It’s racing season again, and that means a new F1 game from EA and Codemasters. F1 25 has some truly incredible moments, and lays some important building blocks for future entries to build upon as well. Where things get bogged down is an issue that has plagued the F1 series for the last few years: replayability.
As I mentioned in my review of last year’s F1 24, the Braking Point storyline makes a triumphant return in F1 25. The fictional racing team Konnersport is back with drivers Callie Mayer and Aiden Jackson in the driving seats, and I could not be happier. Things pick up right where they left off last time and throws the player (and the drivers) into the deep end of the Formula 1 season, hoping to make a lasting impact on the field.
Braking Point has some incredible highs and devastating lows as you work your way through the story and the season. Each chapter that you begin lets you pick which of the two drivers you want to race as for that particular chapter, which affects the story, based on your performance, answers to interview questions, and more. It’s a very clever way to become attached to both drivers, even if I did use Callie Mayer more often than not. A fun crossover between Braking Point and Career mode is that once you complete the Braking Point storyline, you can take that team into Career Mode as the 11th team and continue the successes and disappointments in your driver career.
With that segue complete, Career Mode has seen some fun updates as well, namely the My Team feature, where you can take on the role of team owner and handle far more of the management side of a Formula 1 team. You’ll be in charge of recruiting drivers, assigning R&D tasks, signing sponsorship deals and more as the team owner; when race weekend comes, you will choose between which of your two drivers you want to race in that event and hold your own fate in your hands, track-performance-wise.
“F1 25 has some truly incredible moments, and lays some important building blocks for future entries to build upon as well.”
Additionally, at the beginning of My Team, you’ll have the option to pick from one of three brand-new specialisations: Engineer, Personnel, and Corporate. Each one gives bonuses to certain aspects of the behind-the-scenes stuff of running an F1 team. As well, F1 25 lets you choose how hard you want to make your first season as owner by letting you determine how large your fund allocation is, how far along your R&D department is, and more. EA and Codemasters have really brought the goods to My Team with all of this new content, and giving it the biggest overhaul I’ve seen in any of the F1 games I’ve played.
Brand-new content continues to roll in for F1 25 in the form of LiDAR scanned tracks. 5 tracks on the Formula 1 calendar have been rebuilt using this LiDAR technology (Light Detection and Ranging): Melbourne, Bahrain, Miami, Suzuka, and Imola. These 5 tracks have been thoroughly scanned to ensure the most accurate track experience for the player, right down to the placement of advertising boards, marshal towers, safety barriers, etc., all scanned from actual F1 race weekends.
The LiDAR scanning isn’t the only new track content in F1 25 either. A new track layout has been added for Silverstone (UK), Zandvoort (Netherlands), and the Red Bull Ring (Austria): the reverse layout. For the first time ever, players will be able to run reverse layouts of these three tracks, adding a whole new dimension of excitement and learning new ways to go faster. I can confidently say that after trying all three reverse layouts, the Red Bull Ring is easily my favourite. The track flows so nicely in the reverse layout that it’s almost becoming my preferred orientation, but Gran Turismo 7 does not feature it, so I’ll have to get my fix here.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my time with F1 25, I just need more in the form of live moments, performance-based challenges, or something to keep me coming back.”
F1 The Movie gets some love in F1 25 as well, in the form of 7 different chapters where you relive parts of the movie. At the time of writing, and indeed up until the 30th of June 2025, only the official trailer and the preview chapter are available, but seeing scenes from the movie now, and then hopping in the car to live a part of the movie is a really cool integration that I really like seeing.
It gives me flashbacks of the Negro Leagues content from MLB The Show, and if you’ve read my review for that in the last couple of years, then you’ll know how much I adore content like that. I hope to see more of it in the coming weeks.
F1 World hasn’t changed all that much when compared to last year’s entry, but it does provide two new features for players: Driver of the Day element, where players can rate other drivers’ performance in a given race to encourage clean racing, sportsmanship, and positive player interactions. It’s a fine goal to have, especially since we’re all aware of how toxic normal player interactions online can be. The other addition to F1 World is a collaborative mode called Invitationals.
Players join special events and work together to complete objectives and unlock rewards. I was unable to try out either of these two features as the online section of the game was so scarcely populated due to the time of writing, but I can see it being a very popular option for drivers to team up with their friends and work for rewards.
In terms of the actual gameplay and driving the car, F1 25 has an incredible handling model. I tested using both my controller and wheel & pedals setup, and after the initial settings adjustment for the wheel, I was flowing through turns and making pinpoint steering inputs with immediate and measured response from the car. The controller is still a viable way to race in F1 25, which is more than I can say for some racing games, even though some of the steering adjustments are jerky and can provide over-adjustment.
The force feedback (feeling of the road through the wheel) my wheel provided was immaculate, and this was especially true on the track that I race a lot in GT7: Suzuka in Japan. I could actually tell the differences between Gran Turismo’s track model and the LiDAR-scanned model in F1 25.
While I do tend to gush about the above-mentioned game modes and new features, there just isn’t much else to do, unless you habitually runs online races or take part in a league. Career mode, Braking Point, and F1 World are where players will spend the vast majority of their time, and I’m not sure there’s enough outside of that to establish replayability. Please don’t misunderstand me either, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with F1 25, I just need more in the form of live moments, performance-based challenges, or something to keep me coming back.
