The Formula One season is heating up and, starting July 16, fans can step right into the shoes of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton and try to win the World Drivers' Championship in a new career mode in F1 2021. Also new to this year's iteration in the long-running series is a new career mode known as Braking Point in which players will follow a narrative path from the 2019 F2 season and through the F1 2020 and 2021 season.

F1 2021 is the fourteenth title in the series but it will be the first to be available on the next generation of consoles. Currently, the Formula One season is in Azerbaijan at its sixth race of the year with Max Verstappen leading the championship. With the Real Season Start feature players should be able to hop right into the thick of the season upon the game's release.

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The Real Season Start feature in F1 2021 allows players to swap themselves with any driver on the grid and pick up exactly where the real Formula 1 season has left off. Players will be able to start a career mode from the last (or any previous) Formula 1 Grand Prix with the actual driver standings and teams progress to that point. Another highly touted feature in this year's game is the career mode known as Braking Point in which players work their way through Formula 2 and into F1. The developers promise a strong narrative with a well-written story for players to experience through intense racing scenarios and off-track situations.

On top of this, F1 2021 gives players the option to do a two player co-op career and race with their friends on the same team or as rivals through the F1 calendar. According to the developers, the research and developing process in career modes has been tinkered with as well and the multiplayer options and systems have each received major updates from the previous title. These updates with the addition of the Braking Point career mode are all indications that Codemasters and new owner EA are working hard to move the game closer to the simulation category without alienating casual players.

The drive towards making F1 2021 more of a simulation game makes sense but the balance Codemasters and EA are trying to attain by offering more and more options for casual and hardcore players is a difficult one to attain. There are options such as Pro Career that give players a more hardcore approach to racing and F1 2021 introduces Expert Race Style which gives players even more settings to adjust as well.

In the end it might just pay off but players won't really know until F1 2021 comes out. If both the racing simulation fans as well as the casual racer fans are happy then F1 2021 should be a big success. But until July, F1 fans are just going to have to settle for watching the real F1 season roll on.

F1 2021 will be available on July 16 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

MORE: F1 2020 Review Roundup