If you are a purist , this post isn’t for you, F1 cars are tough to drive, that’s why they have people with years and years and years of experience driving them. I play with drive assist on and the game is pure pleasure in that mode. A lot of people will say that F1 2012 repackages F1 for the mainstream, we are however ok with that.

Thanks to FreeStyleXtreme for sending us a review copy.

First things 1st, a lot has changed since F1 2011, initially when I received the game I thought that this wouldn’t be much different but Codemasters have really made the game much more enjoyable, sometimes via large changes and sometimes via subtle changes to the experience. Some of the things however do remain the same, you still have an email inbox and a manager who takes care of sending you random email.

Physics/Graphics/Gameplay Improvements:

The Physics in the F1 game is exceptional, whether it’s the bouncing on the kerbs or the rain splatter from the car in front. One can see that enough thought has gone into designing the physics engine.

Another cool feature is the flashback feature, in earlier editions if you got say a 10 seconds penalty, you would have to restart the game or finish in a horrible position by absorbing the penalty,however in the current edition, you can pause, rewind and retake the corner, not causing that accident or cutting the corner and hence avoiding playing the race all over again. There are limited number of such flashbacks available in the game.

The graphics in the game are also top notch, the reflections look realistic and the tracks are beautiful. The game deserves to be enjoyed in HD on a console (unless you have a monster PC). Otherwise you would miss all the finer car details and the stunning fluid gameplay.

Modes:

Apart from the traditional championship modes and time trial attacks present in the 2011 edition too, the game has several new modes added for your playing pleasure, when you start, you are invited for the Young Driver’s test. It’s a series of tutorials as well as scenarios to prove your worth as a F1 driver. It’s a good introduction to the controls for the 1st time gamers. You do want to ace each test here as a good score here would earn you a spot with your favorite formula one team.

Once you are done with the Young Driver’s test and earned your achievements, you can move onto the Season Challenge. The Season challenge is an exciting new part of the game wherein  you compete in 10 formula one races and choose a rival for 3 races at a time. When you beat a rival, you have the option to take his seat. Its fun to say the least.

Another new gameplay mode is the champion’s mode wherein you get to play against six world champions in pre-determined scenarios, the scenarios get progressively more difficult and the adrenaline rush is difficult to ignore in the roaring sounds of the engine.

Overall Rating:

We are addicted to formula one and this game is as close to F1 action that you would get. We are giving it a 5/5 rating, the game offers hours and hours of gameplay.  Comparing to F1 2011, the game is much more evolved and accessible, sometimes at the cost of F1 purity, but that’s ok.

If you enjoyed this review, head on over to our partners who made it happen  : www.freestyleXtreme.com

Indianapolis is known as the racing capital of America, so its natural to assume that almost all top-class world famous racing happens there, however 2012 is going to be different. Whether December is the end of the world remains to be seen, however what is sure is that the formula one race in USA is going to be held in Austin, TX.

The race is going to be held in the $400 million Circuit of the Americas, a quick Google search tells me this is the 10th circuit to host the race in the US.

As the 1st practice went off, tweets from the circuit’s account told us a whooping 63500 were in attendance for the practice sessions alone, that does paint a rosy picture as the number should swell up over the weekend and during the race. This would of course get the organizers and promoters happy who are hoping for continues Govt. support for the race.

Governor Rick Perry is a strong supporter of the F1 race :

“The U.S. Grand Prix will bring 1.2 million visitors to central Texas, and is an opportunity to demonstrate to people from around the world everything we have to offer in the Lone Star State as a tourism destination, and as a place to live and work,” Perry was quoted.

“This event is adding to our state’s profile worldwide, and represents a valuable opportunity to tell the Texas story to a whole new group of race fans and decision makers from all around the world.”

Bernie Ecclestone, formula one supremo, was equally excited by the circuit :

It looks very much like a permanent circuit and I hope it remains permanent as far as Formula One goes, Ecclestone said.

