F1 may be the pinnacle of racing around the globe, but for most Americans and gamers, its souped-up, high-tech cars and rock star-caliber drivers are more than a little inaccessible. In video games in particular, F1 cars are generally thought to be too finicky for your average player brought up with arcade racers or even sim-style franchises like Gran Turismo. With F1 2010, Codemasters – a leader in the racing genre – applies its own take on F1 and delivers an enjoyable and drivable experience.

Racing games have struggled with making life off the track anything other than just a series of button presses to get you to the next race, and for the most part F1 2010 offers activities that not only break up the season’s monotony, but also make sense. Interviews with the press can help or hurt your relationship with your race team, and the overall happiness of your team is important. If they like you, and you’re performing better than your teammate on the track, you’ll get to control the research and development direction of the program. The R&D aspect of F1 is cool because you’ll occasionally get objectives during the practice sessions. These aren’t that involved (such as beating a certain time in a determined number of laps), but they’re important in that they give you something to shoot for in practice – a segment of the race weekend schedule that most gamers likely skip, unfortunately.