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It's taken its sweet time, but Codemasters has finally got there. When the Southam outfit first announced it had secured the F1 deal in 2008 it was in a petrolhead pomp, high on the fumes of Grid and the excellent Dirt 2's acclaim and success. This, surely, was to be a match made in heaven, the expertise of one of the best racing developers partnered with the ultimate licence in motorsport. It was set to be spectacular.And it very nearly was. Following the stopgap F1 2009 on the Wii - an adequate quickfire effort from master tradesmen Sumo Digital - F1 2010 was a fine debut that presented a foundation with plenty of promise. There were glimmers of something special that have dimmed in subsequent years - wasted on efforts that didn't progress quite enough or simply didn't progress at all. For all that potential, the F1 series has faltered in recent years, becoming the nearly man of driving games - the Nick Heidfeld or Nico Hulkenberg of its own domain, all that early brilliance ebbing away.
F1 2016, though, is a sharp return to form. This is the F1 game that Codemasters has been threatening to make from the off. The signs were there in last year's threadbare F1 2015 that the studio had gotten a firm hold on the fundamentals - pretty, approachable and authentic - it would have been great if it hadn't lost so much in the effort to get on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in good time. With F1 2016 Codemasters has folded back in all the things stripped away for F1 2015 - a full career mode, the safety car - plus the addition of plenty more besides.
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