Watch Carlos Sainz and Bianca Bustamante race some Miami Dolphins in F1 24

With F1 returning to the Miami Grand Prix this weekend and EA’s F1 24 game releasing imminently on 31 May, perhaps this sight was inevitable: the smooth operator himself, Carlos Sainz, racing Miami Dolphins Jalen Ramsey & Jaylen Waddle, and F1 Academy’s Bianca Bustamante on the virtual track.

EA’s ‘Miami Search’ event brought the Ferrari driver to the kind of stylish industrial space where one might film a marketing video and challenged him to a battle for bragging rights with promising McLaren youngster Bustamante, and Dolphins team-mates Ramsey and Waddle. Racers and NFL stars teamed up, the lights went out, and…

And that really is the best synopsis we can give of the event, because once the racing in F1 24 began, chaos reigned. Even Formula One’s 2021 race control team would have had something to say about the ‘overtakes’ here.

In theory, Sainz and Bustamante were there to offer coaching and racing nous to the formidable NFL cornerback and wide receiver. In practice, Sainz shoved Bustamante into the wall on lap one, immediately dispelling the old adage of his childhood hero Fernando Alonso. Apparently, sometimes you don’t have to leave the space after all.

The racing only got more elbows out from there. It’s just a good job damage was off.

Never mind - onto the game itself. F1 24 brings a revamped career mode, improved handling physics, track updates and new additions to its live service mode, F1 World. Based on this latest look at it, the engine sounds have been improved for authenticity too, particularly in replay mode.

If you’re still plugging away at that WDC in F1 23, you’ve got mere weeks to secure it before the new game arrives on 31 May. Or you could stay put and keep racing with last year’s cars like some kind of luddite.