The game will also feature a brand-new "Young Driver Test" mode, a tutorial mode designed to introduce new players to the handling characteristics of Formula One cars as a prologue to the career mode. As a demonstration, Codemasters approached several drivers — including Mercedes test driver Sam Bird and GP2 Series driver Stefano Coletti — at the real-life Young Driver Tests (for drivers who have never started a Grand Prix) in Abu Dhabi in November 2011, and asked them to drive the Yas Marina Circuit in F1 2012 instead of using the team simulators they would traditionally use to learn the circuit. All of the drivers who played the gamereported that the game was realistic enough for them to learn the circuit to the point where they were confident enough to set competitive lap times.
F1 2012 will feature a new "Champions Mode", in which the six World Champions competing in the 2012 season — Kimi Räikkönen, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher — will be styled after traditional end-of-level video gaming bosses, with the player challenged to beat them while racing in conditions that are known to suit them.
