Le Mans Ultimate 1.0 is the new simracing benchmark

Le Mans Ultimate leaves Early Access behind

It seems that virtually every racing simulator now launches in an incomplete state under the supposedly acceptable banner of ‘early access’. Few other purchases would be tolerated on those terms: you would hardly take someone out for dinner, pay for complete meals and then be content to receive only the starters. Although, admittedly, that does sound rather like ordering tapas.

Le Mans Ultimate entered Steam Early Access in February last year. It was undeniably unfinished then, yet it did at least arrive with a substantial amount of content. The full 2023 Le Mans grid was present, alongside every circuit used in that season’s World Endurance Championship. Since then, DLC packs have kept the simulation thoroughly current, adding cars and tracks representing the 2024 and 25 campaigns.

Le Mans Ultimate 1.0 adds the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR LMH

The base game is now officially regarded as complete, and the 1.0 update makes its entrance with real flair. Most notably, it includes the wild Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR LMH: Aston’s racing version of its hypercar, with its ferocious V12 soundtrack intact. Real-world sportscar racing is currently benefiting from an exceptional level of manufacturer involvement, should you need reminding. As a result, Le Mans Ultimate arguably contains the most thrilling modern racing cars competing anywhere in the world. Look away, Formula One.

Together with a grid of the perennially popular GT3 cars, these machines have established Le Mans Ultimate as iRacing’s only genuinely credible challenger in simracing. It is constructed upon the exceptionally solid physics foundations of rFactor 2, but has been developed and improved to deliver simracing’s most persuasive and informative handling. Whenever you end up spinning off the track, it is painfully clear that you were entirely, 100 per cent, to blame.

Superb handling, but limited solo structure

It is fortunate that driving the game is so intrinsically rewarding, since it still has no career or championship mode to link its single-player races together. Anyone daunted by joining an online multiplayer server is limited to standalone race weekends against AI opponents. A substantial, detailed career mode is said to be in development, although it is not due until next year. Shall we have more tapas?

Endurance racing and multiplayer driver swaps

Online racers have already taken to the game enthusiastically, however, and version 1.0 will at last enable multiplayer driver swaps in longer online endurance events. These huge, scheduled races lasting several hours were popularised by iRacing. They are intended to be completed by teams and represent simracing at its most demanding and engrossing; so much so that even Max Verstappen finds time to enter them when they clash with an F1 race weekend.

When Le Mans Ultimate launched into Early Access in February last year, we felt it was worth taking a chance on despite its unfinished condition. Its complete release confirms that this was the right judgement a year and a half ago. The overall solo proposition remains slight in structural terms, but its handling model is unmatched, its car and circuit roster is superb, and its online racing is rightly tempting players away from carefully maintaining their prized iRacing driver rating.

Le Mans Ultimate is among the rare racing sims capable of making a 24-hour race seem too short...