EA Sports’ F1 24 is to be the latest entry in the annual motorsport franchise, but it’s looking like developer Codemasters isn’t settling for ‘business as usual’ when it comes to the game’s single-player career mode.
It’s an area of the game that’s certainly needed a bit of a rework for some time, with driver transfers, rivalries, and research & development systems feeling very basic and underdeveloped for a few entries now.
This year, though, Codemasters has introduced several refreshes within the mode which gives it a very welcome shake-up – changes that are likely to be well-received when the game launches on May 31. TechRadar Gaming got an early, hands-off career mode preview this month, and we came away excited at the changes the developer has made.
I am Max Verstappen
The major change that’s coming to F1 24’s career mode is the ability to play as one of the sport’s 20 real-life drivers. Previously, in F1 23 for example, players could only bring their created F1 World avatars into career mode. That’s finally changing thanks to the ‘Be One of the 20’ update.
This is obviously fantastic news if you’ve ever wanted to live out a fantasy of being your favorite Formula 1 driver. Want to guide Lewis Hamilton to his eighth championship win, or help Nico Hülkenberg achieve his first, long-overdue podium? Maybe you want to expand on Alex Albon’s exceptional underdog performance from his 2023 season. All this will now be possible in F1 24. And of course, all these drivers will be able to take part in all aspects of career mode, such as jumping to different teams or influencing R&D progress.
In line with this new feature is the Challenge Career mode. According to Codemasters, Challenge Careers will put you in the shoes of a Formula 1 driver selected by the team. From there, you’ll play out more bite-sized seasons that are influenced by community voting on social media. Aspects that can be changed here include the tracks you’ll race on, and race conditions. So yes, that likely means you can look forward to racing five wet circuits on the bounce. But in all seriousness, it has the basis of an inventive side mode that could provide more interesting conditions than a standard 24-race season.
Talk of the paddock
The career mode in EA Sports’ F1 24 also looks to enhance the experience both on and off track. During race events, you’ll now have a range of on-track objectives to achieve. These will be in line with your overall career objectives and will have their difficulties balanced accordingly. These objectives can include beating a particular driver or achieving specified lap times.
These on-track objectives seem to hint at the added dynamism for this year’s career mode. Because they’re tied to what your team expects of you, completing them seems like it’ll be paramount to your long-term success. During the preview briefing, we were told that failing to complete objectives can damage your reputation, potentially causing you to lose market value as a driver or even lose your seat entirely. It sounds like a fantastic and rather tense addition that adds another degree of thrill and depth to racing.
However, if you develop a reliability for completing these contract targets, your reputation among the wider paddock will grow. This, in turn, can open up opportunities for having more sway over your team’s R&D. Furthermore, new secret meetings are being introduced, which will see you operate independently of your team to potentially secure a more reputable seat at a different, competing outfit.
In short, these all sound like excellent additions to a career mode that was growing rather stale. Being able to play as a real driver, and having more agency over your reputation and long-term goals, will likely inject some much-needed depth into F1 24’s career mode, and it’ll be exciting to see how it all plays out when the game launches on May 31 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC.