F1 25 review: A feature-packed step forward

Over the last few years, Codemasters’ F1 games have established a peculiar pattern: the odd-numbered entries are better than the even ones. F1 2021 was revered, but F1 22 was a disappointing step backwards with its superfluous drivable supercars and bizarre lifestyle elements that better suited The Sims than F1.

Similarly, F1 23 was a marked improvement, but last year’s game was another step backwards, thanks primarily to its polarising handling and lack of innovation. F1 25, Codemasters’ 16^th consecutive Formula 1 game, continues this trend, addressing F1 24’s faults while making meaningful steps forward and introducing new game modes.

My Team gets an overdue overhaul

Speaking of which, after last year’s game focused on revamping the Driver Career mode, this year’s biggest new addition is a refreshed My Team managerial mode, seeing its most drastic shake-up since its 2020 introduction. While the mode where you race as the eleventh team on the grid is a firm fan favourite, the lack of changes in recent games left it feeling stale and skippable. An overhaul has been long overdue. 

Instead of a driver/owner, you now take the role of a team principal managing two drivers, drawing parallels with Frontier’s now-defunct F1 Manager series. Unlike those games, however, you still drive in races, with the option to pick a driver. 

For returning players, switching to a team owner may seem unsettling after years of playing as a custom driver representing yourself, but it’s a more accurate representation of modern F1. After all, the last driver owner to win a championship was Sir Jack Brabham in 1966.

Another key change is that researching and developing new components to stay competitive is now separate. Once a component is researched, you must dedicate time and resources to building it, adding an extra step in the process. Initially, your capacity is limited to developing one researched component at a time in a category until you upgrade your facility.

This opens an interesting scenario where you must choose which driver to prioritise, as you can only upgrade one car with a researched component until you unlock the ability to develop dual components. A balancing act is formed, as favouring one driver over another affects their morale and, consequently, their track performance.

It also gives you the flexibility to focus on your lead pilot looking to clinch the Driver’s Championship or take a more team-focused approach, balancing resources between both drivers for a better chance of claiming the Constructors’ trophy.

As the season progresses, you also must manage your drivers’ contracts to prepare for the next season or scout for new driving talent, negotiating contract terms in secret meetings lifted from F1 24’s Driver Career.

Starting training courses in the new team owner skill tree system can also unlock bonus perks, from receiving extra resource points if a research project is delayed, to reducing the time it takes to upgrade facilities. Increasing your reputation in the new Fan Points system can also generate more sponsorship opportunities.

Along with returning legends like Ayrton Senna, driver icons now include Formula 3 rookies for the first time, but it’s a shame the full roster isn’t represented, with only four out of the 30 current drivers included. They are also exclusive to the Iconic Edition.     

Upgrading facilities is more impactful than before and introduces new strategic scenarios, whether you want to invest in improving the engineering, personnel or corporate departments, all while researching and developing car upgrades to stay competitive without exceeding your cost cap. There’s a lot to juggle, but everything is well explained in the extended tutorials.

Department heads are now voiced and fully animated, but the stilted facial animations leave a lot to be desired and show the ageing EGO engine’s limitations.

In a nice touch, you can see your team and facilities visibly change as they expand. It gives a more visual sense of progression than the uninspired menus in previous games. Race win payouts can sometimes be overly generous in our testing with our difficulty settings – although there are more granular options to set your starting car development and facility investments this time, whether you want to start as a midfield challenger or aim for the top.

Departments can also be upgraded in phases, allowing you to choose what you want to prioritise, whether it’s expanding the aero research department or increasing resources to develop two parts simultaneously, providing clear motivation as you progress to the next level and plan your strategy accordingly.  

The deeper car development, department upgrade phases, team owner skill tree, fan points and accolades all combine to create a rewarding and engrossing loop as your car develops over time into a championship contender. These improvements make My Team 2.0 a meaningful step forward that, while not quite as in-depth, helps fill the gap left by F1 Manager’s cancellation. 

A smooth drive

Away from the off-track admin, we must now switch our attention to the on-track action.

F1 24’s handling was divisive, particularly at launch when you could drive over kerbs at full speed unscathed, or induce a strange ‘flicking’ effect, which looked unrealistic. This is not the case here, thankfully, as driving over raised kerbs realistically causes the car to bottom out.

F1 25 drives well on a controller, with smooth, predictable car behaviour. Cars feel a tad lighter and sharper than last year and are less prone to understeer. Occasionally, the rear can step out unexpectedly, but recovering from slides feels more intuitive than before.

Force feedback could be more detailed when using a wheel, but expecting it to be on par with a hardcore simulator would be unreasonable; this is a video game, not a sim, yet it’s still possible to set faster lap times with a wheel setup. 

While the vehicle dynamics are a small step forward, in the rain, we couldn’t help but think that your car smoothly drifts from one apex to another, which is at odds with how your AI rivals perform in the inclement conditions. At least the visual effect of spray coming from the tyres is more detailed this time around, so too the gravel and grass buildup on your tyres.

It’s possible to have some great battles with the AI when they drive defensively, but they sometimes have an annoying habit of bunching up in the first lap, leading to incidents where they slam into the back of you. More frustratingly, collisions sometimes result in cars sticking together like glue, pushing you off the track as you try to recover.

