A virtual lap of the Circuit of the Americas is shown in this video of Codemasters’ forthcoming Formula 1 game.
The video shows three laps of the circuit in a development version of F1 2012, giving insight into both the configuration of the track and the current look of the game.
The 5.5km (3.4-mile) Hermann Tilke-designed track is currently under construction in Austin, Texas. It will hold the United States Grand Prix for the first time on November 18th.
F1 2012 is due for release in September. Codemasters also revealed two new images from the game today.
2012 F1 season
- Hulkenberg’s missed win should have been “high point” for Force India
- Kubica reveals he almost withdrew from fateful 2011 rally – and had 2012 Ferrari F1 deal
- 2012 F1 season Blu-Ray “Victorious Vettel” reviewed
- 2012 F1 season DVD “Victorious Vettel” reviewed
- New team radio reveals Vettel’s penalty protests
Browse all 2012 F1 season articles
Pamphlet (@pamphlet)
5th June 2012, 20:02
Love how you can change the brake bias, but barring that I don’t see any differences…
Tom Haxley (@welshtom)
6th June 2012, 8:44
Love how he alters it to the rear then a few corners later loses it as the rear end steps out under braking :)
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
6th June 2012, 13:40
@pamphlet Yeah, I was thinking that was the major element missing from the past 2 games as far as driving the car is concerned. We can all be like Schumacher now :D
james2488 (@james2488)
5th June 2012, 20:05
very nice track, the middle bit reminds me of silverstone with the sweeping corners, should be great to see f1 in austin :)
Bleeps_and_Tweaks (@bleeps_and_tweaks)
5th June 2012, 20:21
Yeah I thought that, it’s like Maggot’s and Beckett’s.
For the game though; it looks very nice, but it doesn’t seem to differ from 2011 too much. I’m hoping they can keep adding to the texture and feel of the game every year, as I can’t imagine the game engine is changing too drastically.
Carlo Grlj (@hawkey)
5th June 2012, 20:33
From what I have seen here… well .. I must say the track is very boring and it seems very large with lots of high speed parts… :SSS a little sceptic there
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
5th June 2012, 21:13
@hawkey – i thought the same, can’t help but think that it’ll probably look better come race day though with some proper on-board footage though!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
5th June 2012, 20:35
@james2488 @bleeps_and_tweaks That’s because Tilke modelled them on Becketts:
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2010/09/01/austin-reveals-track-for-2012-f1-race/
AlonsoWDC (@alonsowdc)
5th June 2012, 21:44
While that’s true, watching this video at virtual speed just confirmed what the map already suggested to me – it feels like Su
zuka’s esses, especially with the access roads that will be incorporated into alternate (shorter) tracks. Austin’s T7is even slightly uphill, just like the corner at Suzuka that concludes the esses, though it is much shorter in length than its Japanese counterpart.Obviously T1 invokes the A1-Ring mirrored.
T10 has a Sao Paulo T5 quality about it.
AlonsoWDC (@alonsowdc)
5th June 2012, 21:48
Actually, Austin’s T6 looks quite a bit like the mirrored Su
zuka corner I mentioned, the name is Dunlop of course.racerdude7730 (@racerdude7730)
5th June 2012, 21:50
For some reason i dont think the speeds are right on the model here. They just seem way to slow to me. I think it will be much faster then what this is showing. They were projecting the back straight to be around the 200mph mark and on this its showing about 175mph. Im excited to see what the real speeds and lap times will be once its all said and done
frood19 (@frood19)
5th June 2012, 23:41
could be the driver, in this video he doesn’t hit many apexes…
Mike (@mike)
6th June 2012, 5:15
Yeah, that annoyed me…
BasCB (@bascb)
6th June 2012, 7:15
as @frood19 writes, not of these laps were done driving well. Missing apexes, shortshifting, not downshifting in time and then be stuck out of the hairpin etc. I think i saw a few laps of it done on iracer (OK, the track model might not have been perfect at the time but still) and that was about 1:24 if I remember correctly.
necrodethmortem (@necrodethmortem)
6th June 2012, 12:44
I just hope he’s not in charge of developing the AI :P
clay (@clay)
5th June 2012, 23:52
T9 also looked tighter on the game than on Keith’s map – or is it just me?
