I’ve played on all the Codemasters F1 games since 2010, and my total play time is well into the thousands of hours for sure on these games. Therefore I’m in a reasonable position to compare and rank them, and wanted to produce a ranking of all the official F1 games so far in the last 14 years, from best to worst.

The quality of these games has varied for sure over the years. There’s been lots to be happy about, but also lots to be annoyed and infuriated about with these F1 games over the years.

Also, dunking on Codemasters has become something of a hobby for F1 gaming fans in recent years. But in fairness,  putting this list together, I realised that by my ranking at least, a good number of their recent games in the last 5-6 years are in the top half of this list. It’s just that when they get it wrong – like in 2015 and 2022 – they seem to get it badly wrong, and that’s always what the fans remember. But there’s plenty of good titles in their F1 catalogue.

I’ll preface this by saying that I’ve NOT played the F1 2009 game, since it was a limited release game on Wii and iOS. So that’s not included, nor are the peripheral titles like those “F1 Race Stars” games, nor the more recent “F1 Manager” titles either.

I focus purely on the official F1 game titles from 2010-2023. Here’s my overall ranking from best to worst (in my opinion at least):

1. F1 2013
2. F1 23
3. F1 2020
4. F1 2018
5. F1 2019
6. F1 2017
7. F1 2012
8. F1 2011
9. F1 2016
10. F1 2021
11. F1 2010
12. F1 2014
13. F1 2015
14. F1 22

Now let me explain why….

Front Runners – Best F1 Games

#1. F1 2013 – Fantastic F1 Game

F1 2013 still stands out a classic title in the F1 series, even after a decade.

Although in some aspects it doesn’t hold up quite as well now, for it’s time, it was a fantastic edition of the series with loads of great features bundled into one game:

• Great, grippy handling model.
• Good contact model as well – very raceable online
• Strong, stable online mode
• Classic cars DLC
• Classic tracks DLC (Imola, Estoril, Brands Hatch, Jerez) – superb feature
• Also last game you could race the Korea, Nurburgring and India circuits on.

It was just a well rounded, fun to play F1 game, with a good career mode. In fairness, the AI coding wouldn’t stand up so well today – they’d be too soft and “easy” to race against, and race starts especially would be too easy where you could do silly divebombs and make up 10-12 places at the start (that’s been tightened up and made harder in more recent games). Also the raw pace of the AI wasn’t quite hard enough for the most skilled players – you needed an extra 1-2 levels.

But for the general handling model and online racing, and for it’s time in general, F1 2013 is still the best F1 game in my opinion (see here for a nostalgic revisit by a content creator).

#2. F1 23 – Fun To Race Again

This won’t be a lot of people’s second place choice, but it is for me, simply because it’s a relief to actually be enjoying playing F1 games again after the exhaustion of slogging through F1 22 (more on this below).

F1 23 is a massive improvement on it’s predecessor F1 22, and in my view gets the core fundamentals right in making a racing game fun to play.

Here’s some things I like about F1 23:

• Great handling model with much easier and more predictable traction.
• Improved contact model and better wheel to wheel racing
• Toned down AI – better to race against.
• Easier race starts.
• Great selection of 26 tracks, including the new Qatar and Las Vegas circuits, plus 3 extra tracks (China, Portugal, France).
• Decent online mode – same platform much better than Crossplay – but wheel to wheel racing possible. 
• Decent My Team and Driver career modes. Similar to last few games but much more fun to race against AI.

Playing on F1 23 actually restored my enjoyment and confidence in racing again, after both had been pretty much destroyed by F1 22. So perhaps my #2 ranking here is a bit exaggerated and boosted because I’m seeing it relative to what I’m coming from last year.

Yes, there have been a ton of bugs as with most of the recent games. But I’m all in favour of F1 23, and like that they seem to have focused on making it enjoyable and accessible again as a priority.

Some players will think they’ve gone too far with this game and made it too easy, but I think it was the right call to play it safe after annoying the fan base so much with ’22, and just get us having fun racing again.

Overall, I think F1 23 stands up a strong title from Codemasters and a strong comeback from the disappointing F1 22. If you’re thinking of upgrading from F1 22 or F1 2021, it’s highly recommended.

