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F1 2020

Price £39.99-£64.99 (varies by format) codemasters.com

It’s a photo finish between on-track racing and the officially licenced product as the latest version of the F1 game franchise launches hot on the heels of the (belated) first grand prix of the year. Covering PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4 formats, F1 2020 features all the cars and drivers of the 2020 season as well as the full line-up of tracks originally scheduled to be on the calendar.

That means you’ll be able to lap Zandvoort virtually before F1 returns to the Dutch GP venue next year, as well as the new Hanoi street circuit. Also new for this iteration is the ‘My Team’ mode which enables players to create their own team and select a driver to be their team-mate.

A slightly controversial facet of this, received rather sniffily on social media, has been the inclusion of Top Trumps-style ratings for each driver, all of which affect their in-game performance. Cue much grinding of teeth from fans of particular drivers who feel their man has been badly under-rated in certain areas.

A two-player mode featuring a split screen makes a welcome return to the game, and there’s also the option to choose between running a full season or two shorter options. A Michael Schumacher Edition (at extra cost) enables you to race four iconic cars from Michael’s career: the Jordan 191, Benetton B194 and B195, and the Ferrari F1-2000.

SHADOW – THE MAGNIFICENT MACHINES OF A MAN OF MYSTERY Price £75

Author Pete Lyons evropublishing.com

Fifty years ago the Shadow marque appeared in motor racing for the first time in the Canam championship. Latterly it spread its wings into F1 and F5000 before fizzling out in 1980.

In 11 seasons it claimed one Canam title and a single F1 victory but its story is a fascinating one, encompassing tragedy as well as triumph: in the 1977 South African GP one of the team’s cars retired in flames and a marshal crossing the track with a fire extinguisher was struck by Shadow’s lead driver, Tom Pryce. Both the marshal and Pryce, whose head hit the extinguisher, died immediately.

Possibly the most fascinating aspect of the Shadow story is the team’s founder, Don Nichols: a former military man who had parachuted into France on D-day and served as a counter-intelligence operative in the Korean war, latterly an entrepreneur with several business interests in Japan (he was also involved in the project to build Fuji Speedway). Nichols took amusement in playing on his shadowy past, even adopting a cloaked figure as his team’s logo.

Author Pete Lyons, grand prix editor of GP Racing’s sister magazine Autosport during the 1970s, was reporting on Canam when Shadow made its debut. His recollections

– and interviews with the principal cast, including Nichols himself – form the backbone of this niche but fascinating book.

HAUT DE GAMME POSTERS

Price From £150 (mini-edition prints) to £445 (limited-edition prints) hautdegamme.com

London-based multi-media artist and motorsport fan Alexander Hall, the man behind the Haut de Gamme brand, can name Formula 1 star Daniel Ricciardo among his highprofile clients. Haut de Gamme prints also feature extensively in IHG hotels around the world. The champagne celebration on the podium after a race is the inspiration for the technique behind these prints of iconic sports cars, vividly rendered in a dripping paint effect.

ASSETTO CORSA COMPETIZIONE Price £34.99 505games.com

This racing-focused spin-off from Kunos Simulazioni’s popular

Assetto Corsa sim was a hit on PC when it was released last summer. Now it makes its way onto the Xbox One and Playstation 4. That entails some trade-offs in terms of graphical fidelity compared with high-end PCS although you’d be hard pushed to notice once immersed in the action.

Assetto Corsa Competizione is the official game of the real-life GT World Challenge (formerly known as the Blancpain GT Series), and its painstaking modelling of the GT3 class attracted a great deal of interest from F1’s Esports dabblers – including Charles Leclerc – during the COVID-19 lockdown. Although there are Sprint and Endurance races (including the Spa 24 Hours), this is a proper simulation rather than an arcade-style game. The developer claims to have used Laserscan technology to model every wrinkle of the circuits, and the characteristics of the cars – from the likes of Lamborghini, Ferrari, Mercedes, Mclaren and Porsche – are reproduced as precisely as possible. Kunos has also worked with Pirelli to finesse tyre performance.

An add-on Intercontinental GT Pack features extra tracks (including Suzuka and Mount Panorama) as well as more drivers, teams and liveries.