We have a contract and we would be happy to stay here.

“It’s absolutely first class. All things we wanted to get done have been done.

“We’ve taken the good bits from all the different circuits and tried to put them together. It should make good racing.”

There is also a video posted of an actual formula one lap at the circuit.

The app in its full glory can be seen here :

http://www.etihadairways.com/sites/Etihad/Etihad%20Images/etihad-f1/index.html

Go check it out !

For folks outside India, here are the facts :

1. The Italian marines shot down fishermen off the coast of Kerala in India.

2. Tried to escape to international waters, played the jurisdiction card when arrest became imminent and even offered money to the kin of those deceased.

3. They are getting a fair trial in the courts of this country.

Currently the matter is sub-judice in India and the marines are on bail. If they are innocent, F1chronicles hopes they would be acquitted , if they are guilty they deserve punishment like any criminal.

The action by Ferrari in view of the above facts can only be seen as stupid since the Govt. can do anything in the matter due to the courts handing the matter. The Ferrari team in its press release had hoped Indian authorities would find a solution which cannot happen as courts are independent in India.

The initial release read :

After the hue and cry, the Scuderia Ferrari team embarrassed had to go into damage control after the earlier release and issued the following release :

Some advisor needs to get fired

Michael Schumacher just a few races away from the end of his career proclaimed that he sees the next big German F1 driver in Sebastien Vettel. He went on to call the young German the new Mr.F1 from Germany. Speaking to a German newspaper he was quoted as saying :

"I also think he will win this year’s title, he has the right conditions for it.

"In the long term, I think he should go on to become Germany’s Mister Formula One."

Speaking about his retirement, the German cautioned others into following his example and returning from retirement :

"There has to be some sense behind it. I have seen examples where people return and are hopelessly out-driven," Schumacher said.

"To get confirmation that you are no longer good enough is of course a negative thing.

"So I wouldn’t like to motivate anyone to try it and throw themselves into their own misfortune."

"Mercedes made it clear that they wanted to keep working with me," he said.

Schumacher also admitted that the experience has changed him from a behavioral standpoint but as a person he is still the same.

"Yes and no. As a person, I am still the same as before, but I’ve learned to be more open and not to despair of the difficult situations, but to understand them," he said.

"It has given me a certain looseness that people have noticed.

"I am still the same person I was, but I have taken the blinkers off with which I used to walk through the pit lanes."

“Last year we had a full house. We had so much support during the first race and that was pretty unique. I don’t remember any other new country we explored with Formula One that got so much following. So I want to say thank you to all the fans that supported us last year and will hopefully do the same this year.”

“In India, I never thought I would be this popular. Before coming here for the first time, I thought only a small group of fans would know me. But the support is everywhere and it is definitely quite touching. The emotions run high for fans here,” said Schumacher.

The German made is clear though that he wont be coming back to the sport.

“I don’t want to think about the future but there won’t be a third comeback for sure.”

The good thing was the German didn’t seem repentant upon reentering the sport.

“In total, the legacy still remains. I became a more experienced driver being in tough situations. I made some close friends and now I want to move on.”

In an expected move the Mercedes GP team announced the signing of young Briton Lewis Hamilton ending speculation about Michael Schumacher renewing with the Mercedes GP unit. Lewis Hamilton ofcourse didn’t show any loyalty to the team that trained him as a kid (McLaren Mercedes) and pretty much gifted him a formula one seat. But that’s a story for another day.

So why did Mercedes not sign Michael Schumacher on for another season and what does the future hold for him ?

Mercedes decision to go ahead with Lewis Hamilton is linked to Michael’s indecisiveness on renewing his Mercedes contract. No doubt Mercedes wanted to renew his contract, just that Michael and his camp were showing disinterest. And in a sport that moves as fast as formula one, that can be a crime. So Mercedes covered their butts by signing a good driver in Lewis Hamilton and now potentially leaving Michael with an embarrassing end to his comeback.

