It’s not often that we cover iRacing hotfixes on the site as they usually deal with minor issues that can be handled quickly. This one, however, is pretty substantial due to the fact that some features that weren’t supposed to exist are now being removed. To be fair, they shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
As it was expected on release, the Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance did not come with a template to paint custom liveries on. However, the community on iRacing was quick to pick up that it was possible to have a custom livery on the car with a certain procedure. Within 24 hours, the painting community had some custom stuff out there, from their own templates to full fledged schemes of Mercedes-AMG competitors.
Well, iRacing can’t really have that happen per their agreements with the folks at the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team. In this first hotfix for 2022 Season 1, the ability to use custom paints with the car should be turned off completely now moving forward. In a related but unexpected move, iRacing also went back to their first Formula 1 car, the Williams FW31, another car that originally did not have custom liveries or templates, and disabled those liveries and templates as well.
I’ll keep my eye on this one as there are some pretty crafty folks out there. However, in the same breath, if iRacing says it cannot happen and shouldn’t, that should be respected the same as modifying the game in any other way. Be warned that pushing this limitation could likely fall into a gray area in the Sporting Code. Just keep your best interests in mind when attempting to pursue this further.
Moving on to other hotfix notes, most of the new content got some quick fixes for issues found in the first two days. MGU-K issues on the Mercedes F1, jack placement issues for pit stop performance for the TCRs, and updates for both Knockhill and Watkins Glen can be found in the notes below. Also, a really weird one with floating SAFER barrier foam at Daytona Int’l Speedway has been resolved. Check out the full hotfix notes below.
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