We’re less than two months away from the release of Codemasters’ F1 2019 title, which will feature Formula 2 cars, a new Senna vs. Prost mode, improved graphics and driving physics.

At a recent event in Hamburg, Germany, Autosport’s Tom Errington got the chance to play an early version of the game and then sat down for an interview in order to share his thoughts on one of the most eagerly anticipated games of the year.

Say hello to Formula 2

While racing F2 cars is arguably a lot less exciting than F1, the way Codemasters went about implementing this new mode into the game is pretty clever. You start your racing career in F2, where you’ll be constantly compared to specific rivals, which will then follow you up into Formula 1 so you can keep the rivalry going throughout multiple seasons – which should make for a genuinely interactive career arc.

Whether or not players will be given a choice to turn F2 mode off and start directly in F1, that remains to be seen.

What about Formula 1?

As you can imagine, the action this year is going to be even more realistic than in F1 2018. The graphics are better and the driving dynamics seem to mirror what we’ve been seeing so far in real life, specifically how it is easier for drivers to approach another car and overtake.

Last but not least there’s the new Senna vs. Prost mode, where you get to race these legends against each other. Unfortunately, this new mode doesn’t feel particularly engaging or difficult, with Errington basically saying that it was like last year’s “Overtake challenge, but with Senna and Prost.”