“It wasn’t a challenge because it’s something that could, should and probably will happen, I hope, in the next few years.” For Lee Mather, the creative director of the franchise. F1 At Codemasters, the arrival of women in official Formula 1 competitions is a logical evolution. hence the title F1 23 decided to take the plunge.
For the first time in the simulation game series, a female pilot appears. For this, the 2023 edition of the license takes up a concept that she had imagined for F1 21: Tell a story Netflix-style.
Since 2019, the documentary series drive to survive goes behind the scenes of the F1 World Championship. Located in the privacy of the paddock, each season unwinds the thread of friendships and animosities between drivers, clandestine negotiations and, finally, moments of everyday life in a team.
“A good entry point”
Beyond boosting the popularity of motorsports, it has also benefited gaming. F1. “We’ve seen a whole new audience emerge in the last few years,” says Lee Mather, referring to the opportunity for a new game mode.
With his “Braking Point” adventure, F1 21 it had been able to accommodate new players who simply wanted the game to tell them a story. “It’s really a good entry point,” says the creative director. Above all, it allows you to immediately put a player behind the wheel without asking them to build a race strategy or choose a type of tire.
The 2023 version of the game continues the plot started two years earlier by adding a new face: Callie Mayer. The character thus becomes the first woman to get behind the wheel in the franchise developed by Codemasters. In the past, players could create a female avatar, but this was not used in a scenario.
“Telling the story the right way”
However, putting a woman behind the wheel of a single-seater in the game is nothing extraordinary or unreasonable. In 2018, the W Series competition allowed women to show off their driving skills. This year, the F1 Academy (managed by the Formula One group) has taken over and wants to establish more links with F1, always with the aim of finding heirs to Lella Lombardi and Giovanna Amati.
These two Italian drivers are among the five women who have participated in an official F1 competition. But, nevertheless, we must go back to 1976 to see Lella Lombardi at the start of a race, and to 1992 to see her compatriot driving an F1, during a test session.
To give enough credence to his vision, F1 23 went to take advice from Jamie Chadwick. He not only won all three W Series seasons, but is also a development driver for the Williams F1 team. The idea was to “tell the story the right way.”
“We wanted Jamie to talk to us about the challenges he faced throughout his career and how he rose through the ranks to get to where he is today,” says Lee Mather.
After this first successful test, Codemasters would see itself integrating a women’s championship in these next games. “We are currently in discussions with the Formula One group about what we might do with the F1 Academy in the future,” says the franchise’s creative director. But for now, nothing has been finalized.
Source: BFM TV