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#3. F1 2020 – Strong F1 Title

This game would be top of many people’s list, because it still stands up today as a very strong F1 game title.

F1 2020 has been praised by many players as a great game, and some people still play it to this day and haven’t upgraded to any of the subsequent 3 games. Because they feel like they don’t need to because F1 2020 still stands up and is still fun to play to this day.

Here’s some features of F1 2020:

• Strong, enjoyable handling model, with great traction (predictable and a good feel to it).
• The introduction of the My Team Career mode (create, run and drive for your own team)
• Classic cars included (see here for full list)
• F2 mode also available.
• Full original 2020 F1 calendar (the real life tracks only, including the new Vietnam track that was not raced in real life. The extra tracks added late to the calendar in 2020 are unfortunately not included).
• Excellent handling model and fun wheel to wheel racing possible
• Stable online mode.
• Predictable AI (not the quickest, but not overly aggressive either like on some subsequent games)
• The introduction of the ERS deployment system we still have now on these games, where you deploy it with your Overtake button, and the ERS bar depletes.

It was just a solid, fun to play F1 game in the series. And with the frustrations of some of the subsequent F1 titles (especially ’22), some F1 YouTubers nostalgically revisit F1 2020 to appreciate what a good, enjoyable game it was.

Midfield – Good F1 Games

#4. F1 2018 (Great Title)

F1 2018 is another title that’s usually quite high in most experienced player’s lists, often considered an underrated game overall. But it still stands up well today and is great fun to drive, with a high downforce, grippy handling model and very raceable online from personal experience.

I didn’t play all through the life cycle of F1 2018 as I was traveling and doing other projects, but I did play a good few months and enjoyed my online leagues on this game; the driver could make a difference with clever and strategic driving.

Here are some good features from F1 2018:

• Great handling model, with fast cars and fast lap times. You can definitely “feel” the weight of the car in the feedback, but lap times were still fast.
• Great to race online – stable and consistent online lobbies, wheel to wheel racing possible.
• Introduction of the new, super sensitive and fast wearing pink coloured “Hypersoft” tyre –  basically a very grippy Qualifying tyre.
• Tyres very important and sensitive on this game in general – the driver could make a difference to tyre temps/wear with their driving style and gain an advantage over others (however pad users will need to disable carcass tyre temps and have only surface temps on, as overheating is impossible to control on some tracks on a controller).
• First game with the Paul Ricard France track. Hockenheim also included.
• Classic cars, including Brawn 2009 car (see here for full list).
• First game introducing the new Halo device.
• First game with the new ERS deployment feature on it, but works differently to how it does now. You have 5 different ERS modes you can switch between to spend/conserve ERS, rather than a simple Overtake button you either enable or disable. Requires more management.

Overall, if you’re looking for a cheaper “blast from the past” F1 title, F1 2018 is still very playable along with F1 2020. I think they rank similarly as excellent games in the F1 series.

#5. F1 2019 – Solid Game

F1 2019 is one of those games in the series that I really have played a lot of hours on, and although it might not be near the top of some people’s lists and just be a “meh” title, I really like F1 2019.

Here are some good features on F1 2019:

• A great looking game – clean, sharp and crisp graphically. Wet weather aesthetics awesome. 
• Strong handling model again with high downforce and fast lap times, comparable to F1 2018.
• Expanded and developed career mode, with extensive, detailed R&D tree to develop the car
• Good, stable online mode.
• Strong, predictable AI, but not too aggressive.
• Classic cars list largely carried over from F1 2018 (see list here).
• Last game with the Hockenheim circuit on.
• F2 mode also featured
• Prost/Senna legends DLC pack.
• ERS feature continues on from 2018, with different ERS modes you can manually switch between. Last game before it switches to the Overtake button we have now, where you either enable or disable ERS in a binary way.

With F1 2019, I found that the AI waste a huge amount of time battling, so the undercut is even more powerful than normal. You can literally jump 6 or more cars in the pits on this game by coming in a few laps early when you see a train of battling cars ahead. That was nice little strategic feature to take advantage of.

