I am a fairly good driver in reality and in games. But damn this game is hard! Not so hard that I will play on Easy but I have to say I was tempted. The game gives you as much or as little help as you want in getting around the track, from automated braking (which I hate) to ABS, traction control and the standard ’best line’ arrows to guide you when to brake and where to drive. You can switch between automatic and manual transmissions as well.

The game gives you several preset difficulty options but you can then customize them to your liking. Don’t want or need the Pit lane automatic speed limiter, turn it off. Don’t want traction control or ABS, turn them off as well. The more you turn off, the harder the game gets.

Admittedly, my frustration level with the game was quite high in the beginning. But then I took the time to do a full practice session on the Monza track and scored a pole position in the qualifying round. It did require adapting the car to my driving style and even though I am not using the fastest engine setup possible, I was still able to get around the track five seconds faster than the next racer. That is truly what F1 is all about is it not? A proper car setup, a stable driving line and learning to pace yourself. At times it’s irritating to have to slow down to 50kph when you’re doing over 200 in the straightaways, but that’s what makes F1 so interesting.

The graphics in the game are pretty cool and the sound is spot on. The tracks and environments are realistic enough so that while flying through them you don’t stop and think ’huh, that looks wrong.’ Putting your car into the gravel (which I did a lot of in the beginning) leaves fairly realistic tracks and when you get out of it, there’s gravel stuck to your tires that needs to be cleaned off. If you spin your car there will be tire tracks on the pavement and while there’s not a comprehensive visual damage model on the cars, there is damage that can be done and needs to be repaired in the pits.