F1 2016

Welcome to the TrueTrophies walkthrough for F1 2016

INTRODUCTION

This walkthrough will take you through the game in a systematic order, aiming to unlock all possible trophies in a straight-forward, logical and time-efficient manner. This will roughly align with the game modes available, but unlike last year's game, this set of trophies are far less rigidly divided into the different game modes. So you will find the general (non-mode-specific) trophies scattered throughout, at the earliest reasonable point they can be unlocked.

Of all Codemasters' official F1 games released across PS3 or PS4, this is probably the easiest one to unlock all trophies and earn the plat so far. 47 trophies will prove no trouble for racers of any skill and experience level. Generally any game settings and driver assists are allowed (with occasional exceptions) so the trophies are easy, it is just a case of spending the time in game gaining moderate competence and/or working towards the unlock requirements. There are also 2 trophies that involve racing at a forced higher difficulty level, but the flashback and mid-session save features of the game may be used without voiding the trophy requirements, so earning them becomes more a case of patience and persistence than pure driving skill.

MODE/SECTION OVERVIEW

In this walkthrough I will cover the necessary game modes in the order that will be most beneficial to a gamer brand new to F1 racing games, and playing through the early modes will makes things a bit easier for them in the later modes. The aforementioned higher difficulty trophies will be covered in a dedicated section last of all.

Time Trial - "Set blistering lap times and prove yourself against the world's quickest" - 3 mode-specific trophies and 2 general trophies. Unlocking all trophies in this section will take approximately 0.5-1 hour to complete.

You pick a circuit and set clean laps (i.e. avoid collisions with barriers and do not cut corners) to record a time. There are no minimum times to meet, it is simply all about completing clean laps across a variety of circuits in both wet and dry weather weather conditions.

Quick Race - "Race a single circuit or create a custom season" - No mode-specific trophies, but 16 general trophies. Unlocking all trophies in this section will take approximately 1.5-2 hours to complete.

Race against A.I. drivers, and as the above blurb from the game menu says, you can choose one race at a time or customize a season of any number of races, with all customization options for practice, qualifying and race distance, among others, available to you.

Career - "Forge your own path and become a legend" - 19 mode-specific trophies and 3 general trophies. Unlocking all trophies in this section will take approximately 18-23 hours to complete.

Sign an initial contract with a team and compete against A.I. drivers and designated rivals through practice, qualifying and race sessions across up to ten full seasons, directing the path of your team's research and development program towards ultimate vehicle performance. All trophies aside from the two relating to car upgrades will be unlocked at the end of your first career season. Thereafter, all further seasons can have their races simulated to cut down on the time for the remaining grind. Approximately four full seasons in total will need to be completed to unlock all trophies for this game mode, but this can vary significantly depending on how much or little you participate in the practice sessions of each race weekend.

Multiplayer - "Compete in a preset event or create your own custom season" - 4 mode-specific trophies. Unlocking all trophies in this section will take approximately 1 hour to complete if entirely boosted with one other player.

Race against other players over Playstation Network. One trophy requires a co-op partner in a private lobby. The other three trophies can be unlocked either by boosting on short races in a private lobby with at least one other player, or by participating in races via any of the matchmaking lobbies - Rookie, Sprint, or Endurance.

Higher Difficulty Races - Two races that are more challenging than what has been done so far - 2 trophies. Unlocking all trophies in this section will take approximately 2-3 hours to complete.

Firstly, winning of a Quick Race mode 25% distance race against the highest difficulty A.I. drivers but with all other options configurable. Secondly, completion of a Pro Career mode race where you are locked in to the most difficult combination of options possible - cockpit camera view, with manual gearbox and no driver assists, racing full length races against the highest difficulty A.I. drivers.

GENERAL HINTS AND TIPS

I have written the walkthrough with the intention to explain any important concepts at the first instance you might encounter or need to know about them, so I will be quite general here.

When you first start up the game, you may wish to familiarize yourself with the options and settings. From the main menu, press to enter Game Options, and then here confirm that Autosave is On and choose your preferred Nationality/Region. Then select Settings and configure controls, audio, graphics and on-screen display to your liking. The default controls are typical of most racing games on the Playstation platform.

The game provides seven different driving views, and you can toggle through them all by pressing when out on track. Try them out in your first few laps of the game, then use whichever you are most comfortable with. Also remember that you will be locked into Cockpit view during Pro Career mode. My preference was the TV Pod view - this is located just above and slightly behind the head of the driver - and provides some extra height for better visibility when approaching turns, and having your front tires close to your point of view allows you to place them onto the apex of your turns with greater accuracy than most other views.

You will be advised when any specific tyre selections or car setup adjustments are relevant to unlocking of trophies, otherwise it is safe to ignore them - the game will take care of this for you. With adjustment of the driver A.I. difficulty down, they will be sufficiently slow that your car's performance is no longer a factor in winning races.

Make use of the flashback feature to fix your significant driving errors at every opportunity, but do note that doing so in Time Trial mode will make your current lap dirty, and that flashbacks are disabled completely in Multiplayer and Pro Career modes. Do note, however, that the mid-session save feature can be used as a pseudo flashback for Pro Career mode and doing so will not prevent trophies from unlocking.

If you are unable to find a boosting partner for the multiplayer trophies and thus, you are reliant on PSN's matchmaking, consider tackling these trophies sooner rather than later while the online player count is at its largest. This will only have a minor impact on your progress following the walkthrough, and the only side-effect is you may unlock certain non-mode-specific trophies ahead of schedule.

Finally, for clarity in your reading and understanding of all the subsequent sections of the walkthrough, in writing them I have adhered to the convention that all trophies are listed after the preparation and steps you should follow in order to unlock them.

TIME TRIAL

In the Time Trial mode you will need to set a clean lap time on ten different circuits, and set at least five of these times in wet weather conditions. I am going to recommend some of the shorter and/or easier tracks for staying clean on, but if you are familiar with the circuits from previous games you can choose according to your preferences instead. Similarly, for team selection I will be recommending the current champion, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, but again you can vary this at your preference. As you complete your first lap, there are a few quick and easy trophies that aren't dependent on being part of a race weekend - that is, in a practice, qualifying, or race session, so you can unlock those too. Let's get started...

From the main menu, select Time Trial to advance to circuit selection screen. For future reference, note that you can toggle between Dry and Wet weather conditions using and on this screen. Make sure Dry is selected and then scroll through the list of circuits until you find and select Australia, this will advance you to the team selection screen. Scroll through the list of teams until you find Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, select it and the game will begin loading the Time Trial session. While loading you have an opportunity to review and change the Session Setup, Preferences and Weather & Time of Day options. The defaults are largely fine to leave as is. My one recommendation would be to select Preferences, then select Assists, and adjust Braking Assist to Off. Any form of braking assistance will slow you down significantly more than necessary and probably will make driving feel strange. Having the Dynamic Racing Line option enabled is a very good guide to follow for when to start braking and with how much force. After loading is complete, the Start Session option is available to select - do so now.

Next you will find yourself sitting in your car in the team garage on pit lane. Select Go To Track, then Flying Lap and you will be immediately out on track a short distance and maybe a couple of turns out from the start/finish line. The game is controlling the car for you to begin with, as a series of five red lights will light up one by one. When they disappear, you are now in control of the car and the start/finish line is not far away. Navigate any final corners before the start/finish straight and once you are on the straight with a nice line that is not pointing at any walls or barriers, press followed by a single tap of . What this does is slightly increase your front brake bias, and it also unlocks your first (and candidate Bean Dive) trophy...

• Tweaking

  Use the Multi Function Display to adjust your set-up while on track

  
  

Now continue across the start/finish line into your time trial lap the new lap and make your way around the circuit. Keep an eye on the mini circuit map at the bottom left of screen and use the dynamic racing line (if you have it enabled) to help anticipate the next corner if unfamiliar with any of the circuits. This helps ensure you avoid hitting any barriers or leaving the track or cutting corners (that would give you an unfair time advantage), thus retaining a clean lap. The game will alert you with a black and white flag on screen if the lap is invalid. Any use of the flashback feature will invalidate your current lap, so if you ever wish to skip out of an invalid lap early, bring up the Pause menu by pressing and choose Restart Lap.