Also, I had a lot of fun driving the 2009 Brawn Car and the 2010 Red Bull on this game (see here for a full list of classic cars). It was something of a continuation of ’18, but I really liked it.

#6. F1 2017 – Marking A New Era

This game simulated the step that real life F1 made into much faster, higher downforce cars. And I thought it did it very well. F1 2017 is a solid game in the series.

Here’s some good features of F1 2017:

• Super high downforce cars to match real life reg changes, with much faster lap times.
• Much easier traction (Full TC assist players could switch down to Medium TC on this game quite easily).
• Completely overhauled and expanded career mode, with massive R&D tree – extensive and detailed car development several levels more advanced than F1 2016.
• First modern era game to feature classic cars (see here for full list).
• Stable, predictable, well functioning online mode (league racing very active on this game).
• Last game with the Malaysia track on it.
• Last game without the Halo device on it
• See here for a career mode playthrough.

In terms of overall handling and feel (very grippy, responsive, easy traction and “light” feeling cars), this is actually in my opinion the closest game to the current F1 23 edition in terms of overall handling. If you fancy a retro dive into a really advanced career mode, or to race in classic car lobbies, F1 2017 is a good option, as is ’18.

Lower Midfield – OK But Flawed F1 Games

#7. F1 2012 – Challenging But Good

F1 2012 comes right near the top of some people’s favourite F1 games, at least for it’s time. It’s a little further down my own list, because it’s got some negatives as well.

On the positive side:

• Massively harder handling from 2011, with traction especially much more challenging, even using Full TC.
• Massively harder AI as well, with career mode much harder to get into and needing some serious play time to get used to.
• Superb online mode – one of the stablest and best functioning F1 games online that there’s ever been.
• Because of the skill gap, racing online was also much more enjoyable, since only skilled, respectful racers tended to play this game. Crash-bang-wallop idiots tended to be self selected out of this game because of the challenging handling. So online lobbies much more civil and fun to race in.
• Great soundtrack.
• New dynamic wet weather system – wet/dry or dry/wet conditions extremely challenging on this game, but realistic.
• Last game you could play with the Valencia Street Circuit.
• See here for a revisit of F1 2012 ten years later.

It’s like the developers realised that 2011 (covered just below) was a bit too easy, so they tightened everything up for 2012, making it much harder in all key areas. Whilst there was some early whinging from me, I came to appreciate it, especially as it cleared all the idiots out of the online lobbies.

However, there were some negatives to F1 2012:

• Some bugs with career mode, with wet weather appearing far too often and at unrealistic venues like Bahrain.
• Some bizarre things taken out of the game from 2011. Like no ability to string together Custom Grand Prix/Online seasons – you could only do one race at a time with no context unless in Career mode. Why even leave this feature out? Really annoyed me at the time.

Overall, once you got past the difficult learning curve with the new handling, F1 2012 was a good game to play. It was my first incursion into online racing, and I really enjoyed it on this game for sure. But honestly, while 2012 was still out, I kept reverting between F1 2011 and F1 2012. Once F1 2013 came out, it was 2013 all the way and I never looked back to ’12 or ’11, so that shows you the overall ranking.

#8. F1 2011 – Huge Step Up From 2010

This is probably one of the F1 games I’ve played on the most on, and had the most enjoyment on for it’s time at least. It’s a little lower down the list because it doesn’t really stand up so well today, but for it’s time and relative to where it was coming from with the F1 2010 game, F1 2011 was a massive improvement.

Here are some features and upgrades on F1 2011:

• Massively improved graphics, animation and framerate. Just a much cleaner and better looking game than F1 2010. Much better presented.
• Very easy, high traction and super high downforce handling model with very fast lap times (simulating the rear blown diffusers that were used in 2011, but perhaps going a bit too far with the lap times).
• Introduction of the new DRS overtake system, plus the return of KERS (power boost)
• New ultra-sensitive Pirelli tyres (high wear and 3-4 stops per race in longer races)
• Safety car introduced
• Good online mode.
• Expanded career mode with R&D tasks.
• New India track
• Last game you could race the Istanbul Park track on.

Playing F1 2011 after playing F1 2010 was like night and day, and I don’t think ’11 has even been given the full credit it deserves for how much it improved from ’10.

