I have been playing for a few days and I love it. I'm running a little lower then my normal 1080p (1680) because I want to keep my FPS above 30 and high to Ultra settings. Win 7 x64 -Q6600 @ 3.0ghz -4GB - HD 4870 - Asus P5Q Pro onboard audio - Logitech Rumblepad 2 wireless. Dual monitors is slowing me down a lot.
Overall this game feels like a really nice Sim. I'm no expert. I haven't played much racing sims outside of Gran Turismo series (and a little N4S Shift) but I like Dirt 2 and was really eager to see what they would do with an F1 license. Dirt 2 is amazing. It is an incredible blend of arcade and sim combined with well coded (IMO) graphics and resource usage. F1 2010 is very much as I expected. Polished, fast, fun, and good balance of Sim/Arcade but more on the sim side. The difficulty can be very impressive though for a game. On full racing sim mode with 100% laps and you will witness a fraction of the concentration, determination, and precision of what the real drivers have to face.
Some of you were complaining about lack of feel and certain effects, I noticed if you turn off all the aids and play on the hardest settings, you get a lot more feel and response to everything. Even the crash/damage dynamics are better. The tyre wear is also very good as is the engine temp and response. Those aspects are pretty good IMO for what is still a fun racing game. The graphics look really good on ultra settings but it loses a lot at high and lower. Also you really have to maintain well over 30 FPS as this game is very fast and tight. You get a slight stutter or drop in frame rate and you can expect to miss your racing line or break a little too late.
I am currently on the 5th track I think, Spain - Circuit de Calalunya. I love this track but I am hating it right now because it's beating the crap out of me right now. I'm not sure what it is but the AI drives really fast on this course and it's hard to make up time. A bad pit or 1 mistake on a turn can really cost you the race. I have pole and first place in the previous races but this one I have replayed 5-6 times already and keep losing. Twice I went in to the pit in the lead and lost it to a 13-15s pit because I couldn't get out. Making up 6-9 seconds in Spain and passing is really hard for me. Often ends up in a restart because I hate setting for anything but first.
I'm playing on Hard settings, I keep the racing lines up on the curves though. It's just too time consuming memorizing all these tracks right now. I don't want to spend hours studying each courses racing lines combined with speed and grip thresholds for each turn based on conditions and tyres. I find the Logitech Rumblepad could be better supported. I really need better analog thresholds. It's really hard to be precise. It's hard not to be 100% in a direction or throttle with such a steep curve. I feel like 80% of the acceleration curve is only in 20% of the usable movement range of the stick, if that makes sense. I'd love to try this with a steering wheel but I don't have the space.
I'm having a lot of fun with this so far. I haven't played much yet but it's been worth it. I'd even consider getting a racing wheel for this game. The only thing this game is missing is the Nurburgring just for kicks