Rain, the road license split, new cars & tracks, UI updates, more 3D curbs, a Career Mode update and more – this is a huge update for iRacing!
WATCH: DEEP DIVE: iRacing February 2024 Development Update
One of iRacing’s biggest updates in its 15-year history is right around the corner.
Executive Producer Greg Hill hit the forums once again for their February Development Update – and confirmed that, at long last, rain is arriving on March 5th. That’s not all, as there’s also new tracks, new cars and huge changes coming to the very fabric of the iRacing experience – both in Season 2, and across the rest of 2024.
Here’s our rundown on everything you need to know – plus our thoughts and theories on some of the teasers that have been shared.
Image: iRacing
Yes, it’s finally on its way! The Tempest weather system, which will see rain make its long-awaited debut, is just days away.
According to Greg, Tempest is the most “true-to-life dynamic simulation” of rain in a racing game to date, with accurate weather patterns, tire dynamics and physics-driven track evolution that’s unlike anything else out there. The team have used their laser scans to their full potential, with details such as the roughness of the asphalt playing a huge part in calculating surface traction, water retention, and how the track will dry as conditions improve.
Be prepared to learn unorthodox lines, adjust your finely-tuned setups and treat the loud pedal with caution. Discovering which parts of the track hold the best traction will be key to success, but rest assured, you won’t be heading into the storm alone. The in-game spotter and crew chief will keep you up to speed with how conditions are developing – or at least how they think they’ll develop.
Using real-world data from circuits around the world, Tempest will predict a forecast that drivers, teammates and your spotter can see – but as we all know, forecasts aren’t always correct! Just because there’s dark clouds in the distance and a high chance of rain doesn’t mean it’ll arrive – and likewise, a sunny day with a low chance of rain could turn ugly in a flash.
The longer the race, the greater the uncertainty, so endurance racers beware – keep your eyes not just on the forecasts, but on the skies too. That’s something to keep in mind with the Sebring 12 Hour taking place just a few weeks after the update!
Speaking of endurance races, rain brings with it the introduction of rain tyres, adding a whole new strategic element to races across the iRacing service. Let’s say rain hits in the last few laps – do you pit for wets, or try to survive on slicks? Is that incoming cloud a brief period of drizzle, or a full-on downpour? Rain is certain to ramp-up the excitement, unpredictability and entertainment all the way up to 11, with key choices that’ll make all the difference to your results.
Tempest was originally slated to debut at the end of 2023, but these last few months have given the iRacing team more time to test, tune and refine the wet weather driving experience – plus add more rain-supported cars to the initial release. On top of the already-announced Ray FF1600, Toyota GR86 and Ferrari 296 GT3, Day 1 will see the full 11-car endurance field – that’s all the current GTP, LMP2 and GT3 cars – and the FIA F4 car support wet weather driving, with more cars to be added across the rest of the year.
Ahead of lining up on the grid, you’ll want to get some practice in – and with the introduction of rain comes a fully-customisable system for adding it to your Test sessions and AI races. Whether you’re after real-world Forecasted Weather, Static Weather to practise your wet weather skills, or a keyframe-by-keyframe custom experience, all the power of Tempest will be right at your fingertips.
Tempest will be introduced in the upcoming Season 2 patch – and there’ll be a bunch of Week 13 series that’ll help you get to grips with driving in the rain ahead of Season 2 proper.
Once Season 2 starts, iRacing’s admins will enable rain on a per series and per skill level basis, with select series and race weeks across the Season ahead earmarked for a chance of rain – but as we’ve discussed, whether we see rain hit the track is up to the Tempest system itself!
This is undoubtedly one of, if not the biggest addition to iRacing in its history – but it isn’t the only huge change arriving in Season 2.
Image: iRacing
In the first changes to iRacing’s licence system in well over 5 years, the Road Racing licence is being split into two separate licences – a Sports Car licence, and an Open Wheel licence.
This means that each driver will get separate Driver and Safety Ratings for both disciplines, creating two distinct road racing ladders. The big benefit is that whether you prefer GT3’s or F4 cars, you’ll now be able to safely explore different types of road racing without worrying about ruining your Driver or Safety Rating in your main series.
