The Formula 1 season has been full of amazing races that have had fans on the edge of their seats. However, the teams are now on their forced Summer shutdown, meaning there isn't a race until the end of August!
What can F1 fans do to fill that time? Well, there's the Formula E finale this weekend, and of course there is also this thing called "outside", but there's also F1 2021!! Codemasters' new game has been a superb addition to our lives, with My Team, Career Mode, and Braking Point all providing excellent racing for players.
However, the game has enough settings and customisation that you can create lots of entertaining challenges for yourself. These five will keep you busy until F1 returns!
The lap down challenge
This one is pretty simple. Set the AI to 0% and race distance to 25%, use the default setup and then at the race start just pull over and let everyone pass you.
Don't get going again until the entire field has lapped you. Yes, even Nikita Mazepin!
The only thing you need to do is roll forward from time to time so that you don't get disqualified for being stationary on track for too long!
Slicks in the rain
Patience is a virtue, and nothing will teach you throttle patience like trying to control a car on slick tyres on a wet track.
For this challenge load up a 0% AI grid for a 5-lap race. Make sure you're in a quick car, Red Bull or Mercedes, and then make sure weather is set to very wet. Once again make sure to keep a default setup on.
At the start of the race you can't pick slicks. This is a good thing because otherwise you wouldn't get off the line! At the end of lap 1 come in and fit softs. You'll want to build a good lead in that first lap because you don't have long to catch back up to the field.
You'll want to have flashbacks enabled for this one because it is a nightmare trying to take any mid-high speed corner, but the AI are painfully slow at 0% AI, so a podium isn't out of the question.
100% focus
For some of you this will just be a standard race, but for most 25% or 50% race distance is all we do. Well, not now.
Without a real F1 race eating up your Sunday afternoon why not give a full qualifying and full race distance challenge a go?
Jump into a midfield car against your usual AI level and load up your best setup, then see how you get on.
Fuel, tyres, and battery management is far more influential and important in a full race, and nothing tests your concentration as much as a 100% race. Give it a try!
The Full Pirelli
Every weekend hundreds of tyres turn up to a race, and only a few get used. Well, not now.
It's a 0% AI and 25% race challenge once again, but this time you need to use all FIVE types of tyre. That means four pitstops, wets & inters on a dry track, and plenty of hard work behind the wheel.
The challenge here is picking the right order to do things on. Do you start on wets to get them out of the way? Make all your stops immediately? Or build a lead and then try to get your stops done? Can you do it on a default setup, or will you need that magic one? We'll leave it to you to find out!
Last to first
F1 is good, but F2 is even better!
Setting up this challenge requires a few extra things. You want to set the race weekend to qualifying and feature race only, set the feature race to full distance as it's no more than 40 laps. Then set your AI to your usual level and once you are into the race weekend just retire from qually so you end up at the back.
This one is pure racing. There's no ERS management and equal car performance. However, F2 cars are vastly different when it comes to handling. With 6 gears rather than 8 you can't just short-shift your way out of corners, instead you need to balance your throttle and get the car straight first. It's a massive test of skill and patience if you haven't tried the F2 cars before, and honestly we should all use them much more!