The new iteration of Codemasters’ fully licensed Formula 1 game, F1 25, launched on 30 May – and it is the best addition to the franchise in many years.
While sports games regularly deliver small, iterative tweaks rather than drastic, exciting changes, F1 25 bucks this trend.
While remaining familiar, F1 25 offers several much-needed and noticeable improvements.
We outline these improvements and give our verdict on the game, below.
Driving experience
At its heart, F1 25 is about driving a racecar around your favourite F1 tracks, and the game delivers impactful improvements on this front.
F1 24’s driving experience was considered a step back by many series fans, but for the most part, F1 25 fixes the issues that were criticized.
Casual players are unlikely to notice any jarring changes, but seasoned gamers will be pleased by the small tweaks that have been made.
These include elements like improved tyre wear, more noticeable dirty air, and better traction at low speeds.
While F1 25 still does not deliver as realistic a driving experience as hyper-simulation titles like iRacing, this has never been Codemasters’ goal.
Instead, F1 25 strikes an optimal balance between simulation and accessibility, and also offers extensive customisation options that let you tweak your experience to your preferences.
Improvements to popular game modes
The bi-annual story mode, Turning Point, returns for its third – and likely final – installation.
While it remains quite cheesy like its predecessors, Turning Point 3 still manages to tell an interesting enough story to justify playing it.
More importantly, it does a great job of immersing you in unique scenarios – like needing to make a series of overtakes before the end of the race to salvage some points, or defending against opponents while having significant damage to your vehicle.
Turning Point 3 is arguably the most engaging story of the trilogy – but don’t expect a Hollywood-level experience.
Nonetheless, it offers a fair few hours of fun, after which you can get plenty more game time from modes like My Team – where the biggest changes are evident.
After years of what was effectively the same game mode, Codemasters has significantly overhauled My Team.
These changes deliver vastly more nuance and realism to the mode.
For example: In the past, you would research a car part, and upon completion, it would magically appear on your car. Now you will have to spend additional time actually manufacturing the part separately for each car – as must happen in real life.
There are many more car development options than previous games, while other areas have been given more depth, too – such as your various team departments, unique events, and sponsorships.
Another noticeable change in this mode is the fact that you are no longer a driver-owner, which is a welcome improvement to immersion.
The last driver-owner in F1 was Jack Brabham back in the 1970s, so having a driver-owner in 2025 felt unrealistic.
Now, your player character is just the owner of your team – and when it comes to driving your car on race weekend, you can simply pick which of your two hired drivers to control.
Overall, while My Team still does not rival the discontinued F1 Manager series for depth, it offers many welcome improvements to its predecessor.
Other game modes
Turning Point and My Team are not the only two ways to play F1 25.
Alongside standard exhibition races, there is also online play and the Driver Career mode – where you simply play as one driver, and advance your personal driver career over multiple F1 seasons across different teams.
Another interesting addition to the game is the F1: The Movie content.
F1: The Movie will launch on Netflix on 27 June, and has struck a deal to feature scenes and scenarios from the movie within the F1 25 game.
Yes – this means you can now play as Brad Pitt in an F1 game!
As of now, there is only one short scenario to play, but more content will be added once the movie is out on Netflix.
Final verdict
Overall, F1 25 is an important and meaningful step forward for this popular racing series.
If you are someone who buys the game every year, this one is an easy buy.
Furthermore, if you only buy F1 games every few years, F1 25 is one that you shouldn’t skip.
And if you’ve never played an F1 game before, this is a great entry point to the series.
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