F1 2021 General Discussion Thread

Finally downloaded this today, calibrating the controls is proving to be quite a challenge. I'm on a laptop using a PS3 controller. The button symbols have been replaced with numbers which is making navigation very confusing, and although it appears to be set to R2 and L2, there appears to be no way to fast forward or rewind flashbacks, which is making track acclimatisation challenges take twice as long...

And the game still crashing on start-up, just like F1 2020...
 
Here it is: my annual query as to which F1 game/year is worth buying?

I haven' played an F1 game for some years. I'm not that concerned about being "up-to-date" & not concerned about an RPG element, but would like the best physics available & decent AI. I would also really like to be able to race some vintage F1 cars. F2020 is currently more expensive on the PS store than F1 2021 - the Deluxe version which is at 50% off. From what I understand neither F1 2020 nor F1 2021 includes vintage cars. F1 2019 is at $39 (CDN $), F1 2018 is at $29 & F1 2017 is at $19. None of those seem like a particularly "good deal" ... except, I suppose, F1 2021. Any recommendations about which route to go?
 
Here it is: my annual query as to which F1 game/year is worth buying?

I haven' played an F1 game for some years. I'm not that concerned about being "up-to-date" & not concerned about an RPG element, but would like the best physics available & decent AI. I would also really like to be able to race some vintage F1 cars. F2020 is currently more expensive on the PS store than F1 2021 - the Deluxe version which is at 50% off. From what I understand neither F1 2020 nor F1 2021 includes vintage cars. F1 2019 is at $39 (CDN $), F1 2018 is at $29 & F1 2017 is at $19. None of those seem like a particularly "good deal" ... except, I suppose, F1 2021. Any recommendations about which route to go?
F1 2020 does include vintage cars. At least on the Xbox version it does. That's why I didn't delete it when I got F1 2021.

The biggest problem I have with F1 2021 is the race strategy. Typically I've just always gone with the default strategy since I only run 50% race distances. In F1 2020 whatever strategy it was when I looked at it at the start of the race, that's what it ended up being. Or if I switched to the option that's what it was. But in F1 2021 it's picking it's own strategy after the race starts. If I've approved a two stop with softs at the first stop at lap 9 then mediums for the 2nd stop at lap 20, lap 9 comes around and I'm not called in to pit. What happens is the game decides on it's own to go to a one stop going from softs to hard. But typically the fast cars stick to a 2 stop so they're on mediums and just run off into the distance. That's one bug I've seen with the game.

The other one is that there is a problem with the F2 cars if you're using manual gears where you get a lot of false downshifts. It really makes them frustrating to drive. I've just abandoned them until EA maybe fixes them in the future. I've looked all over the place to see where you can report bugs but I can't figure out how to do it.

F1 2021 also has Portimao, Imola, and Jeddah but if those tracks aren't that important to you then F1 2020 is just as good as the new game. Plus you get the vintage cars in F1 2020.
 
I figured it would already be posted in here but it wasn't. F1 2021 is only 12 bucks on Steam for a couple more hours if you owned F1 2020. I was just gonna stick with 2020 but for 11.99 I couldn't pass it up.

The zero to hero story is pretty fun so far lol.
 
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Here it is: my annual query as to which F1 game/year is worth buying?

I haven' played an F1 game for some years. I'm not that concerned about being "up-to-date" & not concerned about an RPG element, but would like the best physics available & decent AI. I would also really like to be able to race some vintage F1 cars. F2020 is currently more expensive on the PS store than F1 2021 - the Deluxe version which is at 50% off. From what I understand neither F1 2020 nor F1 2021 includes vintage cars. F1 2019 is at $39 (CDN $), F1 2018 is at $29 & F1 2017 is at $19. None of those seem like a particularly "good deal" ... except, I suppose, F1 2021. Any recommendations about which route to go?
Probably a bit late to this but, F1 2021 i the better game overall if you haven't played 2020, the driving is more satisfying, it now has the additional circuits from the calendar, F2 2021 etc. If you had F1 2020 then its harder to recommend as it very much plays by the same formula but gives additional controls over certain things to give the career mode more longevity and such.

In short, if you haven't played either, 2021 is stronger.

The biggest caveat is the historic cars, if you think you'll use them then they are of course a big miss from 2021. I don't personally miss them because I never really used them and Codemasters have never quite managed to give the historic cars much point to me. Compared to say how WRC10 utilises it's own historic collection in a much more satisfying and worthwhile manner.
 
Do the game have the new yas marina layout?
No, it's still the old circuit.

I did notice something when I was playing over the weekend. In a solo race when you make your choice of car, up to the right it says "Y gives car realistic performance" or something like that. Does that mean if you don't hit Y every car is sort of equal and it's performance is solely based on your ability?