You can also make use of DRS (Drag Reduction System) within the designated zones for speed boost - this is available on every time trial lap provided you are driving in Dry conditions. The DRS indicator bar is in your HUD (Heads Up Display) at the bottom right corner of your screen, immediately below your speedometer readout. As you approach the start of an enabled DRS zone, the bar begins to fill up in orange from left to right. When the bar is full, the button appears and the bar flashes while not activated. Press to activate DRS and bar will turn green to indicate this accordingly. DRS is deactivated automatically at the end of the zone or as soon as brakes are applied.

As soon as you cross the start/finish line with a clean lap in tact to set a valid time, you will unlock another trophy...

• Time To Trial

  Set a clean lap in any Time Trial

  
  

At this point you have now done what you need to on this first circuit, and that makes it an opportune time to use the flashback feature that would otherwise invalidate your lap. To use flashback, press , which will begin a replay of the most recent few seconds of your driving. Press to use the flashback and your lap will recommence from the point you indicated, and consequently unlock...

• Second Chance

  Use a Flashback

  
  

It is now time to move onto the other circuits for the remaining nine clean time trial laps required. The most convenient way to switch to a new circuit is to bring up the Pause menu by pressing , then hit twice to navigate to the Manage Session options. From here, select the Car and Track Selection option, and then select the circuit you wish to set a clean time trial lap on next. Leave the Car, Weather Type and Session Start Time options as is, then select Confirm Settings. You will see the Time Trial Results screen for the circuit you have just been on. Advance from here and your newly selected circuit will be loaded. Repeat this process another four times - I recommend these four circuits for Dry conditions:

• Spain
• Britain
• USA
• Mexico

Once your clean lap time has been set for Mexico, making clean laps at five circuits in total, it is time to start setting clean time trial laps in wet conditions. So return to the Car and Track Selection options, select the next new circuit for a time trial lap, also change the Weather Type option to Wet, then continue as per the process you are now familiar with. I recommend these five short and/or easy circuits for Wet conditions:

• Canada
• Austria
• Germany
• Italy
• Brazil

Once your clean lap time has been set for Brazil, making clean laps at five circuits in Wet conditions and at ten circuits in total, you will unlock your final two Time Trial mode trophies...

• Blue Markings

  Set wet times in Time Trial at 5 circuits

  
  

• Time Flies

  Set a clean lap in Time Trial at 10 circuits

  
  

QUICK RACE

In the Quick Race mode you can focus on unlocking those trophies that require actual races to be entered, but are not strictly related to Career mode. This means that you can take advantage of the shortest race option - 3 laps - in some of the races for this mode. Let's get into it...

The first race will allow you to concentrate on taking care of a few miscellaneous trophies unrelated to qualifying or finishing position. From the main menu select Quick Race, and progress through the various selection screens, selecting Austria, then Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, then Lewis Hamilton along the way. Now from within the loading screen options, you need to configure your race for optimal trophy unlocking efficiency.

For Session Setup, configure as follows:

• Practice Type > None
• Practice Length > None
• Qualifying > One-shot Qualifying
• Race Distance > 25%

For Preferences/Race Settings, configure as follows:

• AI Driver Level > Very Easy
• Flashbacks > On
• Parc Ferme Rules > On
• Vehicle Damage > Off
• Safety Car > On
• Corner Cutting Stringency > Regular
• Formation Lap > On
• Race Starts > Assisted

For Preferences/Assists, configure as follows (or you may override to your liking):

• Driving Proficiency > Custom
• Braking Assist > Off
• Anti-Lock Brakes > On
• Traction Control > Full
• Dynamic Racing Line > Full
• Dynamic Racing Line Type > 3D
• Gearbox > Automatic
• Pit Assist > Off

For Weather & Time of Day, configure as follows:

• Quick Weather > Light Cloud
• Session Start Time > Midday

Once all configuration is complete, select Start Session to continue to the qualifying session. After an introductory video with voiceover (You can skip this by pressing ), you will be taken to the Tyre Selection screen. You can leave the default tyre selection as is, but from here toggle over to the Car Settings screen by pressing , then with Preset 3 - Balanced/Default setup selected, view the car setup, then toggle over to the Brakes screen, then adjust Brake Pressure up by 1% to 76%. If you have previously set a custom setup, you will be prompted with a Data Overwrite warning, select Continue at this prompt, then immediately select Go To Track.

Similarly to a flying lap in Time Trial mode, you will be out on track with the game controlling your car and it will hand control back to you just prior to starting your qualifying lap attempt. As soon as you take over control, you will unlock...

• Set-up Refined

  Take part in any session having made a set-up change via the Setup option in the garage.

  
  1 guide

You don't have to complete your lap, instead, from the Pause menu, toggle across to Manage Session, then choose Advance To Race, and confirm this by selecting Okay at the Are You Sure? prompt. This will put you into 22nd place on the starting grid for the race. Advance through the summary review screens for the session and start the race session. Another intro video will play (again, you can skip this if you wish), after which you will find yourself out on the starting grid. Now select Race Strategy and then from there highlight the Low Tyre Management strategy and select Edit Strategy. This strategy divides your race into three stints with two pit-stops. Toggle between each of the stints and adjust the Stint Tyre to ensure that a different tier compound is selected for each stint, and this will be reflected in the colors on the Tyre Life vs Pit Lap chart on the lower half of the screen. You can leave the Pit Lap values for each stint at their defaults. Based on the customizations made for this Quick Race, you should be able to set up your tyre stints as follows:

• Stint 1 > Ultrasoft Tyres
• Stint 2 > Supersoft Tyres
• Stint 3 > Soft Tyres

You can now back out of this screen to the starting grid and then select Start Race. Immediately you will commence the formation lap, during which you need to both heat up your tyres to optimal temperature and avoid any penalties. In the HUD at the bottom right of screen, your initial tyre temperature will be at approximately 95 degrees C, and you need to raise this temperature by approximately 5 degrees to 100 degrees C before the game takes over control of your car towards the end of the lap. Being at the back of the grid, you can leave some space to the cars in front as you pull away from the starting grid. Now proceed around the track at a reasonable pace, and on the straighter sections of track do some slight weaving from side to side, while still maintaining control and good pace. This should heat up your tyres enough to be at optimum temperature. As you do this, make sure not to hit or overtake any other cars, and stay on the track, and you will avoid incurring any penalties. After the formation lap, just as the race commences, you will then unlock these two trophies...

• Form An Orderly Queue

  Complete a penalty free formation lap

  
  

• Up To Temperature

  Complete a formation lap with your tyres at optimal temperature

  
  

Starting from 22nd on the grid, you are well positioned on the inside line at the first corner, a sharp right-hand turn. Even with a sloppy, maximum throttle start, you can rapidly gain places on the slower A.I. drivers along the inside line next to the wall up the hill, and with some controlled late braking and cutting most of the kerb, you will most likely be positioned around 12th coming out of the first corner, perhaps even slightly higher. But if not quite that high yet, you should be able to gain a couple more places continuing up the hill before the end of the the first sector. Remember that you can also restart the session for another attempt if required. When you reach the end of the first sector having gained at least ten places (that is, from 22nd up to 12th place or better) you will unlock...

• Launchmaster

  Gain 10 or more positions between the start and end of Sector 1

  
  

Once you are settled after the hectic race start, at a convenient point on one of the straights on the first or second lap, from the Pause menu, go to the Manage Session screen, then select Save Or Load A Mid Session Save, followed by Save. The game will save your race session. Now, still within the same screen, again choose Save Or Load A Mid Session Save, then you will see you can now select Load. Do so, to resume the race session from the save you made, and you will unlock...