For it’s time, it was a great F1 title, although it doesn’t stand up so well today because of overly easy AI, setup glitches and other issues. But at the time, I loved F1 2011. If you’re looking for an easy game to revisit from the past, F1 2011 is a great option (see here for where a popular F1 YouTuber does just that with 2011).

#9. F1 2016 – A Huge Improvement

This is another game that ranks midfield because it was something of a mixed bag. But one massive thing you can say in it’s favour is that it was a HUGE improvement from the disastrous F1 2015, even if it wasn’t perfect itself.

I played a lot of online league racing on this game, and although it wasn’t my strongest game personally, I can see the positives of it:

• Massively upgraded handling model from 2015 – more downforce.
• Career mode returns after being missing from 2015. Quite a stripped down, basic career mode though – F1 2017 is where this game mode really took a leap forward.
• Safety car also returns after not being on ’15
• A not perfect, but much better online mode. League racing very possible and very active on this game.
• The introduction of the 3 different tyres per race with differing grip/durability – chosen from the range of 5 tyres – ultra-soft (purple), super-soft (red), soft (yellow), medium (white), hard (grey/black). So you can choose between 3 tyres in a race instead of just 2.
• First game with the new Baku circuit. Hockenheim also present, as is Malaysia.
• See here for a revisit by a YouTuber from a few years ago.

Although this game definitely wasn’t perfect – the online mode was still glitched and needed a lot of patches – it was much more fun to play than F1 2015 and actually felt like a more complete game.

Traction is actually quite tricky on this game if on Med/No TC – harder than ’15. So if you like that kind of challenge, this is the game for you. If you prefer easier traction and more downforce, it’s successor F1 2017 is for you. But F1 2016 definitely had a lot going for it and was a welcome relief after ’15.

#10. F1 2021 – A Mixed Bag

The F1 2021 game was a bitter-sweet experience for me, and it’s partly my own fault. I had this obsession with doing the new My Team career, but I found the MT car infuriating to drive. But instead of giving up on it and pivoting to standard career, I stubbornly stayed with it, and in the process annoyed myself off the game after a few months.

Had I just put My Team down, I would have enjoyed the game much more (and I did when I returned to it a few months later and just used the standard GP cars).

F1 2021 wasn’t up to the level of F1 2020 in most people’s eyes, but still had a lot going for it, such as:

• The return of My Team career (tricky to drive this car though).
• Deluxe Legends DLC pack to add legendary drivers to your My Team career, and have them race for you.
• The introduction of the new Braking Point story mode.
• F2 cars
• 3 new real life tracks (Imola, Portugal, Saudi Arabia) added as DLC.
• Revised handling model, slightly slower then F1 2020, with more tricky traction and a little less grip.
• Faster AI than previous games – may need to drop AI level 5-10 clicks from what you were using on 2018-2020 editions to stay competitive.
• But AI aggression still kept in moderation, not annoying like ’22.
• Decent online mode – not the best, but not the worst either.

Overall, if I could have my time again on F1 2021, I would have just forgotten about MT and just done a standard driver career in the Alpine or the Alfa Romeo. Then it would have been much higher up this list. But as it was, F1 2021 actually infuriated me more than it satisfied me.

The My Team car was annoying to drive, and I found it got worse to drive the more I upgraded it, not better. Very unstable and tricky traction. Plus lots of bugs in career mode with engine parts failing too much (best to switch this off). The existing GP/team cars were much better to drive.

But F1 2021 is still a totally usable edition of the series. Some people never upgraded to ’22 and happily stayed on ’21 after hearing the bad reviews. And honestly, that’s what I’d have done as well instead of slogging through ’22 for so long – go back to ’21!

#11. F1 2010 – Not Quite The Finished Product

This was the first real F1 title that Codemasters had a good crack at (there was a 2009 game for Wii, but it’s pretty much a historical footnote). It was massively anticipated, but just being honest, both at the time and certainly now, it didn’t quite nail it. There was some good aspects, but a lot of problems and some things missing.

