The latest entry in the officially licensed, annual series of F1 games, F1 22, is set to be officially revealed on April 21.
Ahead of the official announcement from Codemasters, new owner and publisher EA has posted a teaser site for the title. It features a countdown clock which is steadily ticking down to 1500 UTC on April 21, when the new title will be officially announce.
It’ll be the second F1 title the EA has published in its second spell of F1 games, after Sony picked up an official licence in 2003, passing to Codemasters in 2009. There’s also a subtle rebranding, as the “20” is now dropped from the title, as it was for Sony’s 2004-2006 releases, with the game becoming F1 22.
F1 22 will, as the name and choice of thumbnail suggests, be based on the current, 2022 Formula 1 World Championship. That means we can take a good guess at the headline content even before the reveal: all of the cars and all, or almost all, of the tracks of the 2022 season.
It’s a season of significant change, as there’s an entirely new set of regulations around the vehicles which has seen something of a shake-up in the established order as the teams adapt to heavier cars, ground-effect aerodynamics, and lower-profile tires.
In fact it’s resulted in the re-emergence of a phenomenon known as “porpoising”, where cars bounce at high speeds as downforce bottoms the car out, stalling the ground effect to push the car back up again. That’s been a challenge that some teams haven’t yet overcome, three races in.
Thursday’s announcement will likely also include a release date for the title. The last three releases have all come in late-June to mid-July, around the time of the British and Austrian Grands Prix, so we’re expecting a similar window.
Other features, such as a story mode similar to Braking Point introduced in F1 2021 or F1 2020’s My Team mode, will likely remain under wraps for the time being.
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