• Saved The Day

  Resume a race using a Mid Session Save

  
  

After reloading, you will be within a flashback, so resume your race at your preferred point within the flashback and continue racing. Next time that you reach the main straight and/or are clear of nearby traffic, press the following sequence of controls:

("Shut up Jeff")

This will tell your radio engineer to stop talking to you, and will unlock...

• Not In The Corners

  Politely ask your Race Engineer to stop talking to you out on track

  
  

From here, continue racing and stay out of trouble. For the purposes of this race, it is fine if you wish to deliberately drop back to 22nd place to avoid traffic following you closely. What you can do now is take control of the race strategy in order to "fast forward" your tyre stints rather than waiting for the planned pit stops much further through the race. So, to trigger a pit-stop at the end of your current lap, press the following sequence of controls:

("Box this lap")

You should hear a radio message in response confirming the pit stop at the end of this lap. Next, you wish to make sure you are changing onto a different tyre compound from what you are currently on. Your current tyres are noted by a colored circle next to your driver name in the HUD at the top left. Based on the tyre strategy you configured before the race, it should be a purple circle with the US abbreviation (for Ultrasoft), so make the next set of tyres a set of Supersofts. Do so by pressing this control sequence:

("Set Supersoft Tyres")

Again, you will get radio confirmation of the tyre selection. Ready yourself for pit entry - in Austria the pit lane is on the right of the track, just after the right hand turn down the hill, but before the final right hand turn onto the main straight. Enter carefully and ensure you slow down enough before reaching the are with the enforced speed limit. In the centre of your screen you have an indicator showing red or green depending on your speed, and well as a countdown of the distance. Always err on the cautious side in order to avoid a drive-through penalty. From here, your pit stop is controlled by the game, until you then reach the pit exit lane. There is no speed limit enforced on your here, but you do need to be careful to remain inside the white lines of the lane, including on the left as you rejoin the main track. If you avoid any such penalties, this pit stop will count as one of the five total you need for an trophy with the Pit Assist option disabled.

Now request another pit stop at the end of this lap, same again:

("Box this lap")

You also need to change to the third tyre compound for the race, this will be a set of Softs, so press:

("Set Soft Tyres")

As you are approaching the corner just prior to the pit entry lane, pause and make a mid-session save. We will make use of reloading this shortly to speed up trophy progress.

Perform your second pit stop just as before, adhering to the speed limits and staying within the white lines. As the game is controlling your car out into pit lane just after your new tyres are fitted, you will have run three different tyre compounds in this race, and so will unlock...

• Compound The Matter

  Fit all 3 available tyre compounds in a race

  
  

After taking control again, carefully follow pit lane once more and rejoin the main track. This will then count as your second pit stop, and now you need just another three penalty free pit stops. So reload the mid-session save you have just made, and repeat the pit stop, all the way through to rejoining the track. After your third repeat from loading the mid-session save, making five in total, you will unlock...

• Brake For The Line

  With Pit Assist disabled, perform 5 penalty free pit stops

  
  

That is the last trophy to be earned from this race, so you can now quit out early and move onto the next race.

Your second race has a focus of a podium finish while not taking any damage to your car even though the damage is set to Simulation. You can also configure custom weather and time of day settings to unlock a couple of extra trophies at race end. From the main menu select Quick Race, then Start New Quick Race, then Okay (to confirm overwriting the mid-session save you have from the previous race). Progress through the various selection screens, selecting Austria, then Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, then Lewis Hamilton along the way. Now from within the loading screen options, you need to configure your race to ensure the intended trophies unlock at the end of the race. These settings can be largely similar to the previous race, but there are some mandatory variations based on your trophy aims (underlined below).

For Session Setup, configure as follows:

• Practice Type > None
• Practice Length > None
• Qualifying > None
• Race Distance > 3 Laps

For Preferences/Race Settings, configure as follows:

• AI Driver Level > Very Easy
• Flashbacks > On
• Parc Ferme Rules > On
• Vehicle Damage > Simulation
• Safety Car > Off
• Corner Cutting Stringency > Regular
• Formation Lap > Off
• Race Starts > Assisted

For Preferences/Assists, configure as follows (or you may override to your liking):

• Driving Proficiency > Custom
• Braking Assist > Off
• Anti-Lock Brakes > On
• Traction Control > Full
• Dynamic Racing Line > Full
• Dynamic Racing Line Type > 3D
• Gearbox > Automatic
• Pit Assist > On

For Weather & Time of Day, configure as follows:

• Quick Weather > Custom
• Customise Weather
  • Session > Race
    • Weather > Light Cloud
• Session Start Time > Custom
• Customise Session Start Time
  • Session > Race
    
    • Session Start Time > Midday
    • Time Progression Speed > X1

Once all configuration is complete, select Start Session to continue to the race session. Having skipped qualifying but chosen Lewis Hamilton you will most likely find yourself in pole position, or in 2nd at the least. If there is a somewhat random element to the grid order that drops you off the front row, I would suggest you start a new Quick Race, and this time turn on One-shot Qualifying and earn the pole position with a quick lap. This will simplify the process for the race session itself.

Once you are on the front row of the starting grid, you can get straight into it by selecting Start Race. From the start, you should be able to pull away from the slower A.I. drivers up the hill. Stay on the left, brake smoothly on approach, then turn into the first corner from out wide to maintain good speed through the corner. If you manage to do this, you are set for the remainder of the race. Given that damage is set to Simulation, even the slightest bump from other cars will count as damage to your car, so if you have any doubt at all that contact might have been made, abandon and restart the race session. One option to help with this might be to change to the Far Chase camera view temporarily at the start of the race so you can easily see any contact made to the rear of your car. Once you are through the first corner safely and continue to pull away from the pack, drive within your limits and stay on the track. If you encounter any troubles of your own making that might have resulted in even slight damage, make use of a flashback to fix things up. Then after three short laps to win the race, you can progress through to the Driver Standings screen, at which point you will unlock this pack of four trophies...

• Save For A Rainy Day

  Create and race your own weather scenario

  
  

• Top 3

  Achieve a podium finish in any game mode

  
  

• Carefully Does It

  Achieve a podium finish with damage set to 'Simulation' without damaging your car

  
  

• From Dawn Till Dusk

  Set-up your own Time of Day scenario and complete a race

  
  

Your third race will unlock a couple of trophies relating to assists - or more precisely - the lack of them. From the main menu select Quick Race, and progress through the various selection screens, selecting Austria, then Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, then Lewis Hamilton along the way. Now from within the loading screen options, you need to configure your race to ensure that no assists whatsoever are enabled. Again, the critical ones for this race are underlined below.

For Session Setup, configure as follows:

• Practice Type > None
• Practice Length > None
• Qualifying > One-shot Qualifying
• Race Distance > 3 Laps

For Preferences/Race Settings, configure as follows:

• AI Driver Level > Very Easy
• Flashbacks > On
• Parc Ferme Rules > On
• Vehicle Damage > Off
• Safety Car > Off
• Corner Cutting Stringency > Regular
• Formation Lap > Off
• Race Starts > Manual

For Preferences/Assists, configure as follows:

• Driving Proficiency > Elite
• Braking Assist > Off
• Anti-Lock Brakes > Off
• Traction Control > Off
• Dynamic Racing Line > Off
• Dynamic Racing Line Type > 3D
• Gearbox > Manual
• Pit Assist > Off

For Weather & Time of Day, configure as follows:

• Quick Weather > Light Cloud
• Session Start Time > Midday

Once all configuration is complete, select Start Session to continue to the qualifying session. Your intention is to start from 22nd to make the three laps without any assists as leisurely and stress-free as possible. So you can leave all qualifying options as the defaults and immediately select Go To Track. If this is your first attempt at driving with no assists and a manual gearbox, I would recommend you complete the qualifying lap to get a little bit of pre-race practice, barring some miracle you will likely end up in 22nd as intended. Use to change up gears to increase speed, and use change down gears accordingly as you reduce speed. You also need to ensure you accelerate smoothly and not while turning, otherwise the lack of assists will mean you spin out of control and possibly into a wall or other cars. If you stay in gears 4-6 you should be able to negotiate most corners without getting into trouble. Use flashbacks to undo your mistakes where possible. If however you do get out of control and end up facing a wall - and a flashback cannot rescue you - you will need to reverse yourself out of trouble. To be able to reverse with manual gears you need to change down to 1st gear, then down one more gear goes to neutral (N), and down another gear engages Reverse gear (R). Apply throttle gently and you will move backwards. Give yourself enough room to turn around around, then apply the brakes, and change up two gears to get back into 1st gear, and apply throttle gently again to get back on your way. This all goes for the race itself too. After completing your qualifying lap progress through the screens to the race session and you will be on the starting grid.