Here were some good aspects to F1 2010:

• Involved and immersive career mode, with paddock and trailer animations, discussions with agents etc. 
• Core handling model not too bad – durable Bridgestone tyres well simulated and you could push hard (none of this high deg stuff that we get with Pirelli era tyres).
• Great stirring soundtrack that’s become infamous and makes you want to race (even if the actual game doesn’t really hold up today).
• The long Bahrain Endurance layout that you won’t find on any other game, plus the now scrapped Turkey, Korea, Valencia tracks.

But there were a lot of issues as well:

• Graphically, game just did not look good on console at least (I can’t speak for PC). Just very dark and shaded out tracks – not good visually or aesthetically.
• Frame-rate and animation also very poor – just too jerky and not smooth at all on console. 
• Problems with AI, lap times, timing loops (I remember the forums kicking off at the time that the AI lap times and deltas were totally “fake” and not even matching what was happening on track.

Overall, I remember playing it soon after release with a friend, but honestly, it didn’t grip me and didn’t feel like a fully finished F1 game. I didn’t crave to go back and play it again, and lots of players sold it after a month or two to move on to other games.

I played it again as a blast from the past a few times in the mid 2010s (see here for a more recent revisit from a YouTuber), and it was this frustrating experience of having some good aspects, but just not quite there in terms of being a complete game. I’d have loved to play the core 2010 game with the real life rules (flat out Bridgestone tyres, no DRS/KERS, just about pure pace and real overtakes plus clever pit strategy) but with the 2011 graphics, frame-rate and engine.

(Incidentally, if you’re looking for a kind of way to revisit F1 2010 handling, some of the games from 2017-2020 have some F1 2010 classic cars like the Red Bull/Ferrari, that you can race with in offline/online lobbies).

Backmarkers – Poor F1 Games

#12. F1 2014 – A Nothing Game

It’s successor F1 2015 often gets the bad rap, but F1 2014 shouldn’t be forgotten either as a mediocre title in the Codemasters F1 series. In fairness, Codies were probably busy making F1 2015 (which turned out to be a disaster anyway), and focused less on F1 2014, but it definitely shows as this feels like a “filler” game for sure.

It’s largely a copy-paste from F1 2013, but with a handling, livery and engine noise update to account for the brand new hybrid engine regulations that came in in 2014.  And all 3 of these aspects are much worse than 2013, and the game isn’t fun to play.

On the positive side, the core game offline/online worked mostly OK, with reasonably stable online like 2013. Plus there’s the (at the time) new Austria and Russia tracks to get stuck into.

But it just wasn’t particularly inspiring, with the classic cars and tracks from 2013 all gone, and really no extra/new game features. So you felt like you were paying the same as the year before, for basically a worse, stripped down game.

Here were some annoying aspects of F1 2014:

• Only available on old-gen (PS3/Xbox 360) despite new gen consoles at the time being out for about 1 year.
• Traction was annoying and just felt un-natural.
• Engine noises were horrible – tried to replicate the real life turbo hybrids, but just sounded like an old hoover or an old fashioned whistle kettle boiling instead.
• Nothing extra or new to get your teeth into in terms of game modes. Career mode not developed or expanded.
• Just a mediocre, uninspiring edition in the series. Nobody misses it, or craves to go back and play it again, though some YouTubers have done so out of morbid fascination.

Check out this withering review of F1 2014 that really sums it up in one sentence – “we’ll post a new review when they release a new game”.

And another acerbic put-down:

“There is at least one other new layer of authenticity for this year’s game, though; charging full whack for what amounts to a slight downgrade is the kind of one-sided deal that would do even (former F1 boss) Bernie (Ecclestone) proud.”

But the real problem was with what came next……

#13. F1 2015 – Total Disaster On Launch

F1 2015 was the first F1 game on what was at the time “next gen” console (PS4/Xbox One), and was built on a brand new game engine as well. And it’s clear the developers didn’t give themselves enough time, because the launch game was a buggy, laggy, unfinished disaster.

This game would be rock bottom on many people’s lists because of the reasons I’ll cover below. But for me, it’s not quite bottom, because I actually waited several months to get the game, and had a reasonable amount of fun playing it online once the worst of the bugs where fixed (for day 1 buyers who forked out £50-60 for basically a broken, unfinished game though, I fully sympathised with their annoyance).

