It was just the cars and the fact that they handled differently. "So that was the more crucial thing about it. That was one thing that really opened our eyes from some of the feedback we made last year's game quicker to get into a race - so Grand Prix Mode effectively became Quick Race - but people missed racing a season as their hero. "For us it was about legendary names, heroes of the past. And what are you going to do if you can't get the 10%? You've got this half-missing season, you're going to get criticised for that.
"Trying to upgrade all the tracks and trying to find all the things, and you can get there with 90% of it. "Certainly in terms of trying to replicate an entire season was something that very, very early on became almost mission impossible.
"When you start to think it and get involved, it's kind of a minefield, and at times we were like, 'Are we ever going to get this off the ground?' Chances are, some of them weren't even born! Our Williams contact, our Ferrari contact, our McLaren contact - they know the brand inside out of the current stuff, but you ask them about a car that's 20 years old, they weren't working at that company. Nowadays they're only revving to 18,000 when they used to do 20,000, it's easy. "Trying to source the engine audio for these cars and actually fire up an F1 car in terms of cost, and they just break down all the time. "Some of the team notice stuff, obviously the longer around in its form as it was in the day, was harder to source and get hold of.
Reference to someone like Williams is easy because they've got museums, so you can wander around looking at every Wililams from 1970 to all the way to modern, which is fantastic. "Certainly ownership and licensing stuff is a nightmare. In other ways, it's harder to get hold of certain bits and pieces. "In some ways, there's quite a lot of information out there because a lot of the tech specs are out there a little bit. You say this has been few years in the making, what kind of research goes into it? Obviously it was different when you're doing the modern-day sport - you can't really just talk to people as much as you can now, right? So it was, now we've got enough toys to put out there, let's do it." "But for us, we didn't want to just do time trial classic stuff, because that's been done before.
"But as it turns out, it's a good year for it, when you look at the other games that are doing retro stuff, and obviously Formula 1 itself doing the Rush movie coming out in September, that's obviously good news. "It's just keeping that momentum going, so you might have a few weeks where you're hearing lots, then where we haven't heard anything for three months because Mansell is out on holiday for three months, as you do.
"Some drivers are just pundits now, it's easy, but other ones – ice cream makers, farmers – just dropped off the face of the earth. There are so many parties involved and ownership changes amongst teams. It's been quite difficult in terms of keeping the ball rolling as well. It's been a couple of years in the making. "One of the reasons the game was announced slightly later this year, and also why the release date is slightly longer, is because it takes so long to get over the line. It was, now's the time when it has almost come together, but not quite over the line yet. "For us, it wasn't necessarily a 'why now' question. Why introduce Classic content now, why this year? We spoke to game director Paul Jeal at gamescom 2013 to discuss the work that's gone into the new Classic content, licensing issues and whether it would continue in future F1 games.
As well as the usual update to drivers and rules, the biggest new feature is the introduction of Classic cars, drivers and courses from years past, including Alan Prost in the 1980 Williams, through to Michael Schumacher in the 1996 Ferrari. F1 2013 launches in one month's time on October 4.