For this race start you will be performing a manual race start, with the goal of starting the race without incurring a penalty. You main (if not only) risk of a penalty is jumping the start before all the lights go out, but this is easy to avoid. It is best for you to grind out all ten instances for the trophy here using session restarts. With this preparation done, select Start Race.

The on screen prompts in your HUD at the bottom right of screen advise you to follow this sequence steps:

1. Engage the clutch (hold )
2. Reach optimal RPM (hold in partially, maintaining RPM of approximately 10000, although anything between approximately 8000 and 12000 is acceptable)
3. Release the clutch (let go of , only after the starting lights have gone out)

Complete the above requirements and you will pull away from the grid in a smooth and controlled manner, and you will also earn 10% progress to your next trophy. From the Pause menu select Restart Session, then once back on the grid select Start Race again. Repeat this process over another nine times, this will take around 3-4 minutes, and on your tenth start you will unlock...

• Look But Don't Stare

  Complete 10 penalty free race starts with the system set to 'Manual'

  
  

Now you can follow through with the race in full. Try your best to be smooth through the corners and always gentle on both throttle and brakes. After the race has been won, you just need to complete your current lap, then again progress through to the Driver Standings screen, to unlock...

• Car Control

  Complete any race with all assists disabled

  
  

Your fourth and final race in this mode will focus on the two trophies related to the deployment of the safety car. After the game patch for version 1.3.0 was released in early September 2016, the deployment of the safety car is far more frequent and predictable that it was at game launch. You can make use of weather customization to force a change in conditions mid-race and combine this with a narrow track like Monaco to minimize the amount that luck or other random factors play in unlocking these trophies.

From the main menu select Quick Race, and progress through the various selection screens, selecting Monaco, then Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, then Lewis Hamilton along the way. Now from within the loading screen options, you need to configure your race to ensure that firstly, a safety car deployment is possible, and secondly, that weather conditions will lead to a suggested change to your race strategy. Be mindful to reset your settings again from what you used in the previous race, they are probably not as you would normally prefer and again, the critical ones for the purpose of this race are underlined below.

For Session Setup, configure as follows:

• Practice Type > None
• Practice Length > None
• Qualifying > None
• Race Distance > 25%

For Preferences/Race Settings, configure as follows:

• AI Driver Level > Very Easy
• Flashbacks > On
• Parc Ferme Rules > On
• Vehicle Damage > Off
• Safety Car > On
• Corner Cutting Stringency > Regular
• Formation Lap > Off
• Race Starts > Assisted

For Preferences/Assists, configure as follows:

• Driving Proficiency > Custom
• Braking Assist > Off
• Anti-Lock Brakes > On
• Traction Control > Full
• Dynamic Racing Line > Full
• Dynamic Racing Line Type > 3D
• Gearbox > Automatic
• Pit Assist > On

For Weather & Time of Day, configure as follows:

• Quick Weather > Custom
• Customise Weather
  • Session > Race
    • Weather > Heavy Rain / Clear
• Session Start Time > Midday

For reference, you custom weather setting should look like this:

Once all configuration is complete, select Start Session to continue to the race session. Skipping qualifying as Lewis Hamilton, you should be well positioned, but in the case of this race a front row start is not strictly necessary. From the starting grid in the pouring rain, select Race Strategy. You do not need to make any changes here, but there are two things to take note of. One, that the Session Forecast indicates the transition from heavy rain into clear conditions over the course of the race, and two, that your default selected strategy is High Tyre Management, where you use a single set of Full Wet tyres for the entire race, hence, no pit-stops are initially planned.

Select Back to the return to the grid, then select Start Race. For the first lap of the race, maintain or improve your position and do your best to avoid causing any incidents that may result in a safety car. If a safety car is deployed this early in the race, it may leave the track again too early for you to be able to pit under it and you may need to restart. Once you are in the lead do not pull away from the pack, rather slow down if need be to stay only 2-3 car lengths ahead, which should keep the other cars in a fairly tight bunch. Continue on and also complete the first half of your second lap without incident. I recommend making a mid-session save at around the hairpin corner on this lap. This will allow you to quickly make subsequent attempts at forcing a safety car deployment at this stage of the race if your initial attempt fails.

Slow down your pace slightly such that you have other cars right behind you but without them being able to quickly and easily overtake. It is now time to start trying to force a safety car deployment. You have a very good chance of doing this if you purposely get yourself sideways and hit the wall either in the tunnel or near the end of the lap after the last chicane, but before the tight right hand corner that itself is just before the entry to pit lane. At either location, you should be able to cause a blockage and pileup leading to a safety car deployment in only a few attempts at worst. You may incur some penalties for blocking or causing collisions, but this will not void unlocking the trophies.

Once the safety car is out on track, do your best to quickly get moving again so you are leading or at least near the front of the safety car queue. As you catch up to the queue, make sure you do not overtake any other cars, nor drive too fast. There is a delta time that will be displayed at the top right of screen, you need to make sure it stays positive and green, as per the below:

By the time you have caught up to the queue, you will most likely be part way through your third lap. As you are nearing the end of the lap, around the last right-to-left chicane, make a new mid-session save, and continue on through the start/finish line to commence your fourth lap. Upon confirming this, you are now in a position to exploit your mid-session save to quickly get the remaining nine laps behind the safety car instead of needing to grind it out.

In light of the above, from the Pause menu, toggle across to Manage Session, then select Quit To Main Menu, and select Okay to confirm. Then immediately return to your race session - from the main menu, select Quick Race, then select Continue, and finally Start Session once loading is complete. You will be in flashback mode near the end of the lap. At a suitable point, resume control and complete this lap - as you do so, you will register another 10% progress. Repeat this another eight times over, and upon your tenth repetition you will unlock...

• Follow That Car

  Complete 10 penalty free laps behind the Safety Car

  
  

Now continue on with the race on your fourth lap, staying out of trouble in the safety car queue. If you haven't already, on this lap you can expect to hear your race engineer comment on the drying conditions and that a strategy change to pit for a set of intermediate tyres is possible. This will be followed up quite quickly with the offer itself, via a prompt at the lower right of screen, as below:

Accept the strategy change by pressing the following sequence of controls:

Then, at the end of your current lap enter pit lane to make the pit-stop. As soon as your new set of tyres has been fitted, you will unlock...

• Trust In Your Team

  Pit under the Safety Car onto the team's suggested strategy

  
  

CAREER

The Career mode is where you will be spending approximately 70-75% of your time in this game on the journey to the platinum. Via a few Career "false starts", you will be able to quickly unlock a few trophies before starting on your main Career playthrough that you will stay in for the long haul.

To begin with, the game divides the eleven teams of the 2016 season into three tiers based upon their championship expectations against the rest of the grid, and you unlock an trophy for signing your initial career contract with any team in each of the tiers. To start a new career, from the main menu select Career, then Career again (rather than Pro Career), then Short Weekend, then Very Easy, which will bring you to the Profile Creation steps. As this career save will be shortly overwritten, don't bother thinking too much these profile options. Once you have made a choice or entered details in all your profile attributes, select Register Details. This in turn takes you to the Team Selection step. From the bottom tier, highlight and then select any one of the following three teams:

• Renault Sport Formula One Team
• Sauber F1 Team
• Manor Racing MRT

Then from the Choose Your Team Mate prompt, select Start Career . Your first career session will begin loading and you will unlock...

