Alpha 0.2.6 — Opening Ceremony, Race Debrief, and a Big Polish Pass

Alpha 0.2.6 — Opening Ceremony, Race Debrief, and a Big Polish Pass

0.2.6 just landed on the closed-test channel. This update was built largely around real tester feedback — and it's a big one.

What's New

FIA-style Opening Ceremony

Before the first GP, a full-screen opening sequence presents every team — worst to best, all the way up to the reigning champion. Driver line-ups, suppliers, sponsors, media predictions — all laid out like a real pre-season broadcast.

Race Debrief — Rebuilt From Scratch

The post-race screen is completely new. Clean standings with helmets and flags, partner reactions with happiness bars, and three new panels:

• Race Stats — overtakes, mistakes, DNFs, safety cars

• Driver of the Day — auto-picked from positions gained and overtakes

• TV Rating — 0 to 5 stars, from "Dull" to "Instant Classic"

Simulate Race / Simulate Quali

Don't want to watch every session? New buttons let the AI run your strategy at 254× speed. Perfect for pure management mode.

A Calendar That Breathes

The hardcoded track pool is gone. The calendar now draws from a GDP-weighted city database — larger economies host more rounds, each city generates a unique procedural circuit. No two seasons look alike.

Player / AI Symmetry Fix

A tester found that the AI had hidden advantages the player didn't: free engine replacements and weekend-reset parts. Both are gone. The AI now plays by the same rules as you. Engine thermal targets were also retuned — races now finish with a realistic number of classified cars instead of mass mechanical failures.

New Balance Sliders

Two new career sliders let you tune the experience:

• R&D Dev Rate — controls how fast parts improve (0.25× to 5.0×)

• Perf→Fiab Cost — controls how much reliability you sacrifice for speed

Main Fixes :

• AZERTY / QWERTZ keyboard support fixed

• Safety Car no longer stays out forever in Simulate Race

• Drivers, Sponsors, and Suppliers panels rebuilt with a consistent visual language

• Market activity feeds: see every signing and deal across the grid

• Race debug dumps for easier bug reporting

• Dozens of crash fixes and UI polish from closed-test reports

Steam Next Fest — June 15-22

A playable demo is coming in less than a month. If you haven't yet: Wishlist The Undercut on Steam Full patch notes and technical details: Read the full devlog Thanks to our closed-test crew — antonio.m8729, xplicit57, and Kido — for the reports that shaped this update. If you want to join the closed beta, hop into our Discord. See you on the grid. 🏁