F1 25 Review

F1 25 confirms once again that Codemasters understands Formula 1 and racing games in general better than anyone in gaming. This year doesn’t reinvent the formula, but it refines, polishes, and expands the experience in smart ways, especially through its story modes and the growing importance of F1 World.

Being a hardcore driving games fan, I can tell F1 25 feel accomplished, perhaps still not to the all-time favorite handling system of TOCA Touring Car Racing (Jarred & Labonte Stock Car Racing in US) or Driver back on the PS1 days, but still less cartoonish than nowadays standards, and quite realistic. The handling is precise, stable, and rewarding. Cars feel planted when you’re confident, but still punish mistakes enough to keep things realistic. Whether you’re using full assists on a controller or going full simulation with a wheel, the game adapts seamlessly. The real magic comes from that addictive loop: chasing lap times, improving sector by sector, and pushing for perfection. It’s easy to lose hours doing just that—and that’s the best compliment a racing game can get.

The game features several modes to keep things fresh.

Braking Point returns, and it leans fully into a modern Netflix-style motorsport drama, something in line with Drive to Survive, all fictional thou.

Without spoiling the story, it delivers with family tensions and personal conflicts, teammate rivalries and ego clashes, media pressure and public scrutiny, incidents, setbacks… and even emotional, high-stakes moments. What makes it stand out is the pacing. Instead of full race weekends, you play only key race scenarios or critical moments, always in an objective-driven challenges type of way. No need to grind through 70 laps—just the action that matters.

Braking Point 3 expands your role beyond the cockpit as you get to participate in press conferences and choose your responses, manage relationships with teammates and rivals, playing the team (Konnersport) drivers and Manager. React to social media and public perception and see it influence how the season unfolds. This mode has some light RPG-style elements where small choices and consequences can give a feeling of slight replayability and enough variation to keep things fresh. It’s not deeply complex, but it adds personality and immersion to a racing game, what more can you ask?

Braking Point continues to be one of the key pillars of the franchise as it keeps the game entertaining without becoming repetitive, adds emotional weight to the sport and breaks up the traditional race structure. Even without massive innovation, it remains a fresh and engaging experience that hardcore F1 game fans and newbies will definitely enjoy,

Another game mode has you living the F1 Movie experience blending cinematic storytelling with gameplay, you get to play Sonny Hayes and Joshua Pearce from the great F1 Apple studios movie with high-quality cutscenes, strong character focus and an overall smooth transition into racing. This mode I found fascinating, being a movie buff that really enjoyed the film, to a point that I likely recommend it to be worth the game price tag alone, even if being a somewhat short experience. It prioritizes immersion and spectacle over pure competition, which works well. It adds variety and makes the game more accessible beyond hardcore racing fans.

F1 World is where F1 25 shifts direction. Instead of focusing purely on traditional career structures, this mode acts as a live-service hub combining solo challenges, multiplayer events, progression systems and car upgrades by completing events and challenges to earn rewards, upgrade your car and increase your Tech Level. The loop is simple and effective:

Play → Upgrade → Compete → Repeat

It’s more arcade-driven than the rest of the game, offering quick sessions and constant progression. F1 World keeps the game fresh with ongoing content. It is great for short, pick-up-and-play sessions while also adding a sense of continuous progression. It is the most accessible mode for a wide range of players.

On the same way, other side of coin, it can feel grindy over time, I could it see being less appealing for hardcore sim players as it lacks the immersion of other classic modes.

Beyond story and F1 World, the game still offers classic Career Mode, competitive Multiplayer and Time Trials and custom races.

Visually, F1 25 is excellent in highly detailed and most recent tracks as you would expect from a licensed F1 game, it gives smooth performance on PS5 with a clean, modern UI. Audio is strong with realistic engine sounds and good environmental immersion

The overall package is solid, but again, it leans more toward refinement rather than innovation.

Accessibility & Customization are the biggest strengths of the game. When I say any game racing experience will enjoy is precisely due to this. There are wide assist options (from arcade to full sim), strong controller and wheel support and almost overwhelming in number difficulty and driving setting. Pre-existing settings are there as well in case you want to keep things simple, yet realistic/arcade as you want and most importantly, fun. This is perfect for namely casual players, younger audiences and hardcore racing fans alike.

The Good

• Overall complete and strong racing game package
• Accessibility and customization options for both casual players and hardcore racing players if you are after arcade or sim type of gameplay
• Game to go for F1 fans
• Great racing sim if you are after chasing lap times and improve timing lap after lap
• F1 movie experience

The Bad

• Limited innovation compared to previous entries, skip it if you have F1 24 and are looking for a major leap from the previous entry
• Some modes feel too familiar

F1 25 is a polished, confident, and highly enjoyable Formula 1 game. It doesn’t reinvent the franchise, but it refines it where it counts—especially in driving feel and presentation—while expanding its appeal through story modes and F1 World.