On March 5th, your Road licence will be replaced by the Sports Car and Open Wheel licences, with your Driver and Safety Rating being carried over onto both. The current list of Road series will be split into their appropriate licences, with races and rating changes to then be tracked separately.
The first few weeks are sure to be hectic as skills levels even out – and the iRacing team are well-aware that will be the case – but they’re confident that as Season 2 progresses, this split is what’s best for the long term, and it should lead to better, more competitive racing across both the Sports Car and Open Wheel disciplines.
Needless to say this is a huge change to the make-up of competition on the service, and it might just be setting up for much bigger things down the road.
Image: iRacing
Season 2 will see three categories of racing get one new car each, alongside a raft of updates to existing machinery.
Fans of the recently-added Super Formula SF23 will be able to jump into its younger brother – the all-new Dallara 324, ran in the real-world in the Super Formula Lights and Euroformula Open Championship series. This adds to the already stacked open-wheel feeder roster, and with the addition of a brand-new C-class series for the new machine, all signs point to it becoming a very popular addition to the service.
Over to the ovals, and whilst the 2024 SRX season may have been cancelled in the real world, the series’ recent partnership with iRacing means the SRX racecar will be making its iRacing debut in Season 2, featuring in a new D-class oval series. This will bring some much needed variety to the oval ladder, and with it, a whole new car to master.
Heading to the dirt, one new free car is joining iRacing’s dirt oval ranks, that being the Dirt Micro Sprint car. An entry-point into short-track sprint car racing, fingers-crossed this will bring more drivers into the dirt fold – especially on the back of iRacing’s 2023 Dirt Refresh.
After a set of graphical updates a few weeks ago, the NASCAR roster will be receiving physics updates to better reflect the 2024 field. Furthermore, the Xfinity Series Ford Mustang will be updated to reflect this year’s machine, and as part of their renewed partnership with INDYCAR, the iRacing Dallara IR18 will be updated to match the cars running in 2024.
Greg also teased several car updates coming later this year. Following aerodynamics analysis, the NASCAR Trucks will see a big update in June’s Season 3, V8 Supercars will get a shot in the arm, and there’s “other exciting possibilities” on the way from the land down under.
Endurance racing continues to be a huge focus. With the WEC and IMSA seeing renewed popularity both amongst manufacturers and fans, the iRacing team will be expanding the current 11-car roster to 15+ cars across the rest of 2024 and into 2025.
Greg left the biggest teaser ‘til last, noting that “a bit of a shocker” is coming on the car front – but what could this be?
Our theory is that it could be the next step in the iRacing-FIA partnership that kicked-off in May last year. Following the renaming of the F4 car, and with several seasons of FIA-branded regional F4 series now behind us, the governing body could be looking to add more official cars and series.
Which FIA-sanctioned series is debuting a new car this year? That would be Formula 2, with the all-new Dallara F2 2024. The F4 series have up-to-date cars in iRacing, and outside an updated F1 car – which we didn’t see last year – or something totally out of left-field, such as Formula E, we think this is the most likely option – but which car do you think is on the way? Let us know down in the comments.
Image: Fly My Drone
On top of three new cars for Season 2, we’re also getting three brand-new tracks: the home of MotoGP’s San Marino Grand Prix – Misano, the venue of the 2020 F1 Portuguese Grand Prix – Algarve, better known as Portimao, and iRacing’s first quarter-mile Dirt Oval, Millbridge Speedway.
That’s not all however, as four current tracks will become free for all players ahead of Season 2: Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, Snetterton, Winton Motor Raceway, and a circuit that only just debuted in September 2023, Ledenon. Controversially, the iRacing team have decided not to offer full or partial refunds to those who bought Ledenon at full price, which has irked a few fans on the forums, but in any case, these four tracks should add a whole bunch of variety to both Rookie-level and higher class series across the iRacing service.
Looking further into 2024, Greg also confirmed that Spain’s Navarra Circuit, Germany’s popular Sachsenring Circuit, and both the paved and dirt variants of New York’s Oswego Speedway are nearing completion, with all three set to arrive later this year.
