It’s more or less no surprise that EA Sports and Codemasters have just announced, via a YouTube trailer, the release of a new opus in the F1 saga, the 2025 edition, or F1 25 for those in the know. Over the years, it has become a tradition to release a new episode of the F1 saga, which is officially licensed by Formula 1 by the way, as well as Fifa, which is also officially licensed, NFL, NHL, UFC, NBA and more or less everything to do with sports simulation in general by EA.

For the 2025 season, there are changes in F1, notably the transfer of Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes-AMG to Ferrari, which is at the heart of this new edition of Formula 1. In what follows, we’ll look at what’s new in F1 25, but also the reappearance of a mode that was forgotten by EA in 2024: Braking Point.

What’s new in F1 25

So, EA’s Formula 1 is a title that came out 25 years ago. In fact, F1-inspired games were released long before EA Sports’ Playstation version, mainly by Sony for its console of the time.

The F1 saga has come a long way, I must say, and for the 2025 edition, EA Sports and Codemasters are offering us the current year’s season. The poster features Lewis Hamilton in his brand-new red suit, because if you haven’t heard, despite the fact that it’s unlikely, the seven-time world champion has switched from Mercedes-AMG to Ferrari. It’s the transfer of the century, with a contract that will cover several seasons with the Scuderia Ferrari team. Hamilton spent most of his career with Mercedes-AMG, winning 6 world championships in the star-spangled car.

But let’s get back to F1 25. For this year, EA Sports and Codemasters have brought back a mode that was very popular before, but put aside for the 2024 edition, and that’s Braking Point. For F1 25, Braking Point will be in version 3, with the same Konnersport team hoping to win the world championship.

According to the trailer, this scripted mode will be much better suited to novice drivers, making it easier for them to race and progress, but not forgetting experienced drivers, who will be faced with a difficulty level much more suited to their skills and setups.

“My stable 2.0” will be updated

F1 Edition 25 will feature an updated “My Team 2.0”, with driver, race and recruitment management. The aim is to make this mode far more attractive to drivers by adding new facets, including the possibility of embodying the two drivers who race on the track. Frankly, the trailer looks very interesting, but unfortunately, detailed information on this mode is scarce. So we’ll have to wait until the game’s release, or just before, to find out more.

Also, and this is present in the trailer, this mode will allow you to embody Formula 3 drivers, which promises us an even more diversified experience, especially if you want to develop your racer from his F3 beginnings to reach F1, like Hamilton and more or less all the other single-seater drivers.

Better immersion thanks to LiDAR technology

LiDAR is a technology that has been very much in vogue over the last few years, particularly in the automotive sector for all kinds of driving aids. LiDAR technology uses lasers to detect and telemeter the space where you are, measuring distances and moving objects. Basically, it’s like radar, but instead of using radio waves, it uses laser beams.

For F1 25, EA Sports and Codemasters have used this technology to reproduce circuits with very high fidelity, ensuring a 100% realistic experience. As you know, sim-racing tracks are often based on images of the circuits. Except that a photo is still 2D, and bumps, track imperfections and curves will not be very faithful to reality.

The trailer shows the Melbourne circuit, which has benefited from LiDAR processing to achieve a very high level of realism. This is a costly process, as the track has to be closed during the entire acquisition of information by the LiDAR equipment. For F1 25, the publisher and developer have announced that some tracks have been created using this technology, but not necessarily all. As far as I’m concerned, this is already an excellent initiative on the part of Codemasters and EA, especially for a mainstream title. I can also imagine that the use of LiDAR will become widespread for the rest of the circuits in the future.

A reverse mode

Let’s turn now to another new feature of F1 25, and it’s something new to the saga: the mirror mode, or inverted track. In real life, it would be impossible to have inverted circuits, for reasons of driver safety. What’s more, a track is designed in one direction, and you can’t magically reverse it for fun.

For F1 25, EA Sports and Codemasters have taken this idea from arcade-style games such as NFS. So you’ll be able to drive on tracks in the opposite direction, and according to the trailer, Silverstone, the Red Bull Ring and Zandvoort are the ones where you’ll have the pleasure of racing against other racers, but not in the standard direction. As for the other circuits, no information is available. So it’s likely to be either these three tracks, or others in addition, but we’ll find out when the title is released.

The platforms on which F1 25 will be available

Ah, the platforms on which F1 25 will be available. Unsurprisingly, we’ll have the usual PC offerings from EA and Codemasters, but as far as consoles are concerned, there’s been a change. Indeed, publishers, and above all developers, are starting to move away from the old consoles: Xbox One and Playstation 4. It has to be said that these platforms are over 10 years old, and this makes life difficult for developers to optimize titles on them. We all remember the Cyberpunk 2077 fiasco when it launched on PS4 and Xbox One.

As a result, F1 25 will only be available on Xbox Series X and S, Playstation 5 and PS5 Pro this time. As far as I’m concerned, this is a good thing, as it allows the devs to concentrate on optimizing the title for the hardware currently on sale, even if this is to the detriment of gamers.

Now back to the PC, and the minimum and recommended configurations for running F1 25. For the minimum, EA/Codemasters suggests the following configuration:

• Intel Core i5 6400 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 CPU
• 8 GB RAM
• Nvidia GTX 1060 or AMD RX 570 GPU without RT, and Nvidia RTX 2060 or AMD RX 6700 XT with RT

For registered mail :

• Intel Core i5 9600K or AMD Ryzen 5 2600X CPU
• 16 GB RAM
• Nvidia RTX 2070 or AMD RX 6600XT GPU without RT, and Nvidia RTX 3070 or AMD RX6800 with RT

And as for Windows, it will be version 10 in 21H1 at the very least.

Availability and prices

Let’s finish with the availability and prices of F1 25. Yes, I did say “prices”, because there are several. For availability, you’ll have to wait until May 30 to see the title hit stores, whether online or physical, and on all 3 platforms. However, you can already pre-order F1 25 to get goodies depending on the version of the game.

As for prices, the standard version of F1 25 costs €59.99 on PC and €79.99 on consoles, while the Iconic Edition is available for €20 more on each platform, i.e. €79.99 on PC and €99.99 on consoles.

I know, console games are getting more and more expensive, and unfortunately there’s nothing we can do about it. Sony and Microsoft only make money on titles and microtransactions, and consoles are literally sold at a loss by both manufacturers.