It’s time to talk about the three Rs of F1® 2019: Respect, Reputation and Rivalry by delving into Career Mode and the F2™ Feeder Series.

Career Mode

Let’s start off with F1 2019’s Career Mode, shall we? F1 2019’s Career Mode has a number of changes, not least of which is the all-new F2 Feeder Series.

The Feeder Series is your route into F1. You’ll start by selecting an F2 team, after which you’ll be taken through a series of scenarios that will create the standout moments of your F2 season prior to your entry into F1.

Each scenario has an effect upon what follows later. Your overall performance will earn you Respect, which will have an impact on the contracts to you offered by the F1 teams at the start of the following F1 season. It’s not just Respect though, your contract offers will also be influenced by Reputation, and by picking a driver academy at the start of the game, you can choose which teams you want to earn bonus Reputation with over the course of the Feeder Series.

The scenarios have more than one outcome, for example, did you choose to let your faster teammate past or not? Your choices are key here. That’s not all; the Feeder Series also gives you a number of cutscenes that allow these choices to play out via your interactions with the game’s new characters: Lukas Weber, your teammate, and Devon Butler, your closest rival.

Here’s the thing: the choices you make are remembered by the game, and can continue to inform the kinds of questions asked by the press not just during the Feeder Series, but throughout your career in F1. The range of questions the press can ask has also been expanded beyond those in F1 2018. And it’s not just the reporters – the commentators will also remember the events of the Feeder Series and refer to them when discussing you and your F2 rivals.

Of course, these relationships aren’t just one way, either. Lukas and Devon also answer questions from the press, and you’ll regularly receive transcripts of their interviews so you can see what they’re saying about you – or about the other official drivers on the grid, with whom (like you) Lukas and Devon can form rivalries of their own.

This brings us onto the rivalry system. To start, selecting Devon and Lukas as a rival will award you with bonus Respect, making them an often attractive (but never mandatory) option when choosing with whom to pursue a bitter grudge or a sporting rivalry. Not only that, whoever you have as rivals (whether Devon/Lukas or any of the official drivers), those characters will now feature at the invitational events between race weekends, where they represent bonus objectives and an opportunity to score some extra Respect.

Perhaps most importantly of all, Lukas and Devon aren’t locked to a specific team. They’ll start in teams similar to your own in terms of performance, but beyond that they’re able to pursue contracts with any team on the grid, just as you can. In this way they represent a new challenge – drivers that can move up through the teams and challenge you in a race to the top and the ultimate accolade: Driver’s Champion!

And all of this, of course, takes place against the backdrop of the 2019 championship: all the drivers, all the cars, all the teams, all the tracks. New handling. New tyre classifications. New rules governing the point for the fastest lap. The best-looking graphics ever seen in a F1 game. And if you want to experience all of this without the dramatic elements, it’s possible to skip the Feeder Series entirely, jumping straight into F1 without the new characters and their associated gameplay systems.

Formula 2

Which leads us quite neatly into F2 itself. While F2 serves as the Feeder Series introduction to F1 2019’s Career Mode, there’s much more to it than that.

Not only will you be able to experience the Feeder Series in F1 2019’s Career Mode, you’ll be able to dive into the official FIA FORMULA 2™ 2018 CHAMPIONSHIP via the game’s Championships mode. Here you’ll be able to pick an official F2 driver and make your way through every event in the F2 calendar, aiming to become the F2 2018 drivers’ champion! Beyond that, Championships mode will also include a number of other F2-themed championships for you to tackle.

Similarly, F2 will also be available in Grand Prix mode, where you’ll be able to take the F2 cars out onto not just the official FORMULA 2 tracks, but the entire range of tracks available in F1® 2019.

Grand Prix mode offers you the opportunity to play with the a full suite of gameplay options, and it’s here where you can clearly see the level of fidelity to which FORMULA 2 has been realised throughout the game.

F2 offers players a brand new driving experience, and delivers a number of differences that make it distinct from FORMULA 1, including:

The weekend structure differs from F1. It has just a single practice session compared to F1’s 3x sessions. Secondly, instead of a single race it has two races each weekend: a longer “feature” race (with a mandatory pit stop) and a shorter “sprint” race the following day.

While the grid for the feature race is defined by qualifying, the sprint race is formed from the previous race’s finishing order, but with the top 8 drivers being reversed.

The points scoring is also different, with bonuses being awarded for pole position in qualifying, and for achieving the fastest lap in each of the two races.

There are countless other details included in terms of the sport experience and presentation – pit crews, broadcast elements, and of course the inclusion of official F2 commentators Alex Jacques and Davide Valsecchi.

F2 is also available in Time Trial mode, with all new F2 leaderboards for you to battle over.

But that’s not it for F2! The full 2019 FORMULA 2 roster, including new drivers such as Mick Schumacher, Callum Ilott and Tatiana Calderón, will be added to the game as a free update post-launch – this won’t only add the drivers, but also the teams and the cars as well. This isn’t this only update we’ll be adding though, as we’ll also be bringing F2 content into multiplayer post-launch too.

There’s no doubt about it – if you’re a fan of FORMULA 2 then F1® 2019 is the game you’ve been waiting for. And if you’ve yet to experience the thrills of F2, this is the perfect time to dive in.

Want to pre-order F1 2019? You can pre-order F1 2019 from formula1-game.com, or on various first party stores below: