Thrustmaster SF1000 racing add-on review -apkrig
With the tense formula season in full swing, we got one very interesting piece in our hands. We were able to add a new add-on to the base of the Thrustmaster T300 RS GT Edition steering wheel, the review of which we brought to you at the beginning of April, in the form of a replica of a real steering wheel of an F1 racing monopost. This is the steering wheel of the Thrustmaster Ferrari SF1000, and as the name suggests, it will please especially fans of red horses from Maranello. After several weeks of testing, however, I can reliably say that one fan of the papaya team has come to terms with it, and I must admit that having a real steering wheel available for playing F1 from Codies in many ways adds an incredible amount to the overall fun and atmosphere.
Expensive? It depends…
The SF1000 steering wheel was introduced by Thrustmaster earlier this year, so it’s likely that some of you may already be familiar with it. For everyone else, we have prepared impressions from the use and a summary of all the pros and cons that we have discovered that are associated with this add-on. First of all, it is necessary to define that if you are looking for the most authentic experience, you would find an even more sophisticated and much more expensive solution on the market, but even so, the SF1000 is not a cheap affair. The price of the steering wheel in Czech stores will be around CZK 10,000, and since it is only an add-on, you also need a base and ideally also pedals for it. The SF1000 is compatible with the T-Series and the whole combo can cost you approximately 16-17 thousand crowns.
The reason why we are starting to review the steering wheel with a financial issue is quite obvious – it is not a driver that you would just happen to buy during a walk through the department store on Saturday. On the other hand, for the stated price, you get a perfectly crafted steering wheel in a 1: 1 scale, which is very similar to the tools used by Charles LeClerc and Carlos Sainz in their race office. The manufacturers of the SF1000 thought not only to use real carbon fibers, but also to incorporate a multifunction display with a diagonal of less than 11 centimeters and, in addition to standard buttons, rotary knobs that can be used adequately in the last three years of F1 by Codemasters.
Well done
Probably thanks to the 3mm carbon fiber board, which takes care of the reinforcement of the entire structure, the steering wheel is not too heavy and at the same time I did not feel any twisting or creaking even during long races on technically demanding tracks. The SF1000 has a very comfortable material with rubberized handles and, when held correctly, will allow you to comfortably reach a wide range of controls. At first glance, it seems that the steering wheel has only eleven buttons, but we must not forget the directional cross at the left thumb, rotary switches, gear lever and a pair of analog paddles, which can serve as a replacement for missing pedals, or as a clutch or other mapped analog axis. As for the labels of the individual buttons, with regard to the license, the steering wheel manufacturers probably had to use those that are on its real model and therefore do not correspond to the functions to which they can be mapped in the game. However, this does not apply to diodes that very strongly indicate increasing speed, resp. draw attention to information from line marshals regarding hoisted flags.
What’s more, during the races it happened to me unpleasantly often that together with the turn of the switch I simultaneously pressed the lever perpendicular to the steering wheel, which is a signal for confirmation.
It is also important to note that in addition to the inch encoders, which can be used to adjust the differential and balance the brakes, only two of the remaining six rotary knobs work in the game. The rest control the display functions or settings of the mentioned analog paddles. Unfortunately, this seems to me to be a very untapped opportunity for a player to have real control over the vehicle if he is obviously interested, which is unfortunately underlined by the fact that the switches do not play a role and the game only accepts the click of an up and down shift. What’s more, during the races, it often happened to me that together with the turn of the switch, I also pressed the lever perpendicular to the steering wheel, which is a signal for confirmation and would certainly not hurt to make the push stiffer. However, this does not apply to individual buttons, the processing of which, on the contrary, prevents accidental presses and also brings an adequate tactile and audible response when you really want to press them.
Mainly for formula 1
Of course, when looking at the many controls, the question arises as to how to set everything up adequately, but Thrustmaster does not throw any major obstacles at the players’ feet. The firmware is updated using the included USB-C cable using a service application, making our test piece directly compatible with the latest year of the Codemasters formula series, thanks to the T300 base not only on the PC but also on the PlayStation 5 console. in addition to data transmitted directly from the game, it can also process telemetry transmitted via Wi-Fi, so logically there is a possibility to make full use of the steering wheel – and especially its display – in other titles. For the needs of F1 from Codemasters, however, you can switch the display to several modes and scroll through the pages with additional data. There is also a developer interface with raw data, which indicates the future possibility of producing your own screens, but official mentions in this direction do not come from Thrustmaster at the moment. Even thanks to compatible drivers, it is not necessary to change anything complicated in the settings directly in the game, and I used the basic layout with only a small change regarding the clutch to maximum satisfaction. However, you have to keep in mind that the buttons have no standard labels, so it is increasingly convenient to use the keyboard or gamepad when playing the console to navigate the game menu. However, this is not something that would be explicitly an obstacle, and even unmarked steering wheel buttons can be quickly used to navigating the menus.
The last chapter of the controls is the shift paddles, which you must attach to the steering wheel with four screws before use. However, the supplied Allen key is very inconvenient for assembly and disassembly, and I highly recommend using your own if you do not want to lose your mind when unpacking the steering wheel or removing the shift paddles to update the firmware. The fact that it is pleasantly responsive and thanks to a pair of magnets to change the properly rigid controller is of course due to the fact that you can replace the T-Chrono paddles from the box, but I do not think that in this case you would be a bit poor if you stayed with the supplied basis. The shifting is accurate, maybe a little noisier than one would like during night game sessions with a sleeping baby next to it, but they provide a truly successful experience and are the imaginary icing on the overall experience.
An almost ideal choice
How you play with the steering wheel then depends a lot on the base to which you connect it, but none of the supported pieces will disappoint you, I guess. My experience with the T300 is great and nothing changes the rating I had for the base when testing the entire T300 RS GT Edition set. The shape of the steering wheel, the response of non-existent tires and especially the availability of encoders for adjusting the richness of the mixture, the differential and balancing the brakes is a fantastic addition and will visibly move your performance forward. At one point, however, one may begin to say to oneself that this is somehow too much for him and that he will partially understand what the control of formula monoposts is all about. Adjusting individual settings and monitoring temperatures or possible damage to individual parts of the car, while monitoring what is happening around you, your own times and communicating with engineers in the paddock suddenly equals very hard work, which SF1000 goes against as an almost flawless professional. But if you don’t like the formulas too much and you’re still looking for a steering wheel that would still offer you so many controls for still reasonable money, you don’t have to logically limit yourself to creating Codemasters. Of course, the steering wheel works as if it were any other add-on, the only thing that may not work is the display. Beyond F1, the display will only provide adequate information in Race Room Racing, iRacing and Automobilsta 2, but it is very likely that the number of supported games will increase. And that’s only good, because after a thorough market research and competing solutions for home F1 setup, the SF1000 is starting to look like the best price / performance model, especially thanks to the rotary controls, which do not even have more expensive steering wheels from other brands. Then the 10,000 crowns don’t even seem like too much.
