annual deadlines can be really damaging, both to a franchise’s reputation (NBA Live, WWE 2K) and to the people who put these games together, so while I believe that seeing more feeder series racing in Formula 1 video games is a good thing, they can come with a massive human cost attached.

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