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
6th June 2012, 7:06
@keithcollantine – Tilke didn’t actually design the circuit. At all. Tavo Hellmund came up with the basic concept with input from Kevin Schwantz, with one of Tilke’s engineers tasked with taking their notes and rough sketches and turning it into a circuit:
http://www.statesman.com/sports/formula1/turn-for-turn-austin-tracks-design-layout-should-2321735.html?viewAsSinglePage=true
xjr15jaaag (@xjr15jaaag)
5th June 2012, 20:07
That track actually looks very interesting. can’t wait for the racing to begin
Slr (@slr)
5th June 2012, 20:14
I kind of wish the track was more original, there’s elements of Silverstone, Bahrain and India on this track. The track seems to have a nice flow to it however, and the elevation looks good.
By the way, the graphics for the game are really poor. Formula One Championship Edition looks better, and that was released in 2006.
JamieFranklinF1 (@jamiefranklinf1)
6th June 2012, 19:43
This could be due to the fact that according to Codemasters, the PS3 has a more complex coding system in comparison to the Xbox. Therefore, on PS3 exclusive titles, the PS3 can have superior graphics from better coding, but when the game is multi-platform, then the PS3 usually takes a hit in terms of general performance and graphics, which is more than unfortunate, especially since I’m a PS3 user :(
I hope that the graphics do continue to improve though.
AnisB
5th June 2012, 20:29
Doesn’t seem to be any new fundamental changes to the dynamics of the game. Though, it’s only in development.
David-A (@david-a)
5th June 2012, 20:54
Looks like you can change brake-bias on the fly now.
David-A (@david-a)
5th June 2012, 20:56
Except for the ability to change brake-b i a s on the fly now.
clay (@clay)
5th June 2012, 23:49
Yeah – noticed that too. I have not got the pleasure of a steering wheel – still use a controller, and changing anything requires about 2-3 seconds and a straight bit of road. Can be done but you need to plan where you will change things – like in F1 2010 when you needed to change front wing angles. Looks a good track though, with that Turkey turn 8 lookalike being an acceleration zone all the way around – that will fun on degrading Pirellis in the race…
f1alex (@f1alex)
5th June 2012, 20:37
The track looks pretty, I think the only bit I’m not totally sold on is the ‘stadium section’. I know they say they were trying to make it like Hockenheim’s stadium section, but to me it looks more like Fuji than Hockenheim.
f1alex (@f1alex)
5th June 2012, 20:38
*pretty good, not just “pretty”. Haha
BasCB (@bascb)
6th June 2012, 7:16
Personally I feel that “stadium section” is a bit superfluous and should rather have been let out. But it does give a nice extra place for Grandstands.
gabal (@gabal)
5th June 2012, 20:37
Parts of the track have nice flow and even though I knew they will make a start-finish straight go uphill I didn’t expect such a steep hill. However, I don’t think “turn 8” style corner will have the same effect as it had in Turkey as there are slow pieces of track before and after it.
racerdude7730 (@racerdude7730)
5th June 2012, 21:51
They are saying all the track designers that it will be a faster turn then Turkey has. This model is wrong for the speeds
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
5th June 2012, 20:47
Looks like a mix of various tracks put into one. Silverstone, Istanbul… some bits that remind me of Fuji (after the long back straight). I got to say I rather like it… hope it works fine in real life!
As for the game itself, I cannot belive they make the car sound like that… previous games also had rubbish engine noises but it’s been 3 years already and it still sounds ridiculously bad. Specially the downshifts.
Michael Brown (@)
5th June 2012, 20:59
Looks like the car is a lot more responsive on high speed corners.
Lin1876 (@lin1876)
5th June 2012, 21:01
To be honest, I probably won’t buy F1 2012. The bugs in F1 2011 were bad, but more alarming was Codemasters’ almost flat denial there was an issue. Sure, they patched some thing, as pretty much every game does these days, but the big ones which everyone notices go unfixed. Unless I receive absolute assurances that they’ve been squashed, I’ll be keeping my money in my pocket.
Paul (@briggerz)
5th June 2012, 21:28
Not to mention that when they released the last patch they introduced a tyre wear bug, and then refused to fix it saying they were now working on F1 2012
raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
6th June 2012, 5:58
@briggerz which tyre wear bug are you referring to again?
~A~
6th June 2012, 18:13
The two issues I’m aware of concern (at least) the practice sessions. The first is that once you used your first set of tyres, the next time you drive out, regardless of what you specify in the tyre selection dialogue, the game auotmatically sends you out with the next best set of tyres available, i.e. you’re going out on a fresh set even if you don’t want to. (The workaround is that you have to use the Drive out > Flying lap option, which doesn’t allow you to warm up the tyres or scout out the track conditions.)