• Determined

  Accept a contract with Renault, Sauber or Manor

  
  

To continue, select Start Session which will load you into your team lounge area, and Emma Jenkins will introduce herself to you as your contract agent. This particular career doesn't need to progress any further, so you can interrupt this here by pressing , then to toggle over to the Manage Session menu, and then select Quit To Main Menu, and confirm by selecting Okay.

You need to repeat this twice more, although given a Career save now already exists, you need to override it with a new career from now on. So this time, from the main menu select Career, then Career again, then Start New Career, and confirm by selecting Okay. You can now progress through the career and profile setup just as before. Once you have returned to the Team Selection step, from the middle tier, highlight and then select any one of the following four teams:

• Sahara Force India F1 Team
• Scuderia Toro Rosso
• McLaren-Honda
• Haas F1 Team

Continue and finally select Start Career, now you will unlock...

• Challenger

  Accept a contract with Force India, Toro Rosso, McLaren or Haas

  
  

Abandon your second career and start a new career for a third time, follow suit until you reach Team Selection again, this time from the top tier, highlight and then select any one of the following four teams:

• Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team
• Scuderia Ferrari
• Williams Racing
• Red Bull Racing

Again at your selection of Start Career, you will unlock...

• Tough At The Top

  Accept a contract with Red Bull, Williams, Ferrari or Mercedes

  
  

For another trophy that is best gotten out of the way early, we can continue with this career, with a goal of performing as poorly as possible and getting fired! Meet Emma again and listen to her intro in full (you can't skip this), after which you can read your brief contract/welcome letter on screen. Select Continue, followed by Laptop. From within the open laptop, select Go To Practice 1.

The game will load your session and some intro videos will play for the Round 1 - Australia. You can skip these by pressing if you wish, but you will eventually end up in your car in the garage. Given it is your first time here in Career mode, select Garage Tutorial to watch the brief video. Once that is done, from the Pause menu, toggle over to Manage Session and select Retire From Session, and confirm by selecting Okay. The Practice 1 Results screen will appear, from here select Advance.

Next, you will be introduced to the concept of Resource Points (RP) via an on screen blurb. Take note of this information - it will be important in your main career playthrough - and then select Continue to receive your first allocation of RP, including a handy bonus initial team allocation of 550 RP. Select Continue once more to get back to the your desk and laptop in the team lounge area. You will meet Chris, the "chief of vehicle development", and he will give you an intro (Again, you can't skip this) regarding your team's research and development program and the role you will play in it. Once his spiel is finished he will exit the room, at which point you will unlock...

• Part Of The Programme

  Meet your Research and Development Engineer

  
  

Continue onto Practice 2 by selecting Laptop, and then Go To Practice 2. Back in the garage now, from the Pause menu, toggle over to Manage Session and select Advance To Qualifying, and confirm by selecting Okay. From the Practice 2 Results screen, select Advance. You will receive a negligible allocation of RP, select Continue. Emma introduces you to the concept of Driver Rivalry, and you first rival will be your teammate.

Select Laptop and then Go To One-Shot Qualifying. After the intro videos, you can leave tyre selections and car settings as their defaults, and select Go To Track. As soon as you are out on track (even before you take control of your car at the start/finish line), from the Pause menu, toggle over to Manage Session and select Advance To Race, and confirm by selecting Okay. You will qualify in 22nd and last place - great work! From the One-Shot Qualifying Results screen, select Advance. A few more RP granted, then select Continue to view the Rivalry Update screen - you are losing fantastically - then select Continue again for an introduction to Team Standings. You will lose a couple of points here due to missed objectives.

Select Continue once more and you will be back at your laptop. Open it up and immediately select Go To Race. After the (skippable) intro videos, you will be on the starting grid, so go ahead and select Start Race. The quickest way to end your race with a disqualification is to reverse off the start line when the lights go out - erratic driving! Do so, and the game will skip ahead to the post race scenes, and you can then skip these to arrive at the Race Results screen. From here, select Advance to go to the Driver Standings screen, then select Advance again, get some RP, then select Continue for a Rivalry Update, and select Continue again for Team Standings Update, and then select Continue and you will be introduced to Career Score, a concept that has no relation to or bearing on unlocking trophies. Select Continue once more to return to the team lounge area. Open your laptop and select Next Weekend, and once enabled on the loading screen, select Start Session.

You have reached Round 2 - Bahrain. From here, skip through all sessions as you have just done previously for this round and also Round 3 - China. You will lose your first Driver Rivalry along the way, you will be well and truly underachieving in Team Standings, and immediately after the Round 3 race you will have your first "contract event" - a written warning to turn your performance around. Skip through another three race weekends - Rounds 4 to 6 in Russia, Spain and Monaco respectively. After the Round 6 race you will have your second contract event - a severance notice on your contract. That's too bad. Still, you are given an offer from one of the lower tier teams, so select Accept Offer, then open your laptop and select Next Weekend. While the game is on the subsequent loading screen, you will unlock...

• Itchy Feet

  Accept a contract with another team mid season

  
  

Now it is time to start over one final time, and take a little more care with options and settings getting it started. Back at the main menu, select Career, then Career, then Start New Career, and confirm by selecting Okay. Highlight Custom Weekend, then select Customize. and set up your custom weekend as follows:

• Practice Type > Full Practice
• Practice Length > Short (30/30/30)
• Qualifying > One-Shot Qualifying
• Race Distance > 5 Laps

Select Back to return to the Participation Select screen and then select Advance, select Very Easy for AI Difficulty Select, after which you will be once more at Profile Creation. Take your time here and get set up exactly how you want, and if you do have the Career Booster DLC redeemed on your account, then make sure to scroll down a few rows within the range of helmets and select one that is noted as a career booster, as per the example below. Once done, highlight Register Details and select Accept.

For team selection, again my recommendation is to go with Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team - you will have a strongly performing teammate that is more likely to be your main rival in the Drivers' Championship, and they will help to earn enough points such that securing the Constructors' Championship should also come easily. Having selected Mercedes, next opt to have L Hamilton (Lewis) as your teammate - he is the current world champion driver - and select Start Career.

On the loading screen, review the Session Setup and Preferences (both Race Settings and Assists) are to your liking - the game will continue to use same throughout your career until you make any subsequent changes - and select Start Session. Continue through the career start formalities you are now familiar with until you reach the P1 session for Round 1 - Australia. Press here to stop the session from progressing.

Now, before getting out on track, it is worth looking a little deeper into the various ways that RP can be earned as you progress through your multi-season career. A grand total of 22,200 RP is required in order to unlock all 25 car upgrades. RP can be earned for different tasks depending on what type of session your are driving in, and there are some common tasks to all sessions too. If you could drive a perfect race weekend that earned all available RP and in the minimum number of laps, it would look like this matrix of tasks over five sessions:

From the above, a baseline of maximum earnings is 400 RP per race weekend. However, due to the difficulty and variation in some of these tasks, as well as the need to deliberately under perform when working towards certain trophies, it can only be used as a rough guide to assist with an approach to a typical race weekend in career mode. For the quickest game completion, you will also need to disregard the Tyre Management Practice Programme due to the low RP Per Lap, as it is more time efficient overall to skip it.

There are also persisting and one-off bonuses that can apply during your career (or certain portions of it):

• The aforementioned Career Booster, 10% bonus on all RP earnings
• First Driver Status within your team (first available approximately Round 13 of first season), ~20% bonus on all RP earnings
• Cease R&D bonus (available across Round 15-21 of each season), 25% bonus on all RP earnings, paid at start of following season
• A one off 550 RP bonus at the start of your career
• Sponsor bonuses of 500 RP in response to an extended streak of race wins

So, with all that in mind, it's time to try out your first practice programme. Exit the Pause menu, then select Session Info, and on the Practice Programme Select screen, highlight Track Acclimatization. Read the overview information, then press to select it and confirm to start with a Flying Lap. You are now out on track and the game will hand over control to you shortly. The primary aim of this practice programme is to allow you to gain familiarity with each circuit and learn how to drive it as close to perfectly as possible. As you progress around the track, you will see virtual gates than you need to not only pass through accurately, but also pass through with a certain minimum speed. Also, you will need to manually activate DRS with a minimal delay as you reach the start of each DRS zone. You are allowed up to three laps to earn the maximum score and thus earn 50 RP, but if you reach the maximum score with laps to spare, you can instead return to the garage immediately via the Pause menu.