But there still has to be a difference between the strength levels of say the Mercedes & Red Bull and everything else even if you don't use realistic performance. AI strength of 60 is where I ran in F1 2020 and that pretty much covered each car that I tried. But in F1 2021 60AI still allows the Mercedes or Red Bull to walk away from anything else so I run them at 61 to be competitive with each other. But at 60 I can sometimes win in other cars but I can also get blown out. 59AI makes it way too easy which makes sense because below 60 is medium difficulty.

Between car strength and the difference between the new tire compounds, it's making it very difficult to find the sweet spots to have competitive races. Plus there's still the issue of the game choosing it's own tire strategy even if you've approved something else.
 
I drove the 2021 F2 car last night and it didn't seem to have the numerous false downshifts problem that the 2020 car had. It still wanted to do it on occasion but it felt more like a genuine over rev protector instead of just doing it for the heck of it. Once I started paying more attention to where I was with RPM's it was easy to manage.
 
I drove the 2021 F2 car last night and it didn't seem to have the numerous false downshifts problem that the 2020 car had. It still wanted to do it on occasion but it felt more like a genuine over rev protector instead of just doing it for the heck of it. Once I started paying more attention to where I was with RPM's it was easy to manage.
That’s interesting to note. Have yet to try the 2021 F2 cars in the game but gave up complaining saying there was an issue with the F2 cars before. I get the over rev time protection but surely they shouldn’t have felt different from F1 2019 and F1 2020 compared to the new game.
 
That’s interesting to note. Have yet to try the 2021 F2 cars in the game but gave up complaining saying there was an issue with the F2 cars before. I get the over rev time protection but surely they shouldn’t have felt different from F1 2019 and F1 2020 compared to the new game.
Now what I'm going to do if I have time this weekend is to drive the 2020 F2 cars in the F1 2021 game and see if they fixed them all across the board or is it just the 2021 F2 cars.
 
Given this game has now gone to 60% off in the January sale might well finally decide to put some money down for it.

Xmas treat to myself I guess you could call it, are there still any major bugs etc in game or are things mostly sorted out now, I have a friend who plays regularly and he keeps seeming to have parts fail on his car randomly, last two times I watched him he was in Season 6 and Race 1 had the MGU fail and then it failed again at end of race 2 having installed a new unit.

I know parts wear can be random but this seemed somewhat harsh!
 
Given this game has now gone to 60% off in the January sale might well finally decide to put some money down for it.

Xmas treat to myself I guess you could call it, are there still any major bugs etc in game or are things mostly sorted out now, I have a friend who plays regularly and he keeps seeming to have parts fail on his car randomly, last two times I watched him he was in Season 6 and Race 1 had the MGU fail and then it failed again at end of race 2 having installed a new unit.

I know parts wear can be random but this seemed somewhat harsh!
You can adjust the frequency and severity of parts failures in the career options, or just leave them turned off entirely if you like. I have them set to low occurence and to not be catastrophic failures, so there's still the chance that the car might drop a gear out for a few laps or the DRS will stick open, but it won't just blow up entirely unless it's my fault for smacking into something.

As far as major glitches, I've been playing for the last couple days on PC and haven't seen any showstoppers, just tiny things like a texture occasionally loading in at super low resolution. I've not run every track or finished a full season yet though, so your mileage may vary on that.
 
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Given this game has now gone to 60% off in the January sale might well finally decide to put some money down for it.

Xmas treat to myself I guess you could call it, are there still any major bugs etc in game or are things mostly sorted out now, I have a friend who plays regularly and he keeps seeming to have parts fail on his car randomly, last two times I watched him he was in Season 6 and Race 1 had the MGU fail and then it failed again at end of race 2 having installed a new unit.

I know parts wear can be random but this seemed somewhat harsh!
The biggest thing I'm having trouble with is the game will sometimes completely change the pit strategy on it's own or ignore the pit strategy you've made.
 
Well the deed has been completed! I am now the owner of F1 2021.

Currently downloading it to the PS5 console and and the PS4 edition as well tho I probably won't look at that version much but I guess my challenge will be to see if I can be a world champion before the next game in the series releases.

I know I will likely buy F1 2022 on Pre-Order since lots of changes to get to grips with this coming year.

If I get time I'll post up how the career is going!
 
F1® 2021.png


I'm still trying to get some idea of what is going on with the pit strategy. This is what the tire selection was in qualifying. The race shows soft, medium, and hard but only three sets of tires. The default pit strategy for this race was a one stop which was to go to the hard tires for the rest of the race. But the game changed that stop to come 3 laps later and went to mediums. Again I didn't approve this the game did it on it's own.

But what I'm wondering about is when there is a two stop strategy. If the two stops are soft, soft, medium or even soft, medium, medium, where are the extra sets of softs or mediums coming from? Do the tires that you don't use in practice or qualifying become available to use in the race? Because I think that chart in the picture are the standard tire selection for every race weekend.
 
Sorry newbie question here..

