F1 24: “No advantage” from alleged exploit, speculation condemned

The presumed use of third-party PC software to find extra performance in the EA SPORTS Formula 1 games has been debunked by the Redwood-based gaming giant.

Recently, anonymous X accounts posted allegations of ‘cheating’ in F1 Sim Racing (né, F1 Esports) events – which ran using F1 23 – pointing the finger at an app called JoyToKey.

This software is primarily designed to emulate a mouse or keyboard input. Several theories were published by members of the F1 game community across social media and YouTube, suggesting this could be used to provide gamepad-like enhanced traction, despite using a steering wheel.

Now, however, the people behind the F1 games, developed by Codemasters’ Birmingham (UK) studio, have moved to debunk the theory.

“Following some extensive internal and external testing, it was determined that there is no advantage to be gained from this apparent exploit,” reads the statement, shared to the formal F1 24 game forum by the Codemasters team.

“Any assists that are enabled for keyboard and/or gamepad users are disabled once a wheel is introduced, regardless of how peripherals are assigned in the settings.

“Several third-party tools – such as those that can spoof peripherals to run as other devices, like JoyToKey – are blocked by F1 24’s anti-cheat system, making them unusable when running the game.”

Furthermore, viewers of popular F1 competitors’ streams have picked up on the on-screen Energy Recovery System (ERS) button prompt reading ‘unassigned’. This can appear, however, simply if a driver selects inputs for ERS outside of the default settings.

“The on-screen display showing buttons as ‘unassigned’ is unrelated to any alleged exploit and is expected behaviour based on specific custom button mapping,” continues the post by EA/Codemasters.

“Input manipulation of the game outside the confines of its design is considered cheating and will be addressed accordingly.

“We do not condone speculation of driver/team integrity publicly or otherwise, and ask that all competitors are treated with equal respect.”