F1 25 preview – reverse tracks and handling updates are superb, but MyTeam changes may be divisive

So you’ve seen the deep dives and read the blog posts, but what can you really expect from F1 25?

Well, I was able to play F1 25 for a few hours at and studio in Birmingham, including MyTeam and reverse tracks, and I’m pretty excited about how the game is shaping up. Although, the MyTeam changes could prove to be divisive, even if it has been given a big upgrade.

The biggest feature for F1 25 this year is the revamp of MyTeam, with MyTeam 2.0 making a significant change from in that players will no longer be the owner/driver of the team, but now solely the owner. You’ll still be able to design and create your team in whatever style you’d like, and there are more customisation options than ever with a new decal editor, finally!

Instead, you’ll have to hire two drivers to drive for your team, and it's up to you to decide who to race as in any given race weekend. It doesn't end there, though, because the mode has been comprehensively redesigned. The mode is more in-depth than previous MyTeam experiences, so much so that it's probably closer to F1 Manager than the previous MyTeam experiences.

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Tough choices

For example, R&D was pretty simple in MyTeam on F1 24. You research the part, wait a few weeks, and then it gets added to both cars. In F1 25, there’s the research phase, followed by the actual manufacturing phase, and then, depending on your financial situation or time constraints, you might have to make a tough choice about which driver gets the upgrade, which can impact your relationship with them.

As the owner of the team, you’ll be in charge of three departments: engineering, personnel and corporate, which you’ll be working with to build and increase the number of people working in those teams as you progress. As the size of your workforce increases, you’ll have to balance effectiveness and cost because, for the first time, a Cost Cap has been introduced into the series, which adds another layer of responsibility.

Having only poked around the mode for an hour or so, there’s definitely more depth to it to be seen, with more granular decision-making at every turn that should satisfy players calling for a more in-depth experience. Particularly when it comes to managing the team day-to-day, managing relationships and contracts with drivers, and all of the potential ramifications of making the wrong call, there could be some really intriguing situations for players to explore.

I’m still unsure how I feel about the owner experience vs owner/driver, though. It’s something I’ll have to explore when I get more hands-on time with the game, because on the one hand, it is more realistic, but on the other, actually being the driver in the team was immersive and rewarding. Codemasters' argument is that this is what the Driver Career mode is for, and I guess they’re right, but this is a game after all, and maybe giving players the choice between the two options could have been a middle ground. I can see these changes being a bit like Marmite for the F1 25 community, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

Glow up

Another big change for F1 25 is that five tracks – Bahrain, Miami, Melbourne, Suzuka and Imola – have been given a major makeover thanks to the use of Lidar technology, with Codemasters getting the important data directly from Formula One Management (FOM) and official F1 race weekends. Having tried them all out, you can definitely see big improvements to the track layout, scenery, sponsor boards, environments, elevation, the colour of the road surfaces and much more.

For example, in Suzuka, you can now see cherry blossom trees as you go through the S Curves, and there’s no bump at the start of the main straight! Even in the short time I had to play the game, I could see new things in these tracks that I hadn’t seen before, and they’re much closer to real life. Driving in Bahrain just after the Grand Prix, for example, it just felt closer to what you see on TV, and that’s great for immersion.

On the track

Now, onto handling. You might have noticed that Codemasters hasn’t gone big on handling this year, probably because of the controversy last year that saw the developer release a big update to fix the handling model that was present at launch. And honestly, as a moderately good sim racer, from my short time playing the game, I feel there has been a good improvement on last year’s game, with the default setups, in particular, feeling much more competitive. The build I played wasn't the final review build, and things can change before launch, but I was pretty happy with the amount of grip available, and it gave me confidence to push from the get-go.

When I saw Lewis Hamilton’s car exit the pit lane in the wrong direction in the game’s trailer, I thought, 'ok, reverse tracks, that's cool,' but I didn’t get that excited about it. But, after playing the three reverse tracks in F1 25, Silverstone, Austria and Zandvoort, I'm fully bought in. As the devs explained during my session, it’s not just a case of sticking the cars in the opposite direction and letting them go; there's a lot more to it than you might think.

For example, the entire pit lane and garages have been reversed, there are brand new DRS zones and new sectors. You can’t even think of them as Silverstone, Austria, or Zandvoort when you race them; you have to think of them as brand new tracks, because when you’re driving them, that’s exactly what they feel like. You’ve got no muscle memory and no reference points, and it was a lot of fun trying to push the limits on what are essentially brand-new, if familiar, tracks. The three reverse tracks are superb choices. I had a lot of fun, and I’m sure players will too.

All in all, I’m pretty excited to play more of F1 25. It remains to be seen how I'll feel about the MyTeam changes once I'm in the nitty gritty of the mode a couple of years in, but the handling changes are positive, and the brilliant reverse tracks are superb additions to the series. Get me back on the track!