On my team I am unable to change engine modes, it doesn't let me change from standard, is this something I have to unlock through R&D?

On a side note after many many years I came back to an F1 game, very nicely polished game I may say, the only downside so far is the ai difficulty changes between tracks so much which was an issue in the last F1 game I played which was so long ago I can't even remember what year it was.
 
Sorry newbie question here..

On my team I am unable to change engine modes, it doesn't let me change from standard, is this something I have to unlock through R&D?

On a side note after many many years I came back to an F1 game, very nicely polished game I may say, the only downside so far is the ai difficulty changes between tracks so much which was an issue in the last F1 game I played which was so long ago I can't even remember what year it was.
You cannot change engine mode in normal sessions. Its locked to standard mix.

However, you can switch it to lean during safety car out if you want too.
 
So in addition to fixing the F2 qualifying bug (finally), I saw this in the most recent patch notes:

Custom team can now be used within Grand Prix


Today’s update has added the ability to race as the 11th team in Grand Prix mode. All teams will have equal performance, so this is the perfect opportunity to compete against the entire F1® 2021 grid in full, racing with your currently selected livery.

You will also be able to pick a teammate from the F2™ 2020 and F2™ 2021 seasons (except for Mick Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin, and Yuki Tsunoda) – as well as the My Team Icons, which are available to purchase in-game.

How does your perfect line-up stack up against the competition? Is it time to promote a new driver from F2™? Maybe this is the ideal opportunity for you to test who your new Icon signing will be in Grand Prix before recruiting them in My Team?
Being able to run a fuilly custom schedule with my own car and none of the distractions of career mode is something I've actually wanted for a while now, and I have to wonder why it wasn't a feature from the start.
 
They have F121 for sale on the PS Store for 19.99 USD. until 2/17 That is the cheapest I seen this. It might be be time to snatch it up
 
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I'm still trying to get some idea of what is going on with the pit strategy. This is what the tire selection was in qualifying. The race shows soft, medium, and hard but only three sets of tires. The default pit strategy for this race was a one stop which was to go to the hard tires for the rest of the race. But the game changed that stop to come 3 laps later and went to mediums. Again I didn't approve this the game did it on it's own.

But what I'm wondering about is when there is a two stop strategy. If the two stops are soft, soft, medium or even soft, medium, medium, where are the extra sets of softs or mediums coming from? Do the tires that you don't use in practice or qualifying become available to use in the race? Because I think that chart in the picture are the standard tire selection for every race weekend.
Yes. The 3 unavailable tyres at the end (one of each compound) are saved for the race (M and H) and in the case of making the top 10 in qualifying the Soft tyres become available for you (if you do not make top 10, they become available for the race).
The 3 sets of soft tyres, and the set of mediums that you have available as per your screengrab are all the teams have available for Q1 and Q2. These four sets, in addition to the other three, are available for the race. Just bear in mind that having gone through qualifying, they'll be a little bit worn at the start of the race/stint.
 
anyone playing this game hate that there isnt an obvious button push by the animated hands when you press on drs ... or did the put the button on the back of the wheel??? ugh i dont know why it bugs me but i wish there was some sort of indication you have DRS open...
 
anyone playing this game hate that there isnt an obvious button push by the animated hands when you press on drs ... or did the put the button on the back of the wheel??? ugh i dont know why it bugs me but i wish there was some sort of indication you have DRS open...
I think most of the cars I've driven have some sort of green light on the steering wheel indicating DRS is open. I don't think the Red Bull has any visual indicator but I'm not 100% sure of that. But my DRS is set to automatic.
 
I think most of the cars I've driven have some sort of green light on the steering wheel indicating DRS is open. I don't think the Red Bull has any visual indicator but I'm not 100% sure of that. But my DRS is set to automatic.
yeah i thought i had mine set to auto and that was part of my confusion... i actually haven't driven one of the constructor cars yet i will have to hop in and see the differences. i also havent really played with the 'mfd' i bet there is drs functionality in that... ugh new menus to learn!
 
Fired the game up for the first time in three months today, and it's still crashing on start-up (just like F1 2020) and I still can'r rewind in flashbacks...
 
Fired the game up for the first time in three months today, and it's still crashing on start-up (just like F1 2020) and I still can'r rewind in flashbacks...
i know in certain moments you cant rewind cause you havent given it enough to rewind too(screwed up one corner/ flash back, then screw up the next corner only to be able to get back to right where the flask back wont help at all) or the computer was in control till a certain point and wont let you flash back until the moment the player is actually in control.
 
i know in certain moments you cant rewind cause you havent given it enough to rewind too(screwed up one corner/ flash back, then screw up the next corner only to be able to get back to right where the flask back wont help at all) or the computer was in control till a certain point and wont let you flash back until the moment the player is actually in control.
Nope, won't do it at all. The button for it still appears on screen, just like in all the other games, but you press it and nothing happens...
 
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