Of the three kinds of practice programme that you can undertake on each race weekend, this particular one you will likely find to be most difficult. Unless you are freakishly talented and/or well-practiced, you will probably not get a perfect score here, but by finishing the three laps of your very first practice programme you will unlock...

• Practice Makes Perfect

  Complete your first Practice Programme

  
  

It is best to run each practice programme in a separate practice session, so from the Pause menu, toggle over to Manage Session menu, then select Retire From Session, and confirm with Okay. You will see the intro to Resource Points and meet Chris again, then you can progress on to P2. Here, select and run the Tyre Management practice programme. You will need to confirm your tyre selection, it is simplest to always goes with the recommended default. You need to manage your tyre wear over three full laps, while maintaining a certain minimum lap time, to earn a perfect score. While it might take a little getting used to, this is not too difficult if you follow the dynamic racing line, start breaking gently and smoothly before the line turns red, slow down sufficiently that you can release your brakes before beginning to turn, and only accelerating once you begin to straighten out. Even if you don't get a perfect score first up, you will quickly get the hang of it.

Once this practice programme is complete, again retire early from the session and then progress on to start P3, and select and run the Qualifying Pace practice programme. Your goal in this programme is to complete a lap in under a certain time to meet a targeted grid position objective. Based on the slow A.I. drivers, you should have no trouble beating this time at all, and will most likely do so on your first lap (you have three laps in total if necessary). With that done, you will have achieved a perfect result in at least one of the practice programmes, and so will unlock (if not already)...

• Practice Perfectionist

  Achieve a perfect result in a Practice Programme

  
  

You can now retire from P3, after which you will be given your first rivalry in your career proper, your teammate. Your performance in practice sessions does not matter when it comes to rivalries - only qualifying and race performance counts. For reference, here are the checkpoints you must meet to increase your rivalry score for both qualifying and race sessions:

From the team lounge area, select Listen To Voicemail to get the details of your qualifying goals. These goals will always be:

• Qualify in a certain position or higher (likely 2nd)
• Beat your teammate
• Beat your rival (if rival is a driver other than your teammate)

And for future reference, you should select Listen To Voicemail before each race session too, to get your race goals. These goals will always be:

• Finish in a certain position or higher (likely 2nd)
• Beat your teammate
• Beat your rival (if rival is a driver other than your teammate)
• Maintain a certain position or higher in the Drivers' Championship for the season (likely 2nd)

Either meeting or failing these objectives will impact on your current Team Standings, expressed on a scale of 1 to 10, as a measure of your performance relative to the expectations your team has for you. You can find this at any time in the Hub screen within your laptop, below is an example of the kind which you generally will want to avoid:

Next, from within your laptop, select Go To One-Shot Qualifying, then from the Tyre Select screen, select Go To Track.

Your goal now is to drop your driver position into the Below Team Expectations zone, so that then you can recover and return to the On Target zone in subsequent races. Thus, you should deliberately miss all of the qualifying goals that you were just assigned. The quickest way to do this is to retire from the session. Then progress to the race, where again you want to miss all your assigned goals. You do not have the option to retire from your race, so to quickly end it, simply reverse off the start grid (as you have done previously) to force your race to end via disqualification. This was the last time you will need to deliberately sabotage your own performance in any significant way. From now on you will be at worst aiming for 2nd place, and only in approximately half your remaining races - this is ensure the Drivers' Championship is not decided before the final race of the season.

Back at the team lounge, open your laptop, toggle to the Research And Development page, and spend the balance of your RP on the cheapest upgrade available. If you can still afford another cheap upgrade, buy that too. Making a purchase at the end of the race weekend means it will be available for the next race weekend that you are about to start, so keep this in mind as your continue to earn more RP and buy further upgrades. Once done, select Next Weekend and this will move you on to Round 2 - Bahrain.

At Bahrain, repeat each of the practice programmes, again doing one each across all of P1, P2 and P3. Your primary objective here is to have the fastest lap in all three practice sessions. The laps you do for this should be enough, but to make sure, check the session timings show that you have the fastest lap with approximately a 2-second (or greater) buffer back to the other drivers - note that they will get faster as the session runs. With such a buffer, you are fairly safe to retire early from the session. Advance through to One-Shot Qualifying, put in you best lap to secure pole position, and you will unlock...

• Best Seat In The House

  Take pole position

  
  

Start the race, make sure you win it, then progress through to the Driver Standings screen, at which point you will unlock...

• Just The Beginning

  Take your first win in any full season

  
  

• Top That

  Set the fastest time in all 3 Practice sessions, take pole position and win the Grand Prix

  
  

Round 3 - China is next. Give some thought to the structure of the race weekend which best suits your preferences and abilities. If you struggle to earn a perfect score in one lap on the Track Acclimatisation practice programme, it may not be the most efficient use of your driving time in terms of earning RP. Similarly, the Tyre Management practice programme requires three laps of you every time to earn the perfect score. In contrast, the Qualifying Pace practice programme is a single lap which you will pretty much always earn maximum score on. And One-Shot Qualifying is another single lap for relatively high RP earned. For most, these two laps and the five laps of the race will be the quickest way through career, while still earning RP at a decent rate. This makes for a race weekend needing seven laps of driving all up, so you can get through roughly three weekends in an hour, thus adding up to about seven hours for a full season.

Complete any or all of P1, P2, P3 in China as per your decision on the above, then qualify on pole position and go on to win the race. With your best efforts across the previous two race weekends, you will most likely have earned the 30 points in total across qualifying and the races that you will have won your first rivalry, and so will unlock...

• Come Out On Top

  Win a Career Rivalry

  
  

You will also be back into the On Target zone for team expectations, and assuming you have avoided the glitch, will unlock...

• Turning Things Around

  Improve your performance to elevate yourself out of the 'Underachieving' zone

  
  1 guide

For Round 4 and 5 - Russia and Spain respectively - do the same again to qualify on pole position and get a race win. At this point, you should have caught up to, and overtaken, Hamilton for the lead in the Drivers' Championship, but unless Hamilton has had some disasters rather than coming in second place, your lead will be narrow. You will also comfortably have made it up to the maximum 10 on driver position, and so you are now in the Exceeding Team Expectations zone. On this basis, the remainder of the season is now about managing the sharing of wins with Hamilton to keep only a narrow lead for yourself in the Drivers' Championship, without ever dropping back into the On Target zone.

This balancing act is actually not at all difficult, just approach every race weekend for the remainder of the season as follows:

• Always qualify on pole position
• If your lead over Hamilton is 13 points or more, let Hamilton win, and you finish second
• If your lead over Hamilton is 12 points or less, you win, and do your best to help Hamilton finish second
• If the race doesn't go to plan as above, as long as you still retain a lead of between 1 and 24 points, continue to the next round

This allows you to hand the win to Hamilton when necessary (incurring a -1 for Team Standings), but this is offset by you still finishing second in the race and you keeping the lead in the Drivers' Championship (combining for a +2 for Team Standings), so it is a risk-free approach, and the Constructors' Championship for Mercedes will look after itself too.

Continue your season, keeping everything under control and running smoothly as above until you reach P1 for Round 8 - Azerbaijan. This race weekend is at the new Baku circuit, and you need to complete ten laps in total across the weekend for an trophy. The simplest approach here is to do the Tyre Management practice programme (3 laps), Qualifying Pace practice programme (1 lap), One-Shot Qualifying (1 lap) and Race (5 laps) for the required total. However you go about it, when done you will unlock...