At the start of the season, many of  F1 who’s who, including Bernie Ecclestone and Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn had predicted Michael Schumacher to win not only races in the 2012 season but the formula one driver’s championship. Sadly 14 races into the season, the F1 veteran has failed to finish 50% of the time. To his credit around 5 times it  has been something which was not his fault. But still the statistics on paper look pretty bad.

But does that mean Michael Schumacher should quit formula one and not risk another season ? Hell No ! , Michael is driving pretty well, many a times you can see its the car which is the limiting factor and not the driver. The person who put his legacy on the time by coming back from retirement needs a better ending to formula one.

Ofcourse it would be hard to match his previous career stint , but it doesn’t mean he shouldn’t try. Sauber has expressed interest in signing on the ace German and as his fans we can only hope that he accepts the offer. Whatever the future holds, here is one Schumacher fan who would love him forever

Apparently Vettel has a pre-contract with Ferrari for 2014 and Fernando Alonso has already veto-ed that he wouldn’t like to race with Lewis Hamilton as a partner,

Domenicali had said: “I think they are both intelligent guys and they could easily co-exist.”

Meanwhile Red Bull were quick to counter and had said that they have Vettel under contract for 2014.

Sebastien Vettel meanwhile was cool as a cucumber, shrugging off the rumours :

“I’ve always said Ferrari is a great team with a great history, and with a great tradition in Formula One in particular,” Vettel said.

“But I’m very happy with where I am at the moment. Does it unsettle me? No.

“For now the focus is entirely on this season. If you want to have a say on this year’s championship, you are much better off being fully focused because as you can see it’s extremely tight, with a lot of winners so far, so I need all my focus on this year.”

The 1st session is a bit interesting, the top 3 drivers are Hulkenberg, Koayashi and Grosjean followed by world champion Sebastien Vettel. The only issue being that the top3 have already used their super soft compound tyres while the biggies managed to qualify using just soft compound tyres so that they can get better times in their subsequent runs. Perez, Karthikyean, Pique, Delarosa, Heikki Kovalainen and Timo Glock are among those relegated.

In Q2, Nico Rosberg seems to be doing pretty well, Rosberg was also the fastest guy in the morning practice session. He leads from Webber, Hamilton, Alonso and Schumacher, all of them in .200th of a second. Infact, top 11 drivers in Q2 are within 1 seond of each other. Pastor Maldonado and Michael Schumacher have to contend with a 10 place and 5 place penalty respectively. And Felipe Massa just goes P1, apparently Ferrari have asked him to perform or perish. As the Q2 session ends Jenson Button is unable to enter the top 10 and the previous Monaco Grand Prix winner will have to start from P13.

Q3, was whoa ! Straight to the result, Michael Schumacher gets pole position. He is ecstatic and so are we, he is cheering and flashing the victory sign. Its fate’s cruel turn that he has a 5 place penalty to contend with.

More later !

I wonder how it was at the Indian Empress last night, Vijay Mallya again threw the biggest party and everyone’s who is a somebody was there.

Here are some photos which show the Yacht in its full glory during the party :

Onto the race now, Michael Schumacher already has a penalty to contend with for hitting Bruno Senna during the last race at Barcelona. But he seemed pretty upbeat about it :

“Every time you go to Monaco, you just look forward to finally getting out and driving the track. Of course, knowing that I will lose five positions on the grid does not add to this feeling but this just means that I will have to try even harder,” Schumacher said.

“Monaco is just a circuit of its own very unique character. In a way, you could look at it with a big portion of irony with regards to the contradiction that, for so many years we have successfully campaigned for more track safety, and then we deliberately race in Monaco.

“But in my view this is justifiable once a year, especially as the circuit is really so much fun to drive.

“I’m actually quite confident that we should look reasonably good in Monaco due to the hard work that everybody in the team is putting into the development of our car. So let’s make the best out of the weekend.”

So qualifying is about to start, this post is done ,hope you are as excited as we are !