‍You Are No Longer an Owner and a Driver

In the previous five F1 games, for My Team, you would create a custom driver and a team. That will now change - after all, the last driver to win the world title as an owner and driver was Sir Jack Brabham in 1966.

To better reflect the current-day sport, instead, you select a team principal and then two real-world drivers.

Then, before each race, you select one of your line-up to race as, potentially leading to favouritism as the season progresses. This is also true of upgraded parts, but more on that later.

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Owner Perks

As you now act solely as the boss, there is a new ‘owner perks’ skill tree system, which sees your abilities as a principal evolve.

Here, you will be able to spend credits to unlock training sessions, which, upon completion, can earn perks that benefit the whole team, such as boosting experience points earned on track

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Vehicle Development is More Intricate

The official F1 Manager games appear to have met a premature end, and making the most of that competitor fading, F1 25 will make notable changes to the My Team car development process.

In a nod to a focused management title, creating new parts is now a two-step procedure. It requires, as ever, R&D points accrued by performing on track. But now, you must first research new developments and wait for that to be completed before spending the cash on producing the elements.

Then, you must decide if you require two of each new performance-enhancing part - you can cut time by producing just one, but that means a driver of yours will miss out on the upgrades. Which driver does not receive the upgrades is entirely your call.

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Cost Cap

Also like the F1 Manager games, and a significant omission in EA’s recent games, there is now a cost cap, aping the actual Formula 1 rules.

Even if you run away with race wins, complete sponsor objectives and have a stack of cash, you cannot spend over a predetermined amount each season. The aim is to keep one team from having significantly greater resources than the rest of the field.

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A Lick of Paint

Aside from the fundamental changes mentioned above, there is also a series of smaller changes to complete the package. For instance, the menu scenes representing your team will grow in a physical (virtual) representation as you expand and in greater detail than its predecessors. 

The method of appeasing sponsors is said to be more intricate, and you’ll be able to place their logos in your desired place thanks to a new livery editor system. Fan Points and Sentiment score are both new metrics to keep an eye on, directly tied to sponsor and on-track performance.

On paper, this is a significant step forward for a game mode beloved by many - let’s see how it pans out when F1 25 is released 30th May.

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Written by the teams at trophi.ai and Traxion.GG.