The iRacing team is also planning a trip to the UK to scan two British tracks later this year. Greg hasn’t shared what these tracks are, so which circuits could they be? With four UK tracks owned by MotorSport Vision already in iRacing – those being Brands Hatch, Oulton, Snetterton and Donington – and MSV’s recent purchase of the Navarra Circuit coinciding with its recent scan, there’s two UK tracks owned by the group that are missing – so we believe we’ll be seeing popular British Superbike circuit Cadwell Park and track day sensation Bedford Autodrome making their way to the service.
With iRacing announcing last October that they’re working on an official NASCAR console title for release in 2025, Greg has shared how development for that game will directly improve iRacing. As track environments and circuit graphics are brought up-to-date for the console release, these improvements – titled the “NASCAR Remaster” project – will also be brought into iRacing, giving the fleet of ovals a much-needed lick of paint.
Oh, one last thing – at long last, Greg has noted that the iRacing team will soon be working on a “long-awaited update to Spa” – finally bringing the decade-old scans of one of iRacing’s most popular circuits up to date.
Image: iRacing
Back in the November Development Update, Greg explained that iRacing’s UI will be moving to a new, modern structure, giving the service “a more approachable and accessible design for the future”. In Season 2, we’ll see the first parts of this UI overhaul in action.
On top of the new licence icons – which are already live – the Season 2 patch will see the addition of a new “wrapper”, breaking the navigation down into categories that should be more user-friendly. This means a move away from the modal-based pop-ups that are common throughout the launcher to a more modern, guided and easier to use experience.
For example, rather than setting up AI racing through two pop-up interfaces, iRacing will soon have an AI-focused homepage with a better race setup flow, stats on your performance, highlighted seasons and more.
Once the AI UI is overhauled, the Series UI is up next, with the creation of a new hub for information, start times and statistics on the series we all know and love.
These are just the first stages of a major UI overhaul that’s expected to progress throughout the year, including not just the out-of-sim experience, but the in-sim UI as well. Some of these UI screens and interfaces are closing in on becoming 20 years old, and so with a core graphics overhaul also on the way, iRacing is set to look far more 2024, rather than 2004, as we progress throughout the year.
Here’s a thought – the design mockups that iRacing have provided show a suspiciously F1-looking font in the launcher UI. Could this be another sign that the iRacing-FIA partnership is heading to the next level?
Image: iRacing
As if a new weather system, licence changes, new cars & tracks and the start of a UI overhaul wasn’t enough, there’s even more coming in Season 2.
With sim racing more popular than ever, iRacing are introducing their New Racer Experience feature. This is designed to take new racers from first-time setup, through guided AI scenarios, and onto the racing ladder for their favourite discipline – helping new drivers ease into the service, and hopefully leading to more of them sticking around.
The all-new 3D curbs, introduced in Season 1, are being added to both Fuji and Sebring – ahead of the Sebring 12 Hour – and all new tracks will have 3D curbs moving forwards, including the incoming Misano and Portimao circuits.
Moving beyond Season 2, Greg also provided an update on the upcoming Career Mode, announced in the summer of 2023. Work has been progressing well, but the mode is now set for launch in 2025, with iRacing President Tony Gardner sharing with Insider Gaming that it’s likely to release in incremental steps, rather than a full Career experience from the get-go.
The development of Tempest led to a lot of new-to-iRacing VFX work – and the team are looking to capitalise on that momentum by turning their attention to existing effects such as tire and engine smoke, with updates expected later this year. This comes alongside continued work on a new iRacing rendering engine which is set to bring significant graphical updates to the service.
Last but by no means least, after Phase 1 of the Oval Refresh landed back in Season 1, work on Phase 2 is moving at pace, with further details to be shared in due course ahead of its release later this year.
Image: iRacing
iRacing’s progression over the past 12 months has been extraordinary. First came a damage overhaul, then came realistic grass, and now comes the highly anticipated arrival of rain. This is a hugely exciting time for iRacing fans, and I can’t wait to turn my first laps in the wet.
With INDYCAR back in the fold, a headline-grabbing NASCAR console title to look forward to and huge changes to iRacing’s UI and graphics on the way, momentum is firmly on iRacing’s side, and I can’t wait to experience not just all the new elements coming in Season 2, but also everything else on the horizon in what is sure to be a banner year for the iRacing service.
What do you think? Are you excited for the arrival of rain? What are your thoughts on the Road Licence split, and the new UI direction? Let us know in the comments below.
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