• A Truly Global Sport

  Complete 10 laps at the new Baku circuit

  
  

When you reach the mid-point of the season, Round 11 - Hungary, and you have the lead in the Drivers' Championship, you will immediately unlock...

• It's Not Over Yet

  Reach the mid point of the season leading the Drivers' Championship

  
  

After another couple of races, probably around Round 13 - Belgium, your excellent performance will be acknowledged by the team and via a contract event, you will be promoted to the team's First Driver position. From now on, as long as you maintain this position, you will earn a 20% bonus on top of all RP earned, a helpful addition towards unlocking car upgrades. And then at Round 15 - Singapore, you are given the option to cease R&D for the season. This locks the performance of your car at its current level for the remaining seven race weekends, but you still earn RP as normal during this time. The total builds up, and it and an extra 25% worth on top will be made available immediately at the start of your next season in this career. There is no reason not to do this in your first season when you still have so many more upgrades still to unlock. So, from within your laptop, toggle across to the Research And Development section, and select Cease R&D, then Okay to confirm. You will now notice then all five upgrade streams have a status of Development Ceased and all pending future upgrades are locked.

Continue on through the late stages of the season, and most likely at the completion of Round 19 - Mexico, you will have been in the Exceeding Team Expectations zone for 75% of the season - this will unlock...

• Overachiever

  Spend at least 75% of your season being rated as 'Overachieving' by your team

  
  

For Round 20 - Brazil, take extra care to make sure your lead after the race is 24 points at most, this should be the case, but if somehow you are leading by 25+, then you must restart the session and lose as many points comparatively to Hamilton as necessary to reduce your lead. Only then, proceed on to Round 21 - Abu Dhabi and win the race. You first career season is now complete, and with that you will unlock this bag of trophies...

• Constructors' Champion

  Win the Formula 1 Constructors' Championship

  
  1 guide

• World Champion

  Win the Formula 1 Drivers' Championship

  
  1 guide

• Down To The Wire

  Win the Drivers' Championship at the final race of the season

  
  

• Unbeaten

  Win all Career rivalries in a Season

  
  

• Seasoned Veteran

  Complete a full season of 21 races in Career or Championship Season

  
  

Now all that remains is the grind to earn RP for all remaining car upgrades. Commence your second season of career with Mercedes and you will get a lump sum of a few thousand RP, having ceased R&D in your previous season, so spend it on a few more upgrades immediately. With no other trophies left to consider, you do not need to maintain such tight control over race results, and this makes simulating races (rather than driving them in full) a good option to earn RP a bit faster. Continue on with your normal routine for P1/P2/P3 and One-Shot Qualifying that you established in your first season (assuming efficiency in earning RP was your primary goal), this does not need to change. But now, instead of completing all 5 laps of each race, build as big a lead as fast as possible over the course of the first full lap of the race, then from the Pause menu, toggle across to Manage Session, then select Simulate Session, then Okay to confirm. With a lead of a few seconds after your first lap, simulation is almost guaranteed to end with you getting a race win. You won't earn the full amount of RP for a race session that was normal in your first season, but you will still get approximately 50% of the amount in only 20% of the time.

With an approach of 1 practice lap, 1 qualifying lap, and 1 race lap then simulation, it is possible to power through a race weekend in approximately 10 minutes, or up to 12 minutes for those with the longest lap times. Also, by winning every race in this manner, you will receive sponsor bonuses of 500 RP, after roughly eight races wins, or a rate of about two per season. Also take advantage of the bonus for ceasing R&D each season to improve the earning rate overall. Very roughly, this averages out to approximately 1500 RP earned per hour in this manner, and a grind of 8-10 hours after your first season (assuming only one perfect score practice programme on each race weekend during this first season) to earn the total of 22,200 RP required for all 25 upgrades.

With perhaps an hour's worth of grinding into your second season, you will have been able to unlock 13 upgrades, and will unlock...

• Making Progress

  Have 50% of the vehicle upgrades applied

  
  

Then continue grinding a few more hours and you will finally unlock...

• Thanks To The Team

  Purchase all upgrades for your car

  
  

MULTIPLAYER

Firstly, find a friend, boosting partner, or cooperative random with the game, because you can't unlock this first trophy without them. Add them to your friends list (if only temporarily) so you can find them easily when sending the invite. Then, from the main menu select Multiplayer, then under Custom Race, select Multiplayer Championship. From the Save/Load Multiplayer Championship screen, select Start New Championship. You will be prompted to enter a name for the save file, and then the session lobby will be created. Select Invite Friends and find your friend and send them an invite. Once they are the lobby, you can each choose for yourselves a team and driver, then you both must select Ready. The game will then start loading into the first session of your online championship, and along the way you should each unlock...

• Saved Online Championship

  Save an Online Championship

  
  

You and your (new?) friend can then immediately exit from the online championship session and ideally move onto boosting the other online trophies.

If however you need to work on the remaining online trophies by yourself, then from the main menu, select Multiplayer, then under Matchmaking, select the lobby with the options that you feel gives you the best chance to win races - either Rookie, Sprint, or Endurance. The game will begin to search for your selected lobby type. Upon finding a session, the game will prompt you to confirm joining, so select Join Session. The game will take you into this lobby. A race might be in progress, so you might need to wait a few minutes before you can join the next race. Select Spectate from the lobby menu and you will be able to see how many laps are already completed. If there are still quite a few laps remaining before the finish, you can exit and try your luck searching for a different lobby. From here it is a matter of grinding out five wins against random players, and you will unlock the two other trophies along the way to this goal.

Continuing from here it is assumed you are boosting with one other player. So, starting again back at the main menu, select Multiplayer, then under Custom Race, select Create Custom. Confirm the join restrictions for your new session according to your preferences and then the session lobby will be created. For a quick and trouble-free boosting experience, select Lobby Options and configure the settings within.

For Session Options, configure as follows:

• Maximum Players > 2
• Practice Type > None
• Practice Length > None
• Qualifying > None
• Race Distance > 3 Laps
• Starting Grid > Random
• Quick Weather > Clear
• Session Start Time > Midday

For Race Settings, configure as follows:

• AI Driver Level > Very Easy
• Car Performance > Equal
• Parc Ferme Rules > On
• Collisions > Off
• Vehicle Damage > Off
• Safety Car > Off
• Corner Cutting Stringency > Regular
• Formation Lap > Off
• Race Starts > Assisted

Back at the lobby screen, select Track Select, then Custom Season. From the next screen, select Edit Track Listing, then Remove All Tracks. Now you have an empty season calendar and can add your preferred races. Assuming both you and your friend need five wins each, build up your custom season with the following five fairly short and easy tracks:

• Canada
• Austria
• Germany
• Italy
• Brazil

Now back in the lobby, send your friend an invite just like before. Once they have joined your lobby, select your teams and drivers. You may wish to agree on an approach to getting the required five wins each, perhaps alternate the winner each race, or battle it out legitimately for first-to-five, then whoever is still with less than five wins can win the rest. To begin racing, you then both need to select Ready. At this point the Canada race session will load up. After completing the short race, progress through to the Driver Standings screen, at which point you will each unlock...

• Taking It Online

  Complete an Online Race

  
  

Continue through each race of the first custom season. After completing the Brazil race you will each unlock...

• Competitive Streak

  Complete 5 Online Races

  
  

You will be returned to the custom lobby screen at this point. You can both select Ready immediately to start a new identical custom season to get both your online win counts up to five. After the fifth online race win, you will each unlock...

• Winning Streak

  Win a total of 5 Online Races

  
  

HIGHER DIFFICULTY RACES

Finally you need to get through two more races at higher difficulties than previously needed in the game. Fortunately, you can exploit the flashback and/or mid-session save features to grind out these races that might otherwise be beyond your abilities.

