There will be no new F1 game in 2026 as Codemasters focuses on a two-year cycle to make F1 27 the best possible game. Although this may well prove to be great news for gamers if it yields a tremendous release in 2027, it also means the need to stretch time with F1 25 out for a second season. Here are five ideas for how to keep things fun and fresh while you wait:
Make A Dud A Stud
Throughout the course of a career mode run in F1 25, there are a lot of areas where you can improve to raise the performance level of your teams, but one of the most obvious and fast-acting is to raise the level of your drivers. This is certainly an effective way to make your team better, but if you want a real challenge with your next save, then take this option off the table.
Start your team with a poor roster of drivers; whether that means taking on the worst drivers on the grid or dipping down into the lower ranks, it is to your taste. Under no circumstances are you to upgrade and bring in superior drivers. Instead, put all your focus on developing the drivers you have and the car they’re in control of until you turn this pair of also-rans into podium-topping world champions.
Do A Slow Development Challenge
The balance in a career mode can be challenging to get right as a developer because you are trying to cater to a wide range of potential playstyles and play lengths. A common complaint around the upgrade system in F1 25 is that it is a bit too easy to get your car developed over the course of the season. Career mode starts you out in the worst car on the grid, but if you’re regularly completing your research goals and investing points wisely, you’ll quickly rocket up the car rankings, and with plenty of points left over to make lockdown changes for next year.
This can be a perfectly fun system if you’re looking to have a one- or two-season playthrough, but if you want to really experience the challenge of turning a minnow into a megaladon, you need to up the difficulty. Choose to take on a career mode save where you do not upgrade your ability to do multiple research projects. By only focusing on one project at a given time, you have to prioritize your resources carefully as you slowly build out a car capable of competing with the title-challenging teams.
Channel Your Inner GridDrop
Not every way to keep things fresh has to do with playing out an entire season. Sometimes you just want to boot up your F1 game and have fun for a race or two, but as the F1 25 cycle ticks closer to the two-year mark, you might be finding it all feeling a bit samey. This is where it can be a great idea to take a page out of the book of racing sim YouTuber GridDrop and his series on 0-percent AI races.
In these challenges, GridDrop sets the AI in the game to its absolute worst setting, making every other driver on the grid a backmarker contender before long if you’re going pedal to the floor. This may not sound like the start to a challenging run, but that’s where the fun really comes in by taking on silly challenges, like driving the entire race in reverse or completing a wet race on slicks.
The fun with 0-percent AI is in coming up with ideas that seem fun and just intriguing enough that you’re not sure how manageable they are. While you’re unlikely to add dozens and dozens of hours of playtime to your game with these challenges, they’re a great way to relax and have some not-so-serious pay out on the tracks.
Escalate On Every Win
If you feel like you have a habit of falling into a rut in your career mode runs, then an escalation playthrough can be an excellent way to keep your challenge ramping up from race to race and keep things feeling fresh. To begin on a run like this, set your difficulty settings to be challenging for you, though not so difficult that it’s inconceivable you could win a race now, or, if you are okay with some time stuck in the pack, can win races once you’ve developed the car a bit.
Unlike a normal run, where once you’ve made yourself a podium contender, you can expect to stay there, in this run, things never stop getting harder. Every time you top a qualifying session, win the fastest lap or come in first in a sprint or grand prix, get into the settings and make things harder. For my plays like this, I like to tick up one point for each hit, and they stack, meaning potentially five points of escalation for a perfect weekend, while doing a small dial back whenever I remove an aid or otherwise make things more difficult with a non-slider option.
This can help to keep the difficulty level finely balanced as you and your car improve so that each race is tight and tense coming into the final laps.
Solve Red Bull’s Second Seat
How to partner another driver with Max Verstappen has dogged Red Bull Racing for half a decade now, and it’s your turn to solve that riddle by taking control of that second driver. Pair Verstappen with a back-of-the-grid caliber driver and only choose to use that driver out on the course.
Now you are the driver tasked with matching the best driver on the planet, knowing that anything you do to make your car faster benefits him, too. Get behind the wheel, get chasing Verstappen, and prove that even on an even playing field, the best has nothing on you as you take home the Driver’s Championship.
