One nice feature that was on some of the much older F1 games was in-race commentary, where you had James Allen and Martin Brundle shooting the breeze like on TV, while you were racing. It did have a tendency to fall behind what was happening on track, but it was a fun feature to have.

But what about on the latest F1 23 game from EA/Codemasters? Is there commentary on that?

There is no in race commentary on F1 23. There is pre and post race commentary by various pundits, but nothing during the actual races.

Therefore, if you’re looking for a return to the good old days of F1 gaming in early-mid 2000s, you’re still set to be disappointed sadly. But there’s always next year, plus you do get some form of peripheral commentary outside the races on the modern F1 games, which we’ll cover below.

There Is No In Race Commentary On F1 23

If you’re looking for actual in race commentary like David Croft and Martin Brundle do on Sky Sports, unfortunately this isn’t something that is featured on the F1 23 game. In fact, in-race commentary has not featured on ANY of the Codemasters F1 games going all the way back to their first releases in 2009/2010.

It’s probably not something the developers are placing a priority on now, with the development of all new game modes, like My Team, Braking Point, F1 World, plus classic cars, extra tracks and so on being given more attention.

It’d be a nice feature to see for sure, to see how much more advanced it could be when it’s tried again after so long. The commentary on the latest FIFA football games for example has been very well developed, and no doubt it could be developed to a good standard on the F1 games if the developers had the resources to.

But the reality is that in-race commentary hasn’t featured in an official F1 game for well over 15 years. The last game I’m aware of that had it was F1 Championship Edition way back in 2006 for the PS3, plus a few of the previous games like F1 2006, F1 2005, F1 2004 etc.

The closest you get to in-race commentary is your race engineer, voiced by former real life F1 engineer Marc Priestley. He does give you regular updates in the race, which can sort of act as a proxy form of commentary, updating you on what’s happening with positions, strategy, weather etc. You can also turn him down or off if you want, from the Engineer Verbosity setting from your pause menu Options.

The Pre/Post Race Commentary Explained

However, there isn’t ZERO commentary on the latest F1 games, including F1 23. You do get quite extensive commentary before and during races, with many of the familiar faces from Sky Sports and Channel 4.

Here’s what tends to happen in this regard:

• During a GP/career race weekend, there’s a short commentary intro to some or all of the practice/qualifying sessions.
• There’s also a longer commentary intro before the actual race itself, with two well known pundits talking among themselves about the race, the circuit layout, who’s looking strong/weak, who’s taken penalties, weather conditions, who’s doing well/struggling this season, and so on.
• There’s also some commentary after the race finishes – congratulating the winner, driver of the day, driver/championship standings, who’s done better/worse this weekend and so on.
• The commentators available on F1 23 are: Alex Jacques, David Croft, Anthony Davidson and Natalie Pinkham.
• Natalie Pinkham and Will Buxton also features in some career mode interviews between races, before seasons begin, during the Braking Point story mode.

But honestly, all this peripheral commentary will start to get a bit old if you’ve been playing these games for a few years. It’s mostly recycled stuff that’s been repeating for a couple of games now, and you’ve probably heard most of this commentary before.

What If I Don’t Like David Croft? Can I Turn Him Off?

David Croft has become something of a hate figure among some forums and online F1 audiences. Some people like him or at least don’t mind him, but some people hate him as well and really don’t like listening to him.

If you’re in the “don’t like him” camp, and you really don’t want to hear him when playing F1 23 either, don’t worry – you can turn him or in fact any commentator off on the game, and only listen to the ones you want.

Go to your game’s Audio options, and there’s a Commentary option where you can disable the ones you don’t want to hear in the pre/post race punditry.

Check the current pricing and availability of F1 23 in our Games Section