Automobilista 2 | 1997 McLaren MP4/12 Heading To The Simulation

Paul Jeffrey · Aug 21, 2020

Reiza Studios have confirmed the slightly delayed new mystery car coming to the simulation will be the epic West McLaren Mercedes MP4/12, as driven by Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard during the 1997 F1 season.

McLaren MP4/12 will be added as free DLC content.
The car will be released alongside a new build update for the simulation.

We knew a new car was heading to the simulation as part of this final August build update, and now the cat is out of the bag - the McLaren MP4/12 that raced in the 1997 Formula One World Championship is coming to Automobilista 2 - the final McLaren of the slicks generation before Formula One moved to grooved tyres for 1998.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1296913276291420162

Those of us who can remember 1997 (was it really 23 years ago?!?!?) will recall this particular McLaren had a special trick rear brake system, something that helped the Mercedes powered team to their first victory in Grand Prix racing since the great Ayrton Senna departed the team at the conclusion of the 1993 racing season.

Having found form towards the end of '97, the MP4/12 would act as something of a springboard for the team heading into the new Adrian Newey era for 1998, with Hakkinen catapulting himself into a champion driver for the following two years, while team mate Coulthard continued to rack up occasional race victories as his support wing man at the British team.

McLaren would win three races in 1997 on their way to third and sixth in the Drivers World Championship (following the exclusion of Michael Schumacher post Jerez Villeneuve shunt), and arguably the team produced their most attractive car of recent memory with the striking shape and new Mercedes and tobacco inspired silver livery.

Automobilista 2 is available now, exclusively on PC.

Got questions? Have answers? Want to chat about AMS 2 and don't know where to go? Worry not my friend, we have just the place for you! The Automobilista 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment welcomes you with open arms - come say hello!

dreamer al · Sep 22, 2020

passenger said:
September, 21. We will have news from Reiza soon. The next DLC is
scheduled for the end of this month, the Classic Touring Cars pack.

I believe the Classic Touring Cars pack is free (not DLC) as per Development Road Map.

passenger · Sep 22, 2020

dreamer al said:
I believe the Classic Touring Cars pack is free (not DLC) as per Development Road Map.

Hmm... not sure how they will release these cars, if some for free and then
some more as a DLC. I just checked, and this is from the July Development Update:

We´ll start with the classics: the BMW M1 Procar will be the first to arrive, and soon after the M3 E30 along with the Mercedes 190E Evo2 for some classic touring car action. Plenty of more of these to come, but let´s not spoil it all yet

UMC 22 · Sep 22, 2020

passenger said:
Hmm... not sure how they will release these cars, if some for free and then
some more as a DLC. I just checked, and this is from the July Development Update...

This is from the very same development update:

We´ll start with the classics: the BMW M1 Procar will be the first to arrive, and soon after the M3 E30 along with the Mercedes 190E Evo2 for some classic touring car action.

...

Later on the two brands will be represented in our GT3 / GT4 pack with their respective models,

...

And to make it more interesting, we confirm that all the cars mentioned in this dev update will be free additions to the base game.

DC WOLF · Sep 22, 2020

the average attention span of mankind seems to be too short for such long texts

dreamer al · Sep 23, 2020

passenger said:
Hmm... not sure how they will release these cars, if some for free and then
some more as a DLC. I just checked, and this is from the July Development Update:

We´ll start with the classics: the BMW M1 Procar will be the first to arrive, and soon after the M3 E30 along with the Mercedes 190E Evo2 for some classic touring car action. Plenty of more of these to come, but let´s not spoil it all yet

Not sure if you can read the attached. It is from Automobilsta 2's own site. If that is not correct, then they should update it quick smart.

It clearly states "September - Classic Touring Cars ( Free)".

skunkedup · Sep 24, 2020

I wonder if us peasant none beta users will get any bug fixes this weekend or just the chosen beta few. With so many issues.. making us wait so long is very poor.

I'm hoping for the bouncing to be eased so I can play again without fecking my eyes up.

That new content sounds good though and not to long to wait by look of it.

UMC 22 · Sep 24, 2020

skunkedup said:
I wonder if us peasant none beta users will get any bug fixes this weekend or just the chosen beta few. With so many issues.. making us wait so long is very poor.

Not being funny bud, but Reiza are by far the hardest working sim developer I know, and they've released more patches since the game entered EA than any other dev this year. Since EA ended they've been patching once per month which, again, is more than any other sim developer out there right now, and that's not including daily hotfixes to correct any minor issues following a major patch release.

To me that is not "very poor" at all, it's industry leading.

skunkedup · Sep 24, 2020

I agree with you mostly. Reiza are top, the updates have been impressive and up to now have been fortnightly, its only this gap that has given me cause for concern. The beta I understand is getting a lot of love but there are more users of this game than just the beta users. I didn't part with my money as quickly as the beta customers but i did still part with my money, bought the dlc too and will buy the next as well.

The bouncing means I can only stand this game for a short time and only with certain cars and tracks... it's not even worth firing it up the way it is. It affects every moment in the car.

Wouldn't it be nice to see the steam forum with some positive posts instead of the wasteland it currently is. It may even help sell some copies of the game and the servers would be more populated too.

DC WOLF · Sep 25, 2020

Thats totally wrong. Beta is "before" release version.
We beta users get half implemented tracks and cars and also some internal things like UI changes for feedback.
When that is good enough for release, every body gets exact this things.
This is not "more love" for beta users, its still "work in progress".
Many things do not work as intended or we find bugs. That helps the devs.
But if you think we allready have Spa or Nordschleife you are wrong thinking.
All we got this months was one car and one track to test.

BTW. You could be in that group, if you had paid for it 6 moths ago

skunkedup · Sep 25, 2020

Way to miss the point... Nice one. Nowhere have I mentioned content. Nowhere have I mentioned a proper ranking system. Nowhere have I mentioned game crashing with certain combos. Nowhere have I mentioned any of the issues in the bug thread on Reiza forum, reflections, diff issues... All the other things that are noted... These things take time and Reiza up to now have been very impressive.

I think I bought the wrong game