"Jack
In the meantime, I understand that many or our current desktop players come from a simracing background, and are probably going to have a skeptical reaction. As a former simracer myself, I know that we tend to be very fussy about realism and depth and being able to twiddle as many dials and guages as possible. We've done the best to broaden the appeal of the game to people who don't want to adjust spinners for hours without diluting the experience. When the app is released, it will look much more at home. It's no secret that we're designing for tablets first and desktops second now, which is behind a large part of the streamlining of interactions with the interface.
If you are a hardcore simracer, and find your initial impression is to wish for more depth, give it a chance. I think you'll find it's mainly more convenient to play, but the depth is still there. At least do a few races before drawing any conclusions. During closed testing, even the more skeptical players came around and saw that the depth is still there, and if anything, it was more fun.
I think that will be a positive thing as the community grows and we are able to expand on to tablets and phones. It will take more than 10 minutes to draw a proper conclusion, and in 10 months I think it will seem like the right move. The current game was developed over years, and the new one is just getting started. It is a totally new game, not built on top of the existing one, but a total rewrite. There will be more content added over time, but first stage is just about laying the new foundations down and getting on to mutliple platforms.
I'll reserve my final judgement after I've played with the beta more. However, I think that leaning towards mobile/tablet development so strongly will be detrimental to the game as a whole.
For example, some of the most entertaining parts of iGP, developing individual parts of the car and contract negotiating will be sorely missed for me. I think that the development and replacement of individual parts could definitely have been left in, instead of changing the car development to something less connected to the real world, using points assigned to a certain characteristic of the car. That's one of the big reasons why the current iGP is more appealing to me than say... a certain Manager of Motorsport game on the Android/iOS app store.
Having to change certain parts of the car due to wear and tear feels more connected to an actual "GP experience" than the 'Fix Car' system implemented in the new beta.
EDIT: However, my criticism of these aspects of the game doesn't mean I'm completely against the new version of iGP. I like the new UI, and it's much snappier than before. I just don't think I need to mention the good parts of the new iGP because those don't need improving! :)