The second deep dive video and blog post for the upcoming EA Sports F1 25 game has dropped, revealing more new features coming to this year’s annual Formula 1 racing game.
The video runs through the many new features, especially the more visual-focused ones. We finally get to see all the six rookies making their F1 game debut as F1 drivers rather than being part of the driver market from the junior series. And they all look… uncanny.
One of the biggest features of this year’s entry is having more tracks being scanned using LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) tech. This is the tool used in many leading sim racing games and non-video-game racing sim applications to accurately capture all the details on and off the track.
Last year’s entry had three tracks that was updated, though there was no mention of LIDAR or any form of laser-scanning involved. But this year, five of the 24 tracks that makes up the long Formula 1 calendar of 2025 has been laser-scanned.
F1 25 LIDAR Laser-Scanned Tracks
F1 25 will have the following tracks rescanned with LIDAR:
- Bahrain
- Miami
- Melbourne
- Suzuka
- Imola
F1 25 Reverse Tracks
The new laser-scanned tracks should make this year’s game “the most authentic representation of Formula 1 to date”. Which is an interesting claim, as F1 25 will also feature something the real-world sport doesn’t have: Reverse tracks.
F1, the real sport have never done races in the reverse layout of tracks. Even as recently in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit which affected the racing calendar, rather than have double-header events like Austrian Grand Prix run in alternate layouts for the two races, despite some talks that such arrangements were considered, they just did the same race again in back-to-back weekends.
And while the owner of the Silverstone circuit isn’t too keen on running the British Grand Prix in the reverse layout, you can do that in F1 25. Reverse tracks (Silverstone and Red Bull Ring, the home to the Austrian Grand Prix are specifically mentioned) can be played in Grand Prix, Time Trial, and Multiplayer modes and can be added to the second season onwards for My Team and Driver Career modes.
F1 25 Decal Editor Isn’t A Full Livery Editor, But It’s Something
The F1 game has finally added a livery editor, sort of. It’s called the Decal Editor and it really means it as such, what you really can do here is have custom placements of fictional sponsor decals. You have the option to move, rotate and resize the decals, as you should in a livery editor, but you still have to pick a livery design from a selection of what’s available.
On the note of liveries, there are now sponsored liveries designed around the many fictional sponsor brands.
Given the sport has grown in popularity (and as such, grown in sponsor stickers on the cars, go look up a 2017 McLaren to the title-winning 2024 car), it’s nice that your custom F1 car for My Team can now look the part and have it look like a high-speed billboard, as race cars are known to be.
There are also new fonts and colours for driver numbers.
F1 25 Audio, Visual Improvements
F1 25 will also bring some graphical and sound upgrades. On PC, you can enable Path Tracing, the more demanding version of Ray Tracing. It’s available on the new Ultra Max (missed opportunity to call it Super Max) graphics setting.
Other changes to graphics on all platforms include “tonemapping and light balancing improvements”, and new image filters and HDR support in Photo Mode.
As for audio, new voice lines are added. More lines utilising real-world driver dialogue, including some addressing the race engineer are added. In particular, expect lines during Qualifying sessions (new), and choice quotes from team principals. And this year’s game will see Naomi Schiff, one of the real-world talents that cover the F1 paddock that you would see on screen, makes her appearance.
F1 25 Handling Model Changes
While the Deep Dive video covers some big noticable changes for this year’s game, it omits one big thing that defined F1 24: not many liked the new handling model. Even we’re not a fan as per our review.
The blog post has in-depth details on what’s changed for F1 25.
F1 25 will be out on May 30 for the PS5, PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, EA App) and Xbox Series X|S.