When it was introduced in 2020, the F1 series’ My Team offered players a long-form way to manage a team over a career. While it became a popular option for players looking for more than just one-off races, it hasn’t received many meaningful updates or upgrades since its introduction. This year brings an extensive redesign to the My Team experience while also expanding on Driver Career.
In what the development team at Codemasters refers to as “My Team 2.0,” you control a team owner who manages two drivers simultaneously, opening up different interactions that come with that angle, like recruiting and managing your relationship day-over-day with each driver. Since you now have two drivers to manage, you must manage their perception of your team as you negotiate with them using the in-game contract system. Based on your performance, you earn experience for your owner, allowing you to upgrade your skills to specialize in specific areas of team management.
As you play through various races, you can improve your Fan Rating, the sentiment surrounding the team, based on how you perform in team versus team rivalries. In between races, you spend your time in Team HQ, which has also been upgraded for this entry. The updated facilities structure brings a more granular upgrade system and a workforce size management element where you have to balance the benefits of having a large support staff versus the cost of having so many folks on your team.
The team at Codemasters also split Research & Development into separate systems, making it so your decisions interact with your perks and upgrades from the rest of the My Team HQ, including facility improvements and activities. Additionally, sponsors now operate on a loyalty and relationship-based system. As you build your relationship with a sponsor over time, you unlock benefits and new customization options. Based on your sponsors’ core beliefs and backgrounds, you can experience new kinds of events within the mode.
Both My Team and Driver Career are receiving increased implementation of the Driver Icons, including AI teams being able to recruit Icons for the first time and the ability to enable or disable the Icons individually. Finally, both modes integrate content from Konnersport, the fictional team from F1 25’s Braking Point story mode, and the upcoming F1 movie starring Brad Pitt. However, the F1 movie content is largely exclusive to the Iconic Edition.
F1 25 arrives on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on May 30. Those who pick up the Iconic Edition will receive three days of early access beginning on May 27.
