Arriving just as the 2025 F1 driver’s championship hots up is Codemasters and EA Sports’ latest F1 entry. The changes coming in F1 25 are vast and we’ve attempted to include as much detail as possible in the fifteen entries shared in this feature. One thing worth pointing out at the start however is EA’s decision to halt support for past-gen consoles. F1 25 is current gen only. Whilst obviously disappointing to some this move has allowed the developers to channel maximum resources into F1 25’s innovations, and which there are plenty. With EA’s just-released driver ratings (including McLaren starlet Oscar Piastri in questionable eighth), hype is building; this has potential to be the best F1 entry for years.
LIDAR-scanned tracks
Unprecedented visual fidelity and authentic circuit replication has arrived; in F1 25, the look and feel of five circuits has been upgraded via LIDAR scanning. The tracks – Bahrain, Imola, Miami, Suzuka, and Melbourne – were scanned during an F1 race weekend to ensure barriers, advertisements, lighting, foliage, track surfaces; all now appear true-to-life as it was during a Formula 1 event. Additionally, LIDAR’s billions of data points translates to track realism: bumps, elevation changes, off-camber corners, curb heights, presumably demanding more skill to master. Also touted here is a sense of speed for players that’s the closest it’s ever been to what real-life drivers experience.
Reverse circuits
Is this a gimmick or something that will catch on? Either way, EA are dipping their toe into reverse circuits for the first time in F1 25 – without players using cheat codes, of course. Three tracks will be raceable backwards: Silverstone, Austria’s Red Bull Ring, and Zandvoort, with the latter’s NASCAR-style banked final curve transforming into a dramatic first corner fling in reverse. EA haven’t just 180° flipped the cars though. No, floor decals, lights, pit crew formation, everything needs to function authentically in reverse. Boosting authenticity further are adjusted racing lines, tyre wear, and drying lines which form after rain.
My Team 2.0
The number of changes coming to F1 25’s My Team and Driver Career modes is head-spinning. The most fundamental change to My Team, however, evolves players beyond manager-come-racers to more focused team owners, albeit ones who can still get behind the wheel. Overseeing day-to-day corporate and engineering activity features heavily via close financial scrutiny and split-for-the-first-time research and development respectively. Alongside this is demanding personnel management, including the competing concerns of your driver line-up, and a need to nurture company-wide morale. In My Team 2.0 not only do team owners offer contracts to drivers they deem worthy of racing in their livery, but either driver is controllable from the cockpit during race weekends.
My Team 2.0’s more meaningful strategy calls
When researching upgrades for your car you can opt to channel funds into new parts for both cars, thereby benefitting both drivers equally. Alternatively, concentrating R&D budget on parts for your in-form driver’s car yields shorter development times but potentially leaves your de facto number two driver feeling disgruntled, the knock-on effect being a tougher process when re-negotiating contracts. Another example of F1 25’s deeper strategy calls: your number one driver might be gunning for world champion; thus, you’ll want to step into his cockpit to see him over the line yourself. Or maybe your second driver isn’t performing well, so you’ll decide to race in his car to maintain a healthy position in the constructor’s championship.
Braking Point 3
F1’s blockbuster story mode returns in 25, beginning with the rise of Aiden Jackson in F1 2021 to the introduction of fictional team Konnersport in F1 23, to now. Konnersport are no longer minnows; in F1 25’s Braking Point 3 campaign they’re fighting for championships and it’s down to you to steer them towards glory. F1 25’s upgraded cutscenes, thanks to what EA term ‘state-of-the-art’ motion capture, feature here alongside rebalanced difficulty options ensuring this mode appeals to newcomers as much as seasoned racing veterans.
Revisions to car handling
F1 25’s visual pizazz is all well and good, but car feel arguably dominates the innovations returning F1 players want to see. It’s been a bone of contention amongst racers for F1’s last couple of entries, but it seems for F1 25 EA are attempting to rectify prior entries’ lack of car feel. Through rigorous testing and feedback gathering, evolutions to controls, tyre and aerodynamic performance, and power unit behaviour are coming, with wholly revised car handling the result.
Car handling revisions in detail
Whether using a controller or wheel, steering promises to feel more intuitive thanks to tarmac physics closely aligned to evolving track conditions that’re blended with consistent, fine-tuned steering rates. The result, hopefully, is a clearer understanding of where the grip is, thus opportunity to push cars to their absolute limit. Tyre models overall are recalibrated with, for example, aggressive driving styles overheating tyres more realistically. Via a refined slipstream model, aero performance is more pronounced; most notably, perhaps, when trailing the car in front’s dirty air. Via F1 25’s revised power unit performance, smoother clutch shifting, re-mapped throttles, and recalibrated energy recovery systems imply deeper strategic racing via the demand to manage pace.
