Forget the battle for the championship, debut trips to brand new tracks are some of the most exciting moments of any F1 season. For the first time ever, Formula One is heading to Florida this weekend for the Miami Grand Prix and we’ve been given the chance to test it out early on the upcoming F1 22 game.
We’ll have to wait until this weekend has passed to really gauge how the game’s version of the track compares to the real world’s, but I can already tell it’s going to be a great addition to the calendar.
F1 22 releases on July 1 for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox and thanks to the wholesale changes the sport has seen this season, it’s shaping up to be hugely different from the last few games.
F1 22 Miami Grand Prix Preview
While the slow, tight corners of Monaco or the insanely fast sections at Monza are a lot of fun, tracks with a bit of variety stand out to me.
Miami fits perfectly into that category. I went into it completely blind, not watching any of the build-up coverage to this weekend’s Grand Prix or getting an idea of the layout from concept videos, so the varied design was more effective.
The track has a little bit of everything. Long sweeping corners at the front and back ends, a tight and twisty section between turns 11 and 16 (reminding me somewhat of the mid-section of Baku), and one massive back straight combine to ensure all your skills are tested.
Can you get the braking point right after more than a kilometre of straight after passing under the highway? Can you manage any understeer through the early long and tightening corners?
In the all-new F1 cars, which have been changed completely for this year’s game, racing in Miami feels phenomenal. The cars are more responsive than ever, allowing you to carry more speed into the corners as the Hard Rock Stadium rushes past.
I think it’ll be a fan favourite once F1 22 launches later this summer. It has everything you’d want in a track you’ll want in every custom championship you create and to attempt over and over again to get the best time.
You can tell that it’s a track based mostly on concepts, however, rather than a tried and tested location. While the track itself looks great, some of the surroundings are a bit bland.
The pit straight, which isn’t actually very straight in Miami, is detailed, but the back-side of the track isn’t. Head through the mid-point’s slow section and under the highway and you’ll notice that it all looks a little fake.
Of course, that’s somewhat understandable since no one has ever seen the track on a race day, and F1 22 is still in development, but it’ll be interesting to see how it compares to the real world once this weekend arrives.
My overriding feeling after testing out Miami in F1 22 is excitement not only for the official event this weekend but for it to become a mainstay in Codemasters’ game. It’s a varied, challenging, and exciting track that is a more than welcome addition to the calendar. I can’t wait to see how it compares to the rest of the more well-known tracks in F1 22 now that all the cars have changed almost entirely.