The second one is that if you’ve used a set of tyres and don’t select another before the session ends, the degradation values of the set you used are copied to the next set, i.e. you might end up with a tyre you never actually drove being just as worn as the one you actually used. (Again, there’s a workaround – you have to manually select another set before the practice session ends, which then effectively prevents you from going out just before the end of the session to set the quickest possible time.)
That these kinds of problems are dismissed in a “deal with it” kind of way, just because you can provide workarounds, sadly, is nothing I would call disappointing in this context, because for that, I’d have to have had higher expectations.
What’s more severe, even, is the savegame corruption issues that apparently do still occur, while, really, such a core functionality of any software, the ability to correctly resume a state at a later point in time, must work correctly under all possible circumstances. It’s a funny redundancy to write a script file to “autosave” the autosave files. Now, if I imagined myself as a professional software developer, I would consider that a major embarrassment.
xeroxpt (@)
5th June 2012, 21:40
You are right but what can we do? I like this new Codemasters series but especially now because of E3 anytime I start watching other racing games, I get the feeling that despite this being an yearly franchise the game could be so much better in any sense, even the new Test Drive Ferrari racing Legends looks incredible alot of old F1 cars and old tracks and old Monte Carlo old Silverstone, so I guess codemasters to step up needs new compettion oon this area.
Mike (@mike)
6th June 2012, 7:39
The problem is, they do not have enough time and resources to go and do everything they want, secondly, they are simply not allowed to do a huge number of game enhancing things…
I mean, the amount of stuff they could do were they given the go ahead would be massive.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
5th June 2012, 21:03
The elevation changes aren’t as dramatic as I had expected given all the talk about it from Tavo & co. Has the DRS zone been confirmed yet? I assume it will be situated on the pit straight…
Calum (@calum)
5th June 2012, 22:39
I don’t think it’s been confirmed yet, but I’m guessing the longest straight after the hairpin.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
6th June 2012, 16:55
@calum – as long as it doesn’t make overtaking incredibly easy I’m quite happy wherever it goes!
xeroxpt (@)
5th June 2012, 21:05
The game is obviously still on development, yet we can understand that it is really similar to F1 2011 same type of overall look, until now the HUD is a bit different Bold letters which is irrelevant and maybe not definitive, what i liked to see is that the models seem a bit more complex i like the work done on the suspension and brake ducts, what i really loved is to see that you can change the brake bias again and that the tyres look phenomenal.
Mads (@mads)
5th June 2012, 21:06
The run into the first corner is crazy!
The track seem to have a really good flow with loads of medium and high speed sweepers.
I think its going to be excellent!
brombillaf1 (@brombillaf1)
5th June 2012, 21:17
A Tilke Track, i remind the last new tracks like Korea, Cingapure, Abu Dhabi and even Valencia.
The elevations are good, like Malaysia and Turkey, and whe have a invertion of the famous Turkey multiple turn on the 3 sector.
Nothing of the magic of the new silverstone….of course.
But with a proper driving it will be fun.
necrodethmortem (@necrodethmortem)
5th June 2012, 21:27
The turns 1-2-3 combo is really sweet, but 7, 8 and 9 look far tighter than they do on that track map. It also seems that 13 and 15 are tighter than the real Hockenheim stadium section. T19 looks fun with that camber though.
Looks interesting, but could’ve been much better if Tilke would loosen it up a little.
racerdude7730 (@racerdude7730)
5th June 2012, 21:54
It is way tighter its my only complaint about the track. They changed it from the original design. It kills the high speed run into turn 11 which kinda sucks
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
6th June 2012, 9:23
Turns 7, 8 and 9 – 9 in particular – have been changed since the first circuit map was released.
necrodethmortem (@necrodethmortem)
6th June 2012, 11:19
@prisoner-monkeys Yeah, I just read that in the article you linked to above. They were altered to keep the speed down before T10 (which is obviously like T4 at the Hungaroring, not original as they say in the article). A real shame. Like I said, this track could’ve been so much better without the input of Tilke or one of his droids.
Also surprised Schwantz didn’t want a replica of the Melbourne hairpin at Donington, he was epic there.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
6th June 2012, 11:32
If you’d read the article as you’d said you’d had, you would have seen that Tilke had nothing to do with it. Hellmund came up with the original concept. Schwantz tweaked it. Tilke’s firm was simply charged with making their ideas fit the FIA regulations on circuit design. They might have influenced the exact placement of certain corners, but they didn’t have any creative control.
