I’ve been a Formula 1 fan for as long as I can remember. It’s quite disappointing that we’ve not seen an F1 game based on a more recent season than 2006. Mods aside, characters like Heikki Kovalainen and Sebastian Vettel are yet to make the jump into a digital environment. As you’ll no doubt be aware though, all of that is about to change next season when we see a brand new F1 game being released by Codemasters. Of course, it’s all going to be very pretty (it is really the first next generation F1 title) but visuals aside, the area which is exciting me most is the possibilities for multiplayer.

What would make F1 online fun?

The most important thing to remember about Formula 1 (and motorsport in general) is that it’s a spectator sport. It’s designed for watching rather than doing and as the path of history has proven, actually participating is extremely challenging and demanding, not to mention expensive. The entire race weekend is engineered towards spectators. Things like the 10 minute qualifying shootout and the pit stops are not there because they have to be, but because they create excitement.

F1 97 was a high point for racing games

When you’re playing a video game it’s essential that you’re entertained by your own actions. It wouldn’t be much fun if you had to play through the two Friday practice sessions along with all the Saturday action before you got your chance to race online. It’s clear then that for an F1 title to succeed online, sacrifices in realism must be made.

What would be a bad idea?

F1 Championship Edition is notable not only because it was the last F1 game released, but also because it had really bad online play. It all revolved around the concept of “instant action” where you’d be able to jump in and take over from AI opponents mid-race. Great in theory, but that brings me to my first point.

Online multiplayer racing games should never include AI opponents. It’s a crying shame to see developers spending time implementing this because it’s almost as if you’re admitting that your game is never going to be popular enough to maintain a full house. It also blurs the lines between on and offline play which could cause players to question whether it’s worth their while taking the game online.

Thankfully Codemasters have a good track record, especially where GRID is concerned. The game’s short but engaging championships mean that there are always a huge number of people playing online and the rank system ensures that people who want to play for hours on end have something to aim for. The game’s 12 player limit would be good for an F1 title as it would allow for one player per team plus a couple of doublers.

Team Tactics

The issue of teams is one which would also need to be overcome. There are two options for multiplayer and both have pretty significant consequences. The first would be to make each team realistic, with Ferrari and McLaren being significantly quicker than Force India. But in the online environment this could lead to people always picking the same two cars or if there was a “limit” to 2 cars per team per race, a mad rush to get the quicker machines.

Could this be what F1 2009 is like online?

The obvious alternative then is to even out the pack completely – each team’s car being completely identical in performance and its livery being nothing more than a paint job. I believe this to be the theoretical worst option for multiplayer in an F1 title as it eliminates all of the randomness and that would make racing the real cars fun. Perhaps game hosts might end up staring at a “Performance: Realistic/Even” toggle as they start their room.

Vote, vote, vote

If I could put my finger on just one thing that has been made clear to me by 2008′s gaming releases, it would be that voting is good. We started the year with Burnout Paradise where hosts have complete control over everything going on in the game. Indeed, it’s not a far cry from F1: CE, which has rooms filled with people screaming “Hockenheim” at their hosts via text as they blindly select Monaco yet again. The contrast between these two games and GRID’s democracy of a multiplayer mode is stark – tens of thousands of people are still playing GRID. It’s at least partially because of the say that everyone has in what track is next.

F1 2009 needs a menu just like this

The menu above is from Kimi Raikkonen’s official website, and it’s the sort of thing I’d love to see in a multiplayer mode. A straight vote at the end of each race on which track is next would eliminate the control which hosts have over their guests and the best part about it all is that Codemasters already has something like this coded. Let’s hope they use it.

What else would be good?

Codemasters got slated for their implementation of MP in DiRT, with people complaining that simply racing against each other without being able to see them wasn’t good enough. But that would be good enough for a qualifying session online in F1 2009. Throw everyone on track at once in twelve parallel universes for a single flying lap. A rolling start would be preferable and it’s an all or nothing race for the front row. I can only imagine the pressure you’d be feeling as you listened to others crying that they’ve missed an apex or hit the gravel. It wouldn’t last long, but it would be enough to eliminate the truly frustrating “race to ready up” that’s so common in GRID.