I don't follow Formula 1, but I do have an interest in racing games. To keep things simple, I put the difficulty on Amateur, kept the races short, and had many of the assists on. You get the usual options like ABS, Traction Control, Racing Line, Rewinds and Autobrake. I was impressed with the amount of customisation you can do with the difficulty etc to give you the experience according to your interest in the sport.
I initially found the game difficult, but after several races it started to click. I think my main annoyances are with the way Formula 1 works rather than the actual game itself.
Each race has three stages; Practice, Qualifying, then the Race. I didn't understand what Practice was for since you get a feel of the track with Qualifying. In Qualifying, you get a set time to race many laps with the aim of setting the best time. I usually did 3 laps, then quit out, but you could race for far longer. I found that Qualifying is very important because it determines your starting grid position in the proper race, and this is a major advantage.
Overtaking can be quite tricky, so getting stuck behind several racers puts you at a massive disadvantage. When there are 24 drivers, starting at the back gives you a serious challenge to finish higher than 12th. However, you only get points for 10th and above which I think is a bit stupid (this is an annoyance at the sport itself though).
To start the Career mode, you have a few options which team to sign for. They set you targets each race but luckily they have low expectations. Meeting these targets means you gain reputation which then attracts the better teams for the following season.
Sometimes, you are required to give an interview. These are very simplistic and seemed rather pointless to me. You have a few responses you can give, but they appeared meaningless.
You can choose how many laps to use, I started off with 3 but in the second season increased to 6; you can go way higher than that though. I didn't have to worry about pitting since I had disabled the fuel and tyre wear. You can choose the strictness of the Flags as well, so cutting corners, blocking, crashing into opponents etc. give you 10 second penalties or complete disqualification. I always seemed to get warning flagged for blocking as I set off when I was first in the grid. Not sure if this was a bug or if I was doing something wrong.
There's a few weather conditions. When it is raining, your visibility is affected, especially when the car in front sprays your helmet with water, giving you a severely restricted view for a few seconds.
I was impressed at how well the graphics have held up, but I did encounter random stuttering which was incredibly annoying, and encountered a few crashes too. I acquired this game in the recent Codemasters Humble Bundle and have more versions to play, so I will look forward to playing the next instalment, and at a higher difficulty.