First up is a win of the 25% distance race against the toughest level of A.I. which will be done in Quick Race mode, and via manipulation of the chosen circuit and weather conditions can be made easier to keep the A.I. drivers behind out of the lead. So, from the main menu select Quick Race, and progress through the various selection screens, selecting Canada, then Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, then Lewis Hamilton along the way. Now from within the loading screen options, you need to configure your race to be to your advantage.

For Session Setup, configure as follows:

• Practice Type > None
• Practice Length > None
• Qualifying > None
• Race Distance > 25%

For Preferences/Race Settings, configure as follows:

• AI Driver Level > Ultimate
• Flashbacks > On
• Parc Ferme Rules > On
• Vehicle Damage > Off
• Safety Car > Off
• Corner Cutting Stringency > Regular
• Formation Lap > Off
• Race Starts > Assisted

For Preferences/Assists, configure as follows (or you may override to your liking):

• Driving Proficiency > Custom
• Braking Assist > Off
• Anti-Lock Brakes > On
• Traction Control > Full
• Dynamic Racing Line > Full
• Dynamic Racing Line Type > 3D
• Gearbox > Automatic
• Pit Assist > On

For Weather & Time of Day, configure as follows:

• Quick Weather > Heavy Rain
• Session Start Time > Midday

Once all configuration is complete, select Start Session to continue to the race session. Having selected Lewis Hamilton as your driver and skipped qualifying, you should find yourself in pole position on the grid, and therefore your strategy for wining this race in to stay in front and block any overtaking attempts by the other drivers. The wet conditions will mean full wet tyres can stay equipped for the duration of the race (18 laps in the case of Canada), negating the need for a pit stop that might cost you the lead. There are two more things to check/change before starting the race, so select Race Strategy and verify that High Tyre Management (with zero pit stops) is the selected strategy. Next, toggle over to Car Settings and make Preset 4 - Increased Top Speed the current setup. This will give you a bit of extra speed on the straight sections of the circuit to help stay ahead of the pack. Select Exit to return to the grid and then select Start Race.

When the lights go out, you may not get a perfect start and the A.I. drivers might pull alongside or slightly in front of you. Don't panic yet - pole position gives you the inside line into the left hand turn at the first corner. In such scenarios, be brutal and bump into them to force them to slow down or off the track, your ultimate objective is to be leading as you exit the right hand turn of the second corner. You will most likely receive some warnings but it is unlikely that you will be disqualified. You must also make sure to avoid incurring any time penalties either now at the start or later on in the race (due to corner cutting, for example) - having these time penalties applied at the end of the race will probably cost you the win and the unlocking of the trophy. Make use of flashbacks if doing so can improve your driving through the first couple of corners to hold onto the lead. If you lose the lead and find that a flashback cannot help, your best option then is to open the Pause menu and select Restart Session.

Once you are through the first two corners in the lead and also in comfortable control of your car, consider making a mid-session save immediately, particularly if you struggled to maintain the lead off the start line. You can treat this save as a bit of an insurance policy in case you lose control and/or the lead that a flashback cannot fully correct. I would also suggest you make a mid-session save on the main straight after the final hairpin turn on each lap or every few laps to minimise the loss of race progress if disaster strikes.

For the remainder of the race, do your best to stay right on top of the dynamic racing line along the straight and through the corners. If you are not using either of the "chase" driving views, pay close attention to the proximity indicators and make minor adjustments to keep the closest driver directly behind you. In the wet conditions the A.I. drivers seem reluctant to deviate from the racing line too. They may pull away from it on straight to attempt an overtake, but if you maintain a good speed up to the next corner, they will most likely brake a bit earlier than you need to and fall back into line behind you for the corner. This also means you can be quite careful through the corners without risking losing the lead.

Maintaining enough speed across the entire lap to stay in front will have you setting lap times of around 1:33 and finishing all 18 laps in about 28 minutes total, and probably with the narrowest of leads. If you do this and stay penalty-free, you will have the win and will unlock...

• So You Think You're Fast?

  Win a 25% + distance race against 'Ultimate' AI opponents

  
  

Next up is completing a race in Pro Career mode. Assuming you have not made any previous progress in this mode, from the main menu select Career, then Pro Career, then you will be prompted to create a profile. Enter all of the details as desired, then accept them by selecting Register Details. On the Team Select screen you can select whichever team you wish, and then toggle to your preferred teammate and finally select Start Career. Within the loading screen, you will note that the only option that can be configured is the Weekend Tyre Allocation (and which can be ignored), everything else is locked by virtue of being in Pro Career mode. Select Start Session.

You will then need to go through the same initial steps as for your standard Career - receiving your contract, laptop introduction, after which you can go to Practice 1 in Australia. Unless you have a strong preference to complete your Pro Career race on a particular circuit and are willing to skip through all prior rounds to get there, my recommendation is to complete this race in Australia. On that basis, from the team garage, go to the Pause menu, then under Manage Session select Retire From Session and confirm by selecting Okay. Advance past the Practice 1 Results screen. You will then have your resource points introduction and receive your starting points allocation, meet the chief of vehicle development, after which you go to Practice 2. Again, retire from this session early, and repeat same to skip both Practice 3 (after which you will receive your driver rivalry introduction) and Qualifying (after which you will receive your team standings introduction) sessions too. From your laptop select Go To Race to get down to business. If you are unlucky and get a wet race, you may wish to restart your Pro Career, but if you will be driving slowly and carefully anyway, it may be bearable to proceed as is.

Once you are on the starting grid (in 22nd position), select Race Strategy and take note of (and even write down) the planned laps for your pit stops. You do not need to make any strategy changes though, so can return to the grid and select Start Race. A formation lap is required, so follow the manual start procedure - hold to engage the clutch, press and hold in approximately half-way for some engine revs, then release the clutch as you see the car in front start to pull away. Drive this formation lap carefully and get somewhat used to the manual gearbox (use to change up gears to increase speed, and use to change down gears accordingly as you reduce speed). You also need to ensure you accelerate smoothly and not while turning, otherwise the lack of assists will mean you spin out of control and possibly into a wall or other cars. If you stay in gears 4-6 you should be able to negotiate most corners without getting into trouble, and do same in the race itself. Just prior to reaching the main straight, the game will take control of your car again to line you up in position on the grid, and progresses immediately onto race start. Another manual start is required and then the race is on.

Given flashbacks are not available in Pro Career, your only option to recover from catastrophe is by making progressive mid-session saves, and reloading from the save if your race ends due to terminal damage or disqualification. Save as often as you feel you need to, but it is best to do so only on relatively straight sections when you are sure you are not about to be lapped by other cars. The worst thing you can do is make a mid-session save that traps you at a point of imminent disaster and forces you to start over.

As you are driving try to stay near the edge of the track and on the outside of corners, avoiding the racing line as best as you can. Keep an eye in your rear view mirrors for cars coming up to lap you, and if need be make a gentle turn to move off the track and onto the grass if necessary, particularly in heavy traffic. While on the grass try to at least keep moving forward slowly in 1st or 2nd gear, otherwise, completely stopping for more than a few seconds will cause you to risk being disqualified. You may get some time penalties worth a few seconds if your slow driving is judged to be illegal blocking, but as long as you don't get so many of those that you end up disqualified mid-race, you don't need to worry about them. Also pay attention to team radio when they call you in for a pit stop at the end of your current lap, you will probably finish enough laps to at least need to make your first planned pit stop. To help anticipate this, you can find out how many laps you have already completed by going to the Pause menu, then select Race Director, scroll down to highlight yourself on the Drivers screen, then select View Lap Times. Scroll down to the bottom of the list to find out your current lap. Remember that pit assistance is also disabled, so you will need to slow yourself down to under the speed limit as you approach pit lane on each pit stop.

This race is only going to last as long as it take the winner to finish plus as long as you need to finish your current lap from that point. In race time this will be a bit under 90 minutes. In real time it can be a bit longer, depending on how much saving and/or loading of mid-session saves you need to get yourself to the end. But do so, and you will rightfully unlock...

• Ultimate Challenge

  Complete a race in Pro Career

  
  

and

• Trophy Collector

  Acquire every trophy in F1 2016