It's been more than a month since the first hint of F1 23 landed at our feet, but since then it's been nothing but silence from Codemasters and EA about the annual Formula 1 franchise.
Ahead of the season-opener in Bahrain, the F1 23 store pages went live on various platforms, with an image of a bare car and the caption "new season, fresh start" on the official Twitter channel.
But the usual announcement slot in the calendar has now come and gone, leaving fans wondering where exactly F1 23 is.
Waiting at the lights
The F1 22 announcement trailer dropped on 21 April 2022. For F1 2021 it was 15 April. But we are still waiting on Codemasters to lift the covers on F1 23.
While signups for the F1 23 beta have been running this week, and have confirmed the game's presence on PS4 & Xbox One, there has been no public information about the game yet.
This is something of a surprise given that rumours have been flying about EA wanting to get the F1 games out much closer to the start of the season than they have been previously.
This would fall in line with the rest of their sports titles, which usually come at or just after the start of the season. Now there are plenty of reasons for the F1 franchise being unable to do that, but the prevailing theory was they would be pushing F1 23 up by at least a few weeks.
However, as time goes on without a reveal trailer that seems less and less likely. We've heard more about EA Sports FC than we have about F1 23, and EA's rebranded football title is likely to release two or three months AFTER F1 23.
Silence is golden
Of course, a delay in announcing the game isn't necessarily a bad thing. For many players, the Formula 1 franchise has been going backwards over the last few years. A big problem for F1 22 was just how much information about the game was revealed and previewed beforehand.
While controversial inclusions, everyone had seen the likes of Tiametmarduk and Aarava show off F1 Life and the new supercars before the game released. We were able to preview these new features a full month before the launch of the game.
Couple this with features like VR for PC players getting dedicated trailers and a clear lack of innovation to career mode & My Team and players felt like they had already experienced F1 22 by the time it came out.
Going with a more low-key, less-is-more campaign for F1 23 might allow the game to retain an air of mystery and freshness that F1 22 was lacking. It might mean that fans don't feel burnt out on the game by mid-August.
A shorter publicity campaign could serve Codemasters, and players, much better than following the path of previous releases.
When will Codemasters show off F1 23?
With all that being said, we wouldn't be at all surprised if the unexpected April break in the F1 calendar is the reason behind Codemasters' decision to push the announcement of F1 23.
There hasn't been a Formula 1 race since 2 April in Melbourne. The cars will attack the track again on 30 April in Baku, which means interest in the sport is about to pick up again.
Race week is the perfect time to announce the new game and plaster some advertising around the streets of Baku for the race. So keep your eyes peeled for an F1 23 announcement next week!
Of course, you can expect RacingGames.GG to have all the details when Codemasters does decide to break cover.