Playseat F1 Ultimate Review: Rigid, Professional, easy to use for true fans of F1 racing games

I love F1, otherwise why would I stay up and watch every single race, record a podcast after each one and spend hours racing F1 2020 on the Xbox? I’ve upped the game now, with something very special – the Playseat F1 Ultimate Edition race seat.

There are plenty of racing seats out there you can buy for your Xbox, PS or PC gaming needs. Just as there are plenty of wheels. When I first sat in the “standard” Playseat F1 I knew it was perfect for me – I love F1, so I wanted the low down, feet up seating position of an F1 driver.

I’ve been lucky enough to have a Red Bull Racing Edition Playseat F1 at home for many years – dating back to Mark Webber’s days with the team. For context, here’s the three types of Playseat F1.

Different models of F1 Playseats available

The standard F1 Edition:

The Team Branded F1 Edition:

And the Playseat F1 Ultimate Edition:

You’re looking at $2,500 for the standard, $3,000 for the Team branded and $4,000 for the Ultimate. Leaving aside the eye watering prices, let’s just consider for the context of this review – is the Playseat F1 Ultimate Edition worth the additional $1,500?

Playseat F1 Ultimate Edition uses the same F1 Bucket seat, that’s about where the similarities end.

Your seating position is the same height, but the wheel in front of you is far more adjustable, and the pedal position sits much higher again with additional adjustments too.

Setting up the Playseat F1 Ultimate Edition

Here’s the process of putting it together out of the box:

Now remember, you don’t get any pedals or wheel with the Playseat – that’s additional, so in all, the setup I’m now testing is over $6,000. But hell, it’s worth every bit.

Here’s why.

Sitting in the Playseat F1 Ultimate Edition

Getting into the seat is a fantastic experience. Roll the seat back (front bar mechanism like in a car), push the wheel forward and step in.

Sit down, adjust your seat forward so your feet are comfortable on the pedals, then reach out and bring the wheel to a comfortable distance and lock it in.

Perhaps critically, the Playseat F1 Ultimate Edition is suited more to those homes or places where there is more than one driver. With our Red Bull seat, my kids need to adjust the Pedal length, steering column distance and the reach of the steering column. Each adjustment is really tight and quite hard to do – impossible for an 8-11 year old frankly.

Because the seat rolls forward and back in the Playseat F1 Ultimate Edition Cage so you can get the right pedal fit – and this worked for my 9 year old Harrison, he just needed a pillow to give him height over the steering wheel for visibility.

Once you have your pedal distance set the wheel also slides forward and back to give you the right fit there.

The wheel sits on two rails, with really simple flick out locking mechanisms that require no real effort.

Both the wheel and pedal mounts have large levels of adjustment in them by default. Take the time to really nut that down to your favored position and this will be amazing.

Sitting in the seat, cutting laps of your favourite track, the biggest thing I noticed was the rigidity.

With the standard Playseat F1, over time the steering column shakes and moves. In the Playseat F1 Ultimate Edition it’s essentially a whole cage locking everything in place.

Cable management an issue

My only gripe, and it is a pretty strange oversight from Playseat – is cabling.

Once you have your wheel and pedals in place, you need to run cables from the wheels to the pedals. And to power and your PC or Console.

The wheel must move back and forward for you to get in and out, as a result you can’t just run the cables down the edge of the cage.

What I opted to do was run the cables to the front most part of the cage. Off to the left near the wheels closest position to the seat. So what I have done is put enough slack in the cable for the wheel to go all the way back to the pedals.

It’s not ideal, or attractive. In the standard Playseat it really is neat how it all goes down the steering column. That hidden method would be difficult to replicate here unfortunately.

A small thing, but all sorted. Oh, and this one didn’t have the spare M6 screws for the wheel and pedal mounts. No matter, a quick trip to Bunnings was required – keep that in mind.

Should you buy a Playseat F1 Ultimate Edition

Overall, I’ve used a lot of Simulator seats. For those who love all forms of motorsport it could be the Playseat F1 Ultimate Edition isn’t the right position. Personally, I’m most comfortable in this seating position no matter what the sport.

I can see myself looking for mounting brackets for my phone. You know those longer race sessions need it:)

It’s a high price to pay, but you’re getting an extremely high quality seat with the Playseat F1 Ultimate Edition. Pair it with a quality wheel and pedals (we chose Thrustmaster for that), and you’re giving yourself the best chance of a good lap time.

Buy yours today: The Gamesmen