AI enhancements
Another element players of prior F1 titles feel has underwhelmed is in how AI controlled racers behave. EA state racing offline against computer-controlled rivals should feel as thrilling as it does when watching the sport in real life so for F1 25 they performed extensive playtesting with a raft of highly-skilled F1 players, translating their overtaking skill, defensive manoeuvring, and overall race craft into data to feed back into their revised AI models. On-track behaviour and tactical decision making should, hopefully, be far more realistic as a result.
New Decal Editor
F1 25 introduces a brand-new Decal Editor, with freedom to customise car liveries far more widespread than ever before. Now, sponsor decals with numerous design variants can be moved, rotated, and resized instead of positions previously being fixed. New fonts and colours are now available for driver numbers too. The biggest addition though is with sponsor liveries, providing detailed patterns that’re shaped around your team’s main sponsor ensuring a cohesive appearance for your car is much easier to achieve.
Path tracing introduced
PC exclusive and available via the new ‘ultra max’ graphics setting, lighting in F1 25 can now exude all the vibrancy of path tracing, so long as your hardware is up to it. Shade, light, and colour shifts realistically through every inch of raced tarmac. Light sources both direct and indirect bounce and reflect off a multitude of surfaces and textures with lifelike precision whether racing under Singapore’s night-time city lights or speeding towards Abu Dhabi’s sunset.
Invitationals – a brand-new collaborative mode
Invitationals are newly introduced multiplayer events available via F1 World. Once an invitational is received access can be shared amongst your friends and together you can race towards a shared objective, with in-game rewards the prize. Be warned: some invitationals are more challenging than others, but the harder the task the more lucrative the rewards.
Newfound emphasis on respectful racing
There isn’t much more infuriating than online competitors deliberately sabotaging your race so, in order to promote more respectful multiplayer racing, EA are updating their Driver of the Day system to hopefully encourage players to manage their reputations better. Accomplishments recognising clean racing and fair overtakes are also highlighted by EA as something F1 25 is pushing onto players.
Release date, platforms, price
F1 25 releases worldwide on May 30th, 2025, to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The game’s Standard Edition is priced at £69.99 / $69.99 for console and £49.99 / $59.99 on Steam. Featuring Oliver Bearman, Carlos Sainz, and current championship leader Oscar Piastri as its cover stars, pre-ordering F1 25 Standard Edition nets you the F1 75 Celebration Pack, F1 World Starter Pack, and 5,000 PitCoin.
Iconic Edition
Featuring seven-time champ (or eight depending on your allegiance) Lewis Hamilton – newly adorned in Ferrari red – as it’s cover star, F1 25’s Iconic Edition is priced at £89.99 / $89.99 on console and £69.99 / $79.99 on Steam. Pre-ordering grants 3-day early access in addition to numerous other perks including an F1 World Bumper Pack, F1 The Movie chapter scenarios and APXGP Team Pack, a suite of 2025 liveries, 18,000 PitCoin, and a one-month subscription to F1 TV Pro is you’re based in the USA. Lewis Hamilton’s the star so of course a handful of Lewis-themed extras are bundled in: a Lewis Hamilton Iconic Pack featuring exclusive in-game customisations, and a Lewis Hamilton F1 World Event. As with prior F1 entries, EA are operating a loyalty discount of 15% off the game’s upper-tier edition for owners of F1 23 and F1 24.
PC requirements As per F1 25’s Steam listing, minimum PC requirements include an Intel Core i5-6400 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 processor, 8GB RAM, an NVIDIA GTX 1060, RTX 2060, AMD RX 570 or 6700XT GPU, plus a 4-core CPU at 2.2Ghz or greater. Network speeds must be at least 1Mbps up with less than 60ms ping. For the best experience, you’ll need a powerhouse: Intel Core i5-9600k or AMD Ryzen 5 2600X processor, 16GB RAM, and an NVIDIA RTX 2070 or RTX 3070, an AMD RX 6600XT or RX 6800 or Intel Arc A580 GPU. 3Mbps upload speed at less than 30ms ping are the recommended network settings. VR support across all the usual headsets is also available with an Nvidia RX 6700XT amongst the recommended GPUs if you’re planning on playing on your Meta Quest. Whatever system you’re rocking you’ll need 100GB of storage space.
