Codies Racing Line: May 6, 2021
Welcome to another Codies Racing Line, and the first of May 2021!
To be honest with you, this week’s edition of the Racing Line is a pretty normal affair – and of course, normality in these parts means an absolute lorry-load of news, reveals and details to bring you on Codemasters titles. New updates, content reveals, and much more (including a real-life motorsport victory) await…
F1®
Hello all, and welcome to this week’s Racing Line!
F1® 2021
In case you missed it (in which case, we’re not sure what rock you’ve been living under, but hello ;) ), we announced F1® 2021 a few weeks ago. If you haven’t caught up on Braking Point (our new story experience), two-player career, Real-Season Start and more you can get all the details here, and check out our announcement trailer.
We’ll be revealing more very soon, so keep an eye out on all our channels for more!
F1® 2020
F1® Esports Challengers
Last week, the final F1® Esports Challengers events took place on PS4, Xbox and PC, and what better circuits to bow out on than Austin’s Circuit of the Americas and Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit. Find out who got into the crucial top six and earned a place in the Pro Exhibition across all three platforms in our handy playlist.
F1® Esports Women’s Wildcard
The Women’s Wildcard is a new route to the Pro Exhibition. Along with our Challengers winners, DHL Time Trial specialists, 2020 China Championship trailblazers and a selection of Pro Series drivers from 2020, one talented female racer will make it to the show, which takes place at the end of May. Interested? Here’s a quick run-through of what you need to do…
Firstly, you’ll need to sign up to f1esports.com. Load up F1® 2020 and head to Time Trial. Select Modern F1 Cars from the options and choose whichever car you like – car performance will need to be set to equal, so your choice of team won’t be a factor. Select Silverstone Circuit, turn off assists, set weather to dry and time of day to official, and you’re all set! If you’re interested you can find out all the details you need right here, but make sure you hurry as you have until May 9th to get your times in.
- Jenny
CODEMASTERS DIRT RALLY TEAM
We won a rally!
After what seems like an eternity of waiting, planning and preparation, the time finally came in late-April when the Codemasters DiRT Rally team would make its hotly-anticipated debut in the FIA Junior WRC at Croatia Rally.
Going into the rally, our driver (and fellow Codies colleague) Jon Armstrong and his co-driver Phil Hall were feeling confident of putting in a good performance, while all of us here on the Codies side could do was simply cross our fingers and watch.
Jon and Phil, in the striking black and yellow DiRT Rally livery (which we’ve nicknamed the “rocket bee”), were going up against some of the most promising young drivers the WRC has seen in years. Pretty much everybody in the field was capable of stage wins, so it was going to be a tough week of action for our crew out in Croatia.
After putting in tons of work on the recce and having a rather epic slide in the shakedown, it was time for the main event. We started slowly, building confidence and exploring the limits of the car, but as the first of three days of rallying progressed, Jon and Phil climbed up the order and started challenging for stages.
Then came the big day on Saturday, with two massive 25km stages as the highlight. It was here that Jon saw the opportunity to strike, pushing ultra-hard where others were hesitant and snatching the lead mid-afternoon. On Sunday with a relatively comfortable lead, the goal was to bring the car home without any major issues – and the guys did a fantastic job, holding the lead and securing the win!
We’ve got a whole bunch of pictures here, and if you want to see the car in action check out Junior WRC’s highlight clip here. Once Jon and Phil got back from Croatia I sat down to have a chat with them about the whole experience, as we take you behind-the-scenes and compare real-life rallying to what you all do at home in the game.
Next up, Jon and Phil are having another test session next week, followed by a trip to Portugal for the first gravel rally of the season. It’s a location they’ve driven at before, so hopefully they can bring home another set of trophies!
That’s all from me for now, I’ll be back soon to give you another update on how the team’s getting on.
- PJ
DIRT 5
Dragging myself away from staring at more of your photo mode shots to share the latest DIRT 5 update with you all!
It’s been a busy time internally for our awesome team, as we continue prepping towards the next steps of DIRT 5’s content this year. Our latest community update sheds a little more light on what we’ve been working on behind the scenes in recent weeks, including expected upcoming fixes and a key change to leaderboards. Get the scoop here.
We’ve been increasing our regular activities and challenges with the DIRT 5 community, too. Along with our weekly photo mode contests and Playgrounds of the Week, we’re now running Time Trial challenges. Keep an eye on our channels (Twitter, Instagram) for new race scenarios for you to recreate in Time Trial mode, then see if you can beat our time – and everyone else’s. Even though these events are just for fun, they’re already getting pretty competitive, so better bring your A game, kid.