I like it the way it is now, actually. The corners in the first sector get progressively tighter and trickier, and the last two help move it beyond a simple Silverstone clone.
He obviously understood that the circuit was for car racing first and foremost.
necrodethmortem (@necrodethmortem)
6th June 2012, 12:26
This shows that Tilke GmbH did more than just putting Hellmund and Schwantz’s ideas into AutoCAD. They altered and/or designed some turns, including the ones I like least, hence me saying it could’ve been better without Tilke.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
6th June 2012, 13:02
It’s pretty obvious that Hogrebe suggested the corners because they were at an impass – Hellmund and Schwantz didn’t know what to put there, but they needed something to fit the FIA regulations on circuit design, so they turned to Tilke.
Personally, I think you’re just taking any oppotunity to attack Tilke because you don’t like his other circuits.
necrodethmortem (@necrodethmortem)
6th June 2012, 16:50
Well, maybe they should’ve turned to someone else :D
Look, I’m obviously not really a fan of Tilke’s, but I don’t hold a grudge against him or anything. I put Istanbul in my Top 40 of Greatest Tracks of All-Time, which is not a small feat. It’s a shame he doesn’t stick to the design philosophy he had for Istanbul. He didn’t bulldoze the entire area and he didn’t add any more corners than strictly necessary. I’m not saying he should only make carbon copies of that track, please no, but you can still vary a lot within that same philosophy. Sepang, Aragon and Austin are all good as well, apart from certain corners that slow things down too much for my liking. It feels like he’s always a notch below the adventurousness allowed within the limits of the regulations and he has a tendency to not leave a nice, simple design untouched, which makes the difference between a great design and a mere good one.
The Bilster Berg circuit, designed by Walter Röhrl, also shows that he has it in him to leave adventurous plans for what they are, he just needs to do it for F1 tracks too.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
7th June 2012, 8:11
If Tilke is guilty of anything, it’s that he’s attempted to break circuit design down into a mathematical equation – this part plus that part equals overtaking. I don’t think you can really blame him for that; “there’s no overtaking” was a common complaint among for years. So he’s really just trying to give the people what they wanted, but the trade-off is that some of the circuits lose their magic.
That said, I think diversity in the calendar is important. We need short circuits and we need long circuits. We need fast circuits and we need slow circuits. We need circuits that emphasise driver skill, and circuits that emphasise technical strength. And I think Tilke has done a fairly good job of creating a nice range of circuits, even if some are a little boring. It would be a problem if we had 20 Valencias or 20 Abu Dhabis on the calendar. But we don’t.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
7th June 2012, 8:24
@prisoner-monkeys
I couldn’t disagree more. Modern circuit design is depressingly uniform – similar lengths circuits, all predominantly slow corners with a few token fast bends.
The only deviations from the formula occur when Tilke hasn’t got sufficient space to impose his usual configuration – e.g. Singapore.
Tilke may not be entirely to blame – the FIA’s rules are very restrictive.
But while I agree that we need variety in the calendar, I think that is exactly what Tilke-era tracks are most lacking.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
7th June 2012, 8:37
Compare Sepang to Korea to the Circuit of the Americas, and I think there’s quite a bit of range there, even if they’re all similar lengths.
necrodethmortem (@necrodethmortem)
7th June 2012, 11:05
There is some variation, but not as much as there should be. If you’re gonna make 1/2 to 3/4 of the entire calendar, there’s no point in having all those types of corners in every track over and over again.
racerdude7730 (@racerdude7730)
5th June 2012, 21:43
I find it funny how people would rather say bad things then anything good. Whats the one thing alot of us fans complain about on new tracks? “Its just a straight and then a 90 deg bend into a slow turn” “We want fast corners that push a car to its limit” and so on and so on. The biggest complaint has always been there are to many slow corners and 90 deg hair pins or a chicane. Well now we have a track that has fast sweeping corners and no chicane and now people say that they don’t like it because there are to many fast parts. Why is it no one is happy? lol jw Oh and i think the track looks really good but we will have to wait and see. I dont like Turns 8 and 9 that much i think it slows the cars up more then they need to be.
necrodethmortem (@necrodethmortem)
5th June 2012, 21:51
I just read through all comments and I couldn’t find anyone complaining about the fast parts, quite the contrary.
racerdude7730 (@racerdude7730)
6th