BMW Sauber F1 Team Racing 09 (iPhone) Review

Costas Stephanides’s Review

Leaving F1 with a bang

It wasn't too long ago that BMW announced that it wouldn't be participating in next year's Formula One. While they may be struggling for podium finishes this season, they're still going to enjoy their swansong by commissioning Artificial Life to create this F1 game for the iPhone. It's not the first time they have partnered together; the BMW Z4 app was technically good but a little too arty for me. Here with F1 we are entertained with pure unadulterated racing.

It's worth noting that as this is a BMW license, you can't do any real damage to their vehicles and this is supposed to be more of a formula one simulation than a demolition derby. On that note, racing through traffic and bumping your way to the lead is a little alien to F1.

Steering is achieved by tilting the handset and you have accelerate and brake buttons on the screen. Personally I would have preferred pure touch controls (I get some strange looks on the train) but the tilt works well after a bit of practice. There's also a KERS button to give you a boost along the straights.

The BMW car was one of the leading cars to showcase the KERS system. Without going into too much engineering detail, every time you brake the car or coast round a corner, the freely turning wheels can be used to charge a secondary battery in the car. Pressing the KERS button will use the electrical energy in the battery as an extra driving source together with the petrol engine. It's a similar concept seen in the Honda series hybrid models.

Anyway, the KERS is excellent in the game and if this is how it reacts in real life, it's a shame they are getting rid of it next season. Engaging the boost gives a tremendous boost in bhp and acceleration; it more than pays dividend for any cautious braking.

To cut a long story short, the game looks good and drives good (did I mention the excellent sound effects) but what do you get for your $2? Well the game has 8 different tracks for time trials or you can enter the championship. The tracks are based on real F1 courses and although some of the backgrounds may not be quite there, the corners and straights are where you expect them to be. Warm-up and qualification are all part of the championship process if you choose and you can even select professional mode which includes pit stops and refuels.

Once you’ve raced your heart out, there a few extra challenges that can be challenged within the app. Thankfully they haven’t saved the best tracks for the upgrade but have added different modes. There’s a pit crew mini game and there’s also the chance to sit behind the scenes and play the part of the engineer and tinker with the settings.

All in all, it’s quite a technical game and the rewards are high. You’ve probably seen the competition banner that’s on the side of our site. With this app, you do have the chance to own some genuine parts of the last BMW F1 car (including a replica of the steering wheel). There’s still a couple more weeks left to enter. Simply get the fastest combined lap time for all the tracks to win top prize (more details can be found on the Artificial Life site).