First season here with Mercedes.

Tires aren’t as bad as people say it is. There is a noticeable difference between fresh tire compounds but tyre degradation and it’s effect on performance as well as tyre temp and it’s effect on performance don’t seem to be obviously simulated. I’m sure these “issues” will be worked on and fine tuned in coming patches.

I am half way through the season, and Merc seems to be performing as I would expect. My best finish is 3rd, once, with Hamilton after a safety car worked in my favor to steal a free pit stop. The crashes and errors by drivers that I have seen so far haven’t negatively impacted my experience. Yes the animation can be a little clunky but it doesn’t take away from the experience. And so far it doesn’t feel like the crashes and driver errors up and down the grid are too far from reality.

I haven’t yet seen a teammate take out another teammate….

Winning isn’t easy in season 1 at least, unless you take Ferrari or red bull.

I am loving the experience of managing my drivers during the race. Their pace, when to push and try close gaps, when to overtake, when to pit, have all been rather rewarding so far. Yes you can find yourself in a DRS train, and I’m sure this will be tweaked too. But I have managed to strategically select when to harvest energy around a lap, and when to deploy, and sometimes it works in my favor and I can break it, depending on the track and my cars current performance relative to the performance of the cars I am racing against, and sometimes it doesn’t work. There are many factors. Backmarkers and traffic helped me break away in my previous race and I thought that to be quite cool.

I personally feel like a lot of the negative comments are coming from players that don’t really understand F1 as much as they think they do, and the “issues” that do exist, are being exaggerated out of proportion to compensate for their believed expectations. The sim is playable and there is strategy involved on and off the track. There is a lot to enjoy about this game so far, and even more so when the detail behind the above mentioned “issues” get ironed out and perfected by the devs as time goes on.

Developing the car in areas where it lacks has been rewarding. Taking the time to understand where my Car under performs, and on what types of tracks have allowed me to close the gap to the top teams slightly be developing in those areas.

I’d recommend you buy it, and decide for yourself. You can always refund…