A major annual sports franchise forgoing a year of release is not unheard of, but it is also not very common, so the announcement that Codemasters would be moving directly from F1 25 to F1 27 offers the rare opportunity for a developer to truly put a lot of work into updating and improving their game. This is particularly fruitful as an opportunity because it is being announced and planned so far out, meaning it can hopefully avoid some of the issues that Football Manager 26 has run into with a game that still doesn’t feel fully ready for the bright lights.
If Codemasters wants to learn from Sports Interactive’s failings, they will take this chance to bring out a game that fully and immediately justifies the extra development time. With the right changes, they can take the series to a new level.
What We Want To See In F1 2027
The F1 series holds an important place in the racing game ecosystem, often serving as a bit of a soft onboarding to sim racing for players looking for something a bit different than the arcade racers, which once dominated the racing game industry. With these additions, we think it can better serve that role while also building depth for more experienced sim racers:
- Perfect The Feel: With two years to work on the game, one of the best uses of time Codemasters can have is in refining the game’s driving engine to make it as realistic as possible. The success of any sim-style racing game comes down in large part to how genuine it feels when you get behind the virtual wheel, and making refinements to overall feel and specific player complaints, like slipstream and dirty air failures, would go a long way.
- Increase AI Capability: One of the most common and frequent complaints is where the AI difficulty tops out, and how players would prefer a stiffer challenge. Increasing the ability of the AI drivers to get the most out of their cars would help to address the issues that plague the game, particularly late in career mode when players control competitive cars that can match or exceed the opposing cars.
- Include a Challenge Mode for Career: Continuing on the theme of addressing elite racers’ concerns, adding an option to manage a team on an enhanced difficulty would create a new way to play a career. While fully changing dynamics, such as finances, may not be ideal for the default mode, there exists a not-insignificant portion of the fanbase that would like to participate in a longer rebuild across multiple seasons. Increasing the costs of improvement would make this a more challenging endeavor.
- Develop Driver Personalities: F1 is a sport that has risen on the back of driver personalities, thanks to Netflix’s Drive to Survive series, and is full of drivers with unique approaches both off the track and on it. Diversifying the way drivers behave more starkly, with not just a different skill level when attacking moves but also different approaches to risk, preferences for how and where to pass, and other traits, would create a more dynamic grid that feels more lived in.
- Dynamic Rules Changes: Rules and regulations are one of the most important considerations in the sport, as each new season brings new regulations for the team to work under. This provides an excellent opportunity to build out a rules change system akin to the rules votes in NBA 2K games via the rules committee. A mode that proposes potential regulatory changes while allowing you to vote and otherwise invest capital in the sport to push votes one way or another, ultimately creating a game where each new playthrough has the potential to yield very different racing rules by later seasons.
- Build Out The Upgrade System: Another huge element of the sport’s appeal comes in the form of the mechanical competition between teams. Who gets to stand atop the podium on Sunday often has as much to do with what car they’re driving as who is one behind the wheel, Max Verstappen excluded, and that means the upgrade system is a critical component. While it’s understandable why the game takes a relatively basic approach for ease of access, adding some more customization to your upgrades, a la the F1 Manager series, would greatly expand the strategy of a career play.
- Expand the World: In nearly any sports game career or team mode, it’s important to have good networks for talent identification and recruitment. Growing the world in which you operate not only makes for a more engrossing mode as a top team, looking through the F2 and F3 worlds to try to identify your team’s future star driver, but also expands the type of saves you can play. Starting with a racer in the lower levels, or managing a team in the second tier, could be a fun twist to keep your career mode plays fresh.
- Add a Moments Mode: Through the decades, F1 has seen some truly incredible moments, from Max Verstappen’s famous final lap Championship to Ayrton Senna’s Lap of the Gods. Trying out one of the oldest pages in the sports game playbook would be a wonderful way to add fun and connect the game to the sport’s rich history. While full buildouts of cars through the years may not be feasible in scope, individual models and skins, along with tweaks to car stats to reflect the pace and capability of cars in a given era, would create a mode sure to be a hit with fans.
With an extra year to work with, what changes do you want for the next F1 game? Are any of our suggestions on your list, or do you have another idea in mind entirely?
