EA SPORTS F1 24’s great hope, a handling update, nearly here

The car behaviour of EA SPORTS F1 24 is the main debate. In particular, it seems if you play with setups and push for competitive esports or league speeds, things can go awry.

Developers at creators Codemasters look to be quick at addressing these concerns, with an update that includes a list of possible refinements.

How the tyre model responds to rapidly changing slip angle is touted – presumably with the aim of preventing drivers from applying too much lock and the car still being able to carry speed through an apex.

Pre-launch, a lot of talk was the proclamation of re-done suspension kinematics. These will be further tweaked in the next patch.

A big with the Hot Lap ERS mode has been squashed, according to Electronic Arts, alongside gear ratios and relative performance adjusted to better match real-world performance.

These changes mean a wipe of leaderboards, excluding Formula 2.

“We’ve made significant updates to our physics tech this year to set us up for long-term advancements in handling,” said Senior Creative Director, Lee Mather, in response to player feedback.

“As with any new system, we will continue to refine it by listening to our community, with further refinements throughout live service and beyond.

““The changes set out to calm down the front end of the car giving a more realistic level of grip and turn-in capabilities. We’ve also made adjustments that will aid in the controllability of the car on throttle.

“These changes will be more prevalent for players using a wheel and without assists.”

The truth will be in the driving, with owners across PC, PlayStation and Xbox receiving the update that also includes a long list of non-handling-related fixes.

Among these are a bump in ray tracing reflection quality, visible yellow flags for spectators, a reduction of speed when driving on the grass and native support for the Asetek SimSports Invicta wheelbase. The full changelog is below:

F1 24 Version 1.3 update changelog

GENERAL

• All leaderboards for F1 2024 cars have been wiped to coincide with handling update
• Trophies can now be added to the Trophy Cabinet
• Fixed an issue where the “Strong Relations” Achievement/Trophy would not unlock in certain circumstances
• ERS Battery will no longer drain after the per-lap usage limit has been reached
• Added the ability to tab directly between Goal Vendors in F1 World
• Refined the F1 World Upgrade Card Mods and Goals

CAREER

• AI in Career modes are now more likely to have component faults and failures during a race
• Fixed Two Player Career from sometimes skipping or getting stuck during Contract Negotiations
• Fixed an instance in Two Player career where both players restarting their game could cause a desync
• Fixed a rare instance in Two Player Career which could result in the wrong driver name being added
• After retiring from a race on the first lap the player’s Pace statistic will no longer increase
• Fixed a rare issue where Specialists could incorrectly become unavailable in Driver Career
• When comparing drivers in between later seasons in Career, all drivers will be in their correct teams
• Improved the Agent Introduction Cinematic

GRAPHICS/VISUALS

• Improved Ray Tracing reflection quality
• Prevented dynamic objectives from sometimes having a deadline beyond the final lap of the race
• When a dynamic objective is given the MFD will now automatically open to the relevant page if available
• The Copy Livery screen now shows the correct colours
• Accessing the Casual Wear store from within a Driver Career will now always show a correctly modelled custom driver
• Fixed a rare occurrence where the player could flashback after Terminal Damage and all sectors of the track would appear red
• Visual improvements to some F1 24 & F2 23 vehicles
• More Carbon Fibre particles have been added during collisions in Replays
• Replay Camera improvements at several tracks
• Cinematic Safety Car Camera improvements at several tracks

AUDIO

• Fixed an issue with Race Engineer pitstop lines in various languages
• Commentators will no longer sometimes be silent after a race in some languages
• Removed some incorrect Engineer Audio which could play during a Cinematic Safety Car

MULTIPLAYER

• Added a fix to ensure that F1 World ability mods last the correct duration for players with a poor connection in multiplayer races
• Yellow Flags are now visible for retired Spectators

HANDLING (OTHER)

• The marginal increase in speed when partially driving on the grass has been eradicated
• A fix has been made to prevent extreme overheating of the tyres in certain conditions

MISCELLANEOUS

• UDP Options have now been capped at 60Hz. Anyone who previously had this set higher will need to set it back to 60Hz
• Support added for the Asetek Invicta™ Direct Drive Wheelbase
• Some extra Casual Wear Customisation items have been added
• Various UI improvements in many areas of the game have been made
• General stability improvements
• Various minor fixes