Formula 1 can be a brutal sport – especially if you race for Red Bull. Just ask Liam Lawson, who lost his seat after only two races in this year’s season. After struggling to win points in the Australian and Chinese Grand Prix, he was abruptly replaced by Racing Bulls driver Yuki Tsunoda, with Lawson switching back to the secondary team.
Last-minute changes like these create challenges for Codemasters’ annual F1 games, which are supposed to represent the current driver and team line-up. Codemasters plans to include Red Bull’s latest driver swap on day one rather than after launch in a patch update.
“We’re aiming to get them in for launch,” F1 25’s Creative Director Gavin Cooper confirmed.
“Moving them in the game from a data point of view is really straightforward. Because driver moves already exist – we already supported them being on different teams.”
However, it’s not as simple as swapping the driver’s suits, helmets and cars for different teams.
“There’s a certain amount of licensing where we have to get the official assets from the teams and they have to be signed off,” Cooper explained.
“But the intention is to get that done for launch – as long as they don’t change it again!”
If Codemasters can add these changes in time for launch, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson will drive for Red Bull and Racing Bulls, respectively, in every game mode except Braking Point as it’s too late to change the CGI cinematics. It’s not clear, however, if you can swap between the different lineups before and after the change.
This isn’t the first time Codemasters has had to react to driver changes in Formula 1. After starting the 2023 season as a Red Bull reserve driver following his departure from McLaren, Daniel Ricciardo secured a drive in AlphaTauri mid-season, replacing Nyck de Vries. He was later replaced by Liam Lawson for the renamed Racing Bulls team in 2024.
While he wasn’t in the game at launch, Ricciardo later joined F1 23’s driver roster in a patch update released in August 2023, one month after his return in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
F1 25 launches on 30th May for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with early access starting on 27th May for those who pre-order the Iconic Edition. It will not be coming to PS4 or Xbox One.
For more on F1 25, check out our previews of the revamped My Team and Braking Point story mode.
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