New Golden Lap Update Adds Spying On Other Teams

One reason I love finding out about classic motorsport is that after a couple of decades or more, the people involved are able to be more open about the espionage, copying and cheating that took place. And now a new Golden Lap update adds spying on other teams.

Both players and AI team managers can now send a spy out twice per season to copy a part, sabotage it or report competitors using a stolen design. Which are fairly common occurences in any era of F1, with one controversy ever nicknamed Spygate in 2007. And in Golden Lap, it means being an underdog or playing later in the game, will now become more interesting.

Other changes include limiting part building to one item per weekend, more aggressive AI drivers, and increasing the changes your drivers might have partied too hard the night before a race.

There’s also a 20% discount on the minimalist motorsport management game on Steam until March 20th, 2025.

Golden Lap Update 250313_f9ba3bde Release Notes:

Spy Update

• the player and the AI can send a spy to another team (costs $10 per spy, up to 1 spy per weekend, up to 2 spies per season)
• the spy can copy a part design (gets you a free part)
• the spy can sabotage a part (failure results in a penalty)
• the spy can report a part with a copied design (results in a penalty for the team that stole the design)

Gameplay Improvements

• you can now build only one part per race weekend (the change will apply in a new career or after you complete one race weekend in your current career)
• AI will use high engine mode more often
• AI will occasionally push the car past its limits
• you can tune the car in Quali during red flag (send out is still after the red flag ends)
• increased chance of getting the Partied Too Hard trait in Quali or Race
• you can now cancel a pit order in Quali

UI Improvements

• long driver and team names are handled gracefully
• all retiring team members who participated in current or previous seasons will be included in the retiring members summary at the end of the season
• added a Points column in race results screen
• updated icons for track traits
• added a link to the Golden Lap Booklet in main menu > extras

Localization Improvements

• improved localizations for German, French and Turkish
• resolved issues with localization text not fitting in buttons or tooltips

Mod Improvements

• mod debug now checks the number of free drivers in the mod and returns a warning if there are too few
• you can now disable driver deaths
• you can now set the career decade to start in a year between 1900 and 9989

Bug Fixes

• fixed an issue where AI drivers with puncture won’t pit sometimes
• fixed various issues with car speed and position in standings during yellow and red flags
• fixed issues with sponsor challenges not clearing in certain cases
• fixed issues with music and ambient sfx not playing in certain cases
• weather overlay and effects now load correctly in career dashboard and preseason
• sponsor challenge summary after a race now shows the correct sponsor logo (instead of STOPPE)
• fixed sfx for cars passing near pit lane on Schwarzwaldring
• fixed issues with performance values of newly build parts seen in pre-season

You can find Golden Lap for the PC on Steam, and keep up with the latest news, updates and more, here.