EA Sports F1 25 Review (PC) – On Pole Again, Even With The Safety Car Firmly Out

It’s that time of year again, Formula 1 is back both in real life and in the virtual world. Thanks to developer Codemasters, we can once again take to the tracks in EA Sports F1 25, but is this year’s game a worthwhile upgrade, or does it play things too safe? Let’s discuss that and more in The Outerhaven’s review of F1 25.

Game Name: F1 25
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (reviewed)
Publisher(s): EA
Developer(s): Codemasters
Release Date: May 30th, 2025

Start Your Engines

If you have been playing Codemasters F1 games for as long as I have, you’ll be right at home here in F1 25. The moment you boot up the game, everything is extremely familiar, from menu layout and design to the modes on offer. At first glance, F1 25 seems identical to the last few years, and it mostly is. That being said, it has a few welcome changes compared to last year’s F1 24.

Braking Point Returns

Firstly, the story-focused Braking Point mode, last seen in F1 ’23, makes a return to continue right where it left off. The mode itself hasn’t changed too much since it was last seen; you still get thrown into specific race scenarios with objectives to complete. High-quality cutscenes help deliver the drama required to remain interesting.

One change to Braking Point 3 is the ability to choose between drivers Aiden or Callie at different moments throughout. These choices seem to have some small impacts on the story, but just how different things can be would require multiple playthroughs.

Although it lacks anything revolutionary, for players who enjoy a story, Braking Point remains a nice option to have. In a world where most sports games completely avoid story-driven modes, it’s great to see Codemasters continuing to deliver for their audience.

My Team Revamped

What about F1 25’s My Team management mode? Well, it has seen a few changes that make it more engaging than ever. To start with, the premise has shifted; no longer are you the owner and driver for a new F1 team. Now, you take on the role of Team Principal for those unfamiliar with the sport; just think of it like a head coach in football.

Don’t get me wrong, in this new role you are still playing as a new F1 team. You just have more control and responsibility than ever. My Team demonstrates this pretty quickly by showing you that you now need to improve facilities and get more staff before you’ll have access to the best upgrades.

Speaking of upgrades, gone are the days when you could research a new car part and then have it automatically unlocked for your cars. Developing an upgrade now only serves as a blueprint you can then build before assigning it to one of your two drivers’ cars. That’s right, at the start of a My Team career mode, you can only develop and build a small number of upgrades, meaning you may have to favour one driver over the other. Just be careful as too much favouritism could lead to your other driver wanting to leave the team.

For those who own the icon edition of F1 25, there is also the nice touch of being able to play as Apex GP. Who are they? Well, the fictional racing team from the upcoming F1 movie starring Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, and Damson Idris. Additionally, all three actors have received face scans, which adds an extra layer of authenticity. Oh, and yes, I am favouring Brad Pitt in My Team career.

Don’t worry, for those of you who want to race, you still do that in My Team, choosing which driver to control over each race weekend.

On The Right Track

In terms of the racing, F1 25 remains on the right track and while there have been no noticeable changes to gameplay this year. Like they say, if it isn’t broke don’t try and fix it.

Of course, we do get an updated track list with tracks also being recaptured using LIDAR technology, making them more authentic than ever before. The team is also adding the option to run three of the tracks in reverse certain allowing for a different experience of familiar surroundings.

A Beautiful Path

This authenticity is brought to a new level, with improved lighting and ray-tracing support on all platforms this year. After ditching the PS4 and Xbox One, F1 25 feels like a true next-gen game. Especially on PC, where Codemasters went the extra mile by supporting Path Tracing, something we have only seen in a handful of games so far. It offers a significant and immediately noticeable improvement in visuals over the already supported Ray-Tracing. If this is the future of video games, then we are on a truly beautiful path.

How Accessible Is F1 25?

I have often praised Codemasters for how accessible their games are, and F1 25 is no different. Firstly, it remains an extremely customisable experience, giving you the ability to turn this simulation racing title into a more arcade racer. Features, like auto-braking or steering support, make the game highly playable for a wide range of players regardless of ability, age, or anything else.

That’s before I even talk about the more bespoke accessibility options such as audio cues for when to turn or break, colourblind modes, subtitle options, and so much more. In terms of simulation racing, F1 25 is arguably the most accessible game on the market, with only Xbox’s Forza Motorsport competing for that crown. So, well done, Codemasters and EA, on another excellent display of accessibility in gaming.

Performance

In terms of performance on PC, F1 25 is very impressive and highly scalable. I will say that if you choose to play with Path Tracing on the highest available setting,s as I did. You will require high-end hardware and the use of DLSS to get 60fps at 4k output resolution. Using DLSS Balanced mode I was able to 70-80fps consistently with all the settings maxed out including Path Tracing. For the visual upgrade it provides this would be my recommended way to play on PC should your hardware support it.

Here’s what I was running the game on: I9-14900KF, NVIDIA GTX 4090 (founders edition), 96 GBs of Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000 MHz RAM.

Another plus side of F1 25 is that I’m yet to encounter a single bug or technical issue. The polish of this game matches that of the shiny cars it portrays.

Summary

In the end, F1 25 is another winning entry in the long-running series from Codemasters. Boasting the best presentation to date, the return of Braking Point, and being a highly accessible experience. F1 25 is easy to recommend, especially to new players, but if, like me, you’ve played this franchise for years. You might be left feeling like F1 25 is playing things a bit too safe and not taking any risks. BUT who can blame Codemasters for coasting behind a safety car when they have no direct competition?

Review Disclosure Statement: A copy of EA Sports F1 25 was provided to us for review purposes by EA. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.

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