After months of speculation, Codemasters Birmingham finally revealed only last week that the much-requested safety car feature would make an appearance in F1 2011. Understandably many fans were delighted, but others wondered why it took the developer so long to confirm its inclusion.
Rather than wantonly speculating, we decided to ask senior producer Paul Jeal about the real story behind the delay and like a true sport he explained exactly what went down between the studio and the representative license holders."The trouble was there are three different license holders; Mercedes Benz, AMG and FOM (Formula One Management Agency). We wanted to announce the safety car a little bit earlier than this," explained Mr Jeal.
"We tried to announce it initially at the Silverstone preview event (July), but we didn't get sign-off from all three parties. It was even approved too late to go into the build at gamescom - not that we really wanted it in there, because people would be triggering it left, right and centre."Right you are Paul! The first thing we tried to do once we got our hands on the latest F1 2011 build was trigger a cataclysmic crash to bring out a safety car, but all we achieved was a crumpled front-wing.
Nevertheless Codemasters has released the first footage of the safety car in their latest gameplay trailer (above) and it looks as authentic as you might expect.
To read more of our exclusive F1 2011 interview with Paul Jeal and chief games designer Stephen Hood please follow
this link.