F1 2015 was a mess on release; here were some problems.

• Online basically unplayable up to several months after release. Insanely laggy, no corner cutting penalties applied, lobbies unstable, no players after first few weeks as game was so bad.
• Basic handling not too bad, but contact model terrible – pinball effect. Basically made wheel to wheel racing impossible
• LOADS and loads of bugs on the released game, required many patches to fix them all that took months to roll out
• Some bugs were really comical, like flying cars, disappearing cars, cars driving with wheels only and no car chassis/body.
• No offline Career mode; only GP mode.
• No Safety Car.
• A lot of the bugs and connection issues were fixed by the second half of the game’s life cycle, but by then they’d already lost a lot of the player base.

It’s basically only a skeleton or outline of a proper F1 game. The graphics were better because of the new engine, and the driving model was fun on it’s own. But there’s not much else to praise about F1 2015 to  be honest. Not one of Codemaster’s finest for sure.

See this forthright video of a well known F1 YouTuber basically giving up on the game 1 month into it’s life cycle, and moving back to F1 2013 for league racing.

There are some people who are pushing now for the next F1 games (2024 and onwards) to be on a brand new engine again. Whilst I appreciate these sentiments, I’d advise fans to be careful what they wish for. In my estimation, Codemasters would need 18-24 months to properly produce a new F1 game on a new engine. You don’t want another rushed botch job like F1 2015, where the launch game simply isn’t properly finished or playable because the developers haven’t given themselves enough time (remember how expensive these games are at launch as well).

#14. F1 22 – Back Of The Pack

The recent F1 22 takes the biscuit for me as the worst of all the Codemasters F1 games, because it’s actually impressive (in a bad way) for one single game to p*ss off so much of it’s core player base in so many different ways.

F1 22 was lauded in the some circles as a good game, but that’s simply not the case for most of the fans. It was a poor F1 title in the series, with the primary emotion it provoked seeming to be annoyance in the fan base. F1 22 was an annoying, irritating, frustrating game to play, to the point many of us turned the game off well before it’s life cycle ended, and some eSports drivers retired from active league competition as they’d become so fed up with the game.

Here were some of more frustrating aspects of F1 22:

• Early release features for the PC version of the game did not work, and customers were not refunded despite paying extra.
• Traction very difficult and inconsistent. Spins very common even with skilful, experienced players. Very hard to predict and stop spins, and would seem to spin applying the exact same throttle in the exact same way as the last lap (like a RNG effect with the traction).
• Because of the difficult traction, race starts also insanely difficult – virtually impossible to make up places on the start and in fact always lost places.
• Contact model really irritating like F1 2015 – cars would stick together and you couldn’t break free.
• Insanely difficult and fast in a straight line AI. Way over-powered and impossible to compete against.
• AI also behaved in annoying, stupid ways, barging into you and causing collisions with stupid moves. Way too aggressive.
• Patches designed to fix the handling also made the AI even more difficult and over-powered
• Changes to the handling model also received mixed reviews, with many players saying they preferred the launch version.
• Crossplay (cross platform) online mode totally broken at launch and basically unusable.
• The introduction of the totally pointless and unpopular F1 World and Supercars features (instead of getting the core game working, adding pointless features).
• Widespread cheating issues with the online competitions also came to light during this game’s life cycle. No effective Anti-cheat to counteract this issue.

See here for a good video examining all the problems with F1 22, and cutting through the “BS” of some positive reviews the game somehow got from some quarters.

For me personally, playing F1 22 was an exhausting experience that actually ruined my enjoyment and destroyed my confidence in playing the F1 games. It was like you were constantly on damage limitation mode, just trying to get to the end of a race without something stupid/annoying happening with either the traction or the AI barging into you and damaging your wing. Forget about making any places up; just getting to the end without damage or needing a flashback felt like a victory.

When you’re playing a game for several months with that mindset, you only realise when you have something better to compare it to again. Which is why it was a relief to play the much better F1 23, and I actually started enjoying and having confidence in racing again (which is why it’s so high on my list).

But F1 22 was a bad game, make no mistake about it. And it takes bottom spot on my list because of just how annoying it was.