There are just five laps to go of the 57-lap 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix and I’ve got about enough fuel for four and change. Complicating matters even further, my tyres are on the brink of ruin – specifically my front left, which I’ve been loading up and brutalising around every one of Bahrain’s beefy right-handers.

I need to make a call: pit now and lose a few spots I won’t have time to claw back, or go for broke and risk it all. Ninety minutes of racing have reached a dramatic crescendo: a white-knuckle dash to the finish line in a car that may or may not make it. This is brilliant stuff. In just my second career race F1 2016

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Back in Bahrain I’m losing grip and the sharpness has gone from the steering. Jeff, my race engineer, wants me to pit because he knows as well as I do that a puncture is imminent; a similar scenario last round at Melbourne turned my scrappy top-10 finish into a disappointing 17th as I limped around the last sector of Albert Park and sheepishly slunk into the pits with just a single lap to go.

The difference here, however, is that I’m in the lead with a several second gap back to Nico Rosberg in his purportedly untouchable Merc. I dial down the fuel to its leanest setting, tell Jeff to shut up via the handy voice commands, and focus on making my car as wide as possible. Rosberg closes fast but I shut the door on him on every bend. The straights are trickier to defend but slowly tracing from one side of the road to the other before darting back over, just inside the racing line, seems to be stopping him from galloping past me in the DRS zones.

I stay ahead long enough to pass the chequered flag in P1 after an hour and a half of total focus. My tyres are trash and there’s less than a quarter of a lap’s worth of fuel left over, but top spot on the podium is secured – the perfect end to a successful race weekend. F1 2016 has made its case, and it’s definitely worth the aching hands afterwards.

Formula One and Only

Codemasters has always felt like a fine home for the F1 franchise but, in its haste to bring the series to the current generation of consoles F1 2015 was a step backwards. It felt good, but it was significantly lacking elsewhere. F1 2016 redresses that, improving on last year’s slender package in so many ways it’s tough to choose where to start. The re-addition of a proper, full-fat career mode is the big one, providing F1 2016 with a huge injection of context and immersion. Also, the return of the safety car means entire races can change in an instant, perhaps by destroying your lead margin, or perhaps by putting you back in touch with the pointy end of the pack.

“ Codemasters has always felt like a fine home for the F1 franchise

Manual starts and manual braking for pit lane are other ways for inclined players to shoulder more on-track responsibility. The bustling hospitality areas, the setting for the off-track side of F1 2016’s career mode, are scattered with recognisable faces from the world of real-life Formula 1. (This behind-the-scenes hub will also give you your first glimpse of the weather for an upcoming session; rain trickling down the glass is a heads up that it could be a gnarly one). Newly added wheel tethers mean wrecks are more realistic-looking than ever, with loose wheels slapping against the monocoque and shattered suspension arms. Turn on the new simulation damage setting, which makes cars realistically fragile, and it’s something you’ll probably be seeing a lot of.

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Hell, if you can spare a glance to the side as you blast down each of the main straights you’ll even spot pit boards being dangled over the pit wall and hoisted back as the drivers zip past. On its own that’s simply a small visual flourish many people may not even notice, but when you do it’s evidence that no detail was too trivial. F1 2016, then, feels like a proper F1 game for proper F1 fans, created by the most dedicated F1 die-hards Codemasters could muster.

It’s been built with a wide range of players in mind, too. You’re free to sign up with any team in the championship from day one, meaning everyone’s covered - from those who want to jump straight into a competitive car and grab podiums to those who want to start on the bottom rung slogging it out amongst the cellar-dwellers. The standard suite of driving aids and race settings is again on hand to assist racers of all skill levels, and F1 2016 is nothing if not malleable. Race settings can be adjusted between each GP (meaning you’re not locked into a certain race length or opponent proficiency for an entire season) and hardcore features like formation laps aren’t just reserved for veteran players who shun traction control and ABS like Dracula dodging a garlic crucifix; they can be toggled on regardless of what overall difficulty you require or how many assists you prefer activated.

Practice makes Perfect

F1 2016 also impresses by actually incentivising participation in practice sessions, tying success here to your car’s overall development. It’s important to research car upgrades because the rest of field will be doing the same thing, so ignoring them will see your team become further and further outclassed. There are three programmes to run (track acclimatisation, tyre preservation tests, and qualifying trim runs), and though you don’t have to run them all (they do get a little samey) it’s definitely worthwhile checking them out as often as you can manage. The tyre conservation assessments were particularly good at giving me a real-time glimpse at just how harsh my racing style is on my rubber, although I did grow a little weary of completing one before every GP. In full-length sessions the tyre test alone goes for 10 laps, and they can become chore-like.

“ The new highlight in terms of tracks is obviously the brand-new street circuit through the Azerbaijani capital of Baku

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On track F1 2016 feels as competent as ever; planted and responsive. There’s a simple game here for racers who just want to get in and go, go, go, and an incredibly demanding one for those with the minerals to tackle Monaco in the pouring rain without any electronic helpers. Wet-weather handling is more devilish here than it was in last year’s iteration and overall it seems a little less forgiving on oversteer, though more so on a controller than on a wheel. There’s no split-screen play, sadly, but 22-player multiplayer is featured for the first time for those who revel in the potential bedlam of online racing. For mine, the more disciplined AI racers are far and away my preferred opponents; they make the odd absurd error but for the most part they show good situational awareness and will give you space if you force the issue.