Thank you for all your support during April. Next time you see us here, we should have plenty more to talk about. Right, back to staring at those shots!
- Chris
PROJECT CARS 3
Welcome back, racers! This is where I’d normally fill you in on what’s been happening in the world of Project CARS, but I don’t think anything’s happened, really, since last we spoke…
Oh wait, there was that small piece of news about a new update, a free new circuit, and a DLC that dropped this week, wasn’t there?
Electric Pack
The fourth content pack for Project CARS 3, the Electric Pack, was released earlier this week, as well as Update 5 featuring Circuit Zandvoort, free for all Project CARS 3 drivers. Read the update notes right here. The Electric Pack came with four of the world’s fastest EVs, which are electrifying (sorry!) the community with their instant torque and staggering performance. Here they are:
2020 Porsche Taycan Turbo S (above)
“Soul, electrified” is Porsche’s tagline for their first electric sportscar, the Porsche Taycan Turbo S that takes everything you know and love about Porsche and brings it all to the EV space. Precision-handling—as fast around the ’Ring as a Porsche Cayman GT4—allied to 750hp and 0-100kmh in 2.5s with a brain-warping 1.3Gs under full acceleration. Throw in the world’s first “multispeed” transmission in an EV car and what you get is the future, today.
2020 Volkswagen ID.R (above)
Developed as an uncompromising and lightweight prototype with enormous downforce, the Volkswagen ID.R represents the first ever fully electric race car of the Volkswagen brand. Average Gs for its record run at the Nurburgring was 3.5, while power comes from two electric engines pushing 680hp, in a car that weighs just over a tonne.
2020 Audi AI:RACE
Innovation in the Audi AI:RACE starts with the cockpit, where the driver’s seat can be positioned in the centre to make it into a traditional “monoposto”. The battery is also positioned to give the Audi AI:RACE a mid-engine feel, while aluminium, carbon and multi-material composites bring the weight down. You can read more about how we built the one-off Audi RACE:AI over on the Xbox Wire.
2019 NIO EP9
The NIO EP9 holds world records for production cars on many tracks around the world, including a 6:45.90 lap around the Nurburgring. That’s what comes from 335hp on each wheel, 4WD, advanced torque vectoring, and a full carbon fibre chassis. This EV monster will get to 100kmh in 2.7 seconds and 300kmh in 15 seconds, all the way to a top-end speed of 350kmh.
New Free Track & Formula E Liveries
Update 5 also brought the complete livery set for the current season of Formula E. What better place to test drive all these brand-new machines than the latest circuit addition to Project CARS 3 – Zandvoort? The popular Dutch track is free and available to all players!
Rivals Challenge
We’re only in the first week of May, but the Rivals Challenge leaderboards are already heating up. This week’s event puts you in a Panoz Esperante GTR-1 and dares you to thread its long nose through the streets of Azure Circuit. It’s a narrow, bumpy, and loud challenge that will give you the ultimate bragging rights among your friends.
Keep racing!
- Fernando
F1® MOBILE RACING
How good does it feel to have the new F1® season back and in full swing? So good! What makes it even better, of course, is to have F1® Mobile Racing right there with it, with live and competitive action ready for you, whenever and wherever, on iOS and Android. Right now, a new GP Event is live for you to take part in – the European Tour, taking in some of the F1® calendar’s best circuits in Europe for a test of skill and concentration.
Whilst the in-game Events and live Duels action rolls on, we’ve certainly heard your questions and thoughts on what’s coming next for F1® Mobile Racing. Our team are fiercely working away on that next chapter, using your feedback and requests, and we’re getting closer to revealing more. Make sure you’re following our social channels, and check back to the Racing Line, for when we’re able to tell all!
- Chris
ANY OTHER BUSINESS?
- The Photo Mode Magazine is a digital publication dedicated to spotlighting the very best videogame photography innovations and talents from across the globe – so as you would expect, we’re pretty big fans of it! For the TPM’s next issue, we’re teaming up to give virtual photographers the chance to win a Codemasters game code, and feature on our channels. Head here for full details, and good luck!
- Fancy joining the team? Codemasters’ Careers page is chock full of vacancies that we’re taking applications for across our development, publishing, and other departments. Covering across our console projects, mobile, Slightly Mad Studios, and more, there are so many opportunities right now to be a part of the Codies crew.
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