On the right track 

To make up for the lack of new circuits in this year’s calendar, Codemasters has added new reverse layouts of Silverstone, Zandvoort and Red Bull Ring. It’s a first for the series, but hardly a headline feature. While racing familiar circuits in reverse is novel at first, it quickly loses its appeal. We would have preferred to see the resources poured into bringing back classic circuits.

Another issue is that not every circuit lends itself well to a reverse layout. Playing Silverstone in reverse means there’s a long DRS zone down the Hangar Straight, leading to the very narrow Chapel and Becketts, which should make for some ‘interesting’ scenarios online.

More welcome is the long-requested addition of laser-scanned venues. For F1 25, Bahrain, Miami, Melbourne, Suzuka and Imola have been rescanned with LiDAR data, resulting in more accurate surface textures and elevation changes. 

Trackside details are also more accurate. Codemasters loves highlighting F1 25’s more realistic tree species, and while it’s a superficial update, seeing Suzuka lined with cherry blossom trees replacing the generic ones before gives the circuit more character.

F1 25’s new laser-scanned tracks only highlight the inaccuracy of some of the older existing circuits such as the Hungaroring – the difference is night and day. While it’s a shame that only five circuits have received the LiDAR treatment for now, updating every circuit is clearly going to be a long but worthwhile endeavour.  

A new chapter

Still, one area that is not lacking in quantity here is game modes. A redesigned My Team would be an enticing selling point for returning players alone, but on top of that, F1 25 sees the return of the fabled Braking Point.

With Codemasters establishing a two-year cadence for the narrative-led story mode, and while it’s clearly not for the hardcore sim racing driver, its absence was felt in last year’s game.

Braking Point 3 reunites us with Aiden Jackson, Devon Butler and Callie Mayer, with the fictional Konnersport team returning from F1 23.

This time, substantial team investment has turned Konnersport into a championship contender, putting the pressure on Red Bull. However, a few chapters in, an unexpected and dramatic event adds emotional weight to the narrative that takes its toll on the drivers – don’t worry, we won’t spoil it.

Like before, the story is told through dramatic, Drive to Survive-style cut scenes featuring slick animation and exceptionally detailed, CGI movie-quality characters. Coupled with David Croft’s signature excitable commentary, the cut scenes capture the atmosphere of F1, even though Konnersport is a fictional team.

Braking Point’s cut scenes are blended with gameplay scenarios requiring you to complete objectives that progress the plot, from beating a lap time to finishing ahead of a specific rival.  

Although the story beats are linear for the most part, some chapters let you swap drivers and choose between Mayer or Jackson. This results in different on-track objectives, media interview questions and phone conversations between races. While this adds replayability, the cut scenes are identical regardless of which driver you select.

However, after starring as the lead character in F1 2021’s Braking Point, Jackson feels like a side character with an unsatisfying arc that feels as undeveloped as Finn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. We were more invested in the compelling family drama between Butler and Mayer.  

This time, there is a fourth, more challenging difficulty level, which should, in theory, provide a better match for different skill levels after some players found it too easy. Some post-launch tweaks might be necessary, though, as it’s easy to beat the AI in some chapters on the third-highest difficulty setting. Conversely, the new higher difficulty is well balanced, with opponents that are tough, but not impossible, to beat.

The story builds to a satisfying conclusion, with a dramatic championship fight and a natural ending that neatly wraps up the current Braking Point trilogy. If this isn’t the end of Braking Point, we’re hoping to see some new characters and stories next time.

Braking Point isn’t the only new scenario mode. At launch, all players can sample F1 25’s tie-in with the upcoming F1 movie starring Brad Pitt, with the remaining chapters reserved as an Iconic Edition pre-order bonus or standalone DLC from 30th June. The opening chapter sees you tear around Silverstone in the film’s APXGP hero car, with impressively seamless transitions between live-action cut scenes and gameplay.

This includes two extended scenes not shown in the trailers, so if you want to avoid spoilers, we recommend waiting until you’ve watched the movie before you play it.   

We can’t help but wonder if Codemasters is using this format as a testbed for a future scenario mode that recreates historic F1 moments with classic cars and circuits, similar to MotoGP 2022’s excellent Nine Season mode. Please be true.

A familiar world

While the new additions and revised gameplay are a step forward, several areas inevitably remain untouched with this being a yearly release. Elsewhere, Driver Career remains largely unchanged after last year’s overhaul, though you can now play as Braking Point’s fictional Konnersport or the APXGP team from the F1 movie.

Likewise, F1 World is practically identical, aside from superfluous ‘invitational’ multiplayer events, which is to say a confusing mess of mobile-game-esque live service nonsense. 

The in-game menu designs could do with a refresh, too – they look identical to the last few games, apart from minor colour changes, and those looking for a revised multiplayer ranking system will be disappointed. 

A worthy upgrade?

Whether you enjoy the Drive to Survive style drama of Braking Point, managing operations in My Team or improving your ratings in Driver Career, F1 25 is the most feature-packed F1 game yet, minus classic cars and circuits – you’re essentially getting three lengthy career modes in one substantial package.

There is a deluge of live-service features that can weigh down the experience – the more casual F1 World, Fan Zones and Podium Passes, but mercifully, if they aren’t of interest, there’s enough here to ignore them.

Crucially, driving is improved over last year’s divisive entry, while progress made with laser-scanned tracks is encouraging. While not a revolutionary entry, it sets a solid foundation for whatever the future holds for the series.

Score: 8/10

Feature-packed step forward