F1 23 hands-on preview: more spectacular Formula 1 action

It isn’t an easy task for Codemasters to go and build a game that feels “new” again after F1 22 already introduced supercars to the series. 

However, that’s exactly what EA Sports F1 23 is trying this year, and we spent a few hours with a preview build of the game in order to check those ambitions out. There’s a lot we didn’t get to play just yet, such as F1 World, new tracks, and Breaking Point 2, which we’ll be focusing on over the coming weeks, but we already have quite a clear idea about how the game is shaping up.

Straight away your car feels more grounded. That’s partially thanks to new sound effects throwing the grit around your ears. You feel every shifting gear, and the engines are now deliberately less graceful. 

But this doesn’t mean that the cars feel like tanks. Looking at these first few hours, vehicles feel more slippery, and it’s easier to lose the rear end. This is perhaps to accentuate how counter-steering is getting more and more common in the world of Formula 1.

While the game may want to put an accent on F1 as a spectacle, it also accentuates a long-standing issue with the series. Curbs seem suspiciously safe to straddle, rather than having you spin out the moment you touch them, but there are still issues in the middle of corners. 

Speaking of curbs, Codemasters surely studied last season’s feedback from the real sport. Ground effect returning meant that managing curbs became even more complex. If you just touch them with the bottom of the car, you lose control for an instant. That’s a side effect of the new aerodynamics introduced in 2022. Ask Mick Schumacher for confirmation.

Since this initial build, driver and team performances have been updated to reflect their progress in the 2023 season. Fernando Alonso is now going for the pole in his Aston Martin, while Ferrari is being considered as the third or fourth team on the grid, perhaps a little too hastily.

Playing as Max Verstappen, we enjoyed a Bahrain GP in the lead from the first to the last lap, confirming Red Bull’s dominance even in the video game. On the other hand, the Asturian, Fernando Alonso, was our best choice in a very intense Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna. Imola GP was canceled due to a tragic flood last weekend, but we still managed to have some fun there, keeping the reigning world champion behind.

Among the most significant new features, the preview build allowed us to test the 35% race length, a much-needed race length setting, and a new, more vibrant color encoding system. This is a clear and welcome departure from last year’s game in terms of visuals.

F1 doesn’t only come with new stuff, as it’s also building on top of what came before. The grid is way more active this time around, in line with improvements made on F1 22, and you can see safety cars and overtakes changing throughout the course of a race. We’ve not seen red flags just yet, but hopefully will do so in the final build – and most likely the multiplayer.

The same goes for pit stops: you don’t find yourself in P20 anytime you get in the pit lane from P1 anymore. While this might seem like a given, it was far from obvious in the past few F1 games.

Speaking of staples, tire management is still a very strong asset, not only in wear, which continues to dictate how performance evolves over the course of a race, but even in compound. This makes so much difference between how you start a race and how you finish it, both for the players and AI drivers.

From the first hours spent with general gameplay, F1 23 looks like a solid update, even if it’s a safe one. The series seems to have now reached full maturity. 

Between welcome confirmations and new nuances to check out, we look forward to getting our hands on the final version before passing a full verdict on the game, coming June 16 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.