A few days later than planned due to flooding cancelling the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the second F1 23 deep dive has landed as we get closer to release.
While the first deep dive provided a closer look at the new circuits and improved handling and physics, the second F1 23 deep dive, once again narrated by Sky Sports F1 presenter Natalie Pinkham, focuses on Braking Point 2 and F1 World.
Braking Point 2 features new and familiar faces
One of F1 23’s headline new features is the return of the Braking Point story mode following its debut in F1 2021. Braking Point 2 sees the return of old rivals Aiden Jackson and Devon Butler, this time driving as teammates Konnersport Butler Racing Team, a new fictional team on the grid.
Spanning the 2022 and 2023 seasons, Braking Point 2 introduces new character Callie Mayer. Not only is Mayer the first woman to ever win the F2 championship, but Callie also happens to be Devon Butler’s sister.
When developing the new character, F1 23’s writing team worked with three-time W Series World Champion and Williams Racing development driver Jamie Chadwick.
As you progress, your on and off-track actions affect your Performance and Reputation levels, with higher levels offering bonus rewards. Progressing Braking Point will also earn you Podium Pass XP, allowing you to earn additional rewards.
Bonus objectives can also be unlocked depending on decisions you make when developing your car and the team alongside responses you give to the press. Completing or failing these objectives will affect how the story plays out.
Players who pre-order the Champions Edition will unlock several Braking Point character My Teamicons.
New F1 World hub revealed
As well as Braking Point 2, the second deep dive gave us a first look at F1 World. Replacing last year's divisive F1 Life mode, F1 World serves as the central hub allowing access to multiple solo and multiplayer game modes. Progression in game modes is shared and you can also view daily, weekly, and seasonal content.
Familiar Time Trial, Grand Prix, and Multiplayer game modes have been given a fresh look. As you progress, you'll increase your Tech Level and earn upgrades for your F1 World car.
Like with My Team and Multiplayer cars, F1 World cars can be customised cosmetically, but you can also unlock and equip upgrades to change performance from new brakes to gearboxes.
In addition, Team Members can be assigned in F1 World including a Team Principal, Strategist, R&D Head, and Sponsors. From here, you can assign contracts to each team member giving added gameplay objectives. Unwanted upgrades can also be dismantled into resources to craft other items.
F1 World also introduces a new Series mode "designed to offer a range of competitive events that take you on a single-player global tour of Formula 1."
These events utilise a variety of tracks and game modes while giving you various primary and secondary objectives to complete to help you improve your driving skills and practice different circuits.
F1 22's divisive Supercar events also return in F1 World and there's also a new Goals and Compendium section offering more opportunities to win rewards and a virtual sticker album.
New safety rating system
A new safety rating system known as the License Level will encourage cleaner racing in F1 23 both offline and online. When playing in single or multiplayer, how well you follow the rules and the number of penalties you receive will affect your License Level.
As you advance through ranks A-D, you'll unlock more realistic race styles. Rank D races, for example, have collisions disabled in multiplayer, but drivers with a Rank A license will have full damage enabled.
Even if you achieve a higher ranking, you can still race in lower license levels for a more casual experience or you can turn the License Level off in multiplayer or offline races.
For a more competitive experience, you can also prevent players with a particular license level from joining a custom multiplayer race.
Revamped ranked multiplayer
F1 23's ranked multiplayer is also revamped with a new division system. This time, drivers are paired into groups, with 100 players in each. Every group has its own leaderboard. How you perform in Ranked events affects your leaderboard position.
Top players in each division will be promoted to the next division end of the week, while the lowest players will be demoted. The overall aim is to climb to the top Elite division with the top 100 players in the world.
Release date
We don’t have to wait too much longer to experience F1 23’s Braking Point 2 and F1 World features. F1 23 races onto PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC on 16 June.
Players who pre-order the Champions Edition can start racing three days earlier on 13 June.