EA Sports F1 25 devs reveal key handling changes based on player feedback

EA Sports F1 25 developers have revealed what changes they've made to the game's handling model after listening to player feedback.

If social media and Reddit threads are anything to go by, a lot of F1 game fans say F1 2020 or F1 23 have the best handling out of the modern games; F1 2020 because it's when cars were at their fastest and had loads of grip and downforce, and F1 23 because of improved traction in low speed corners (especially after how stiff the cars felt in F1 22).

F1 24 introduced a new Dynamic Handling model, making the cars feel a lot easier to drive and making it much more approachable to new, less experienced or casual players.

But some of those who prefer a more realistic approach said the new handling model made it feel too arcade like as cars could be flung into corners without much in the way of understeer and the throttle could be applied much sooner without the threat of losing the rear.

There were claims this reduced how realistic the game felt as laps could be done much faster in the game than real life - for example, around Monaco, the qualifying lap record is 1:10.166 (set by Lewis Hamilton in 2019) whereas in F1 24, someone managed to achieve a time of 1:05.905, more than four full seconds quicker, shortly after the game released.

Of course, settings can be tweaked to a very granular level based on individual tastes, how players like their cars to behave and how realistic they want the game to feel, but this still split opinion as laps could be raced much faster in the game.

And speaking to indy100, EA Sports F1 25 developers said they've listened to community feedback and are making changes to how the new game handles.

Handling has been changed in EA Sports F1 25 / Screenshot from EA

Lee Mather, senior creative director, said: "We've spent a lot of time over several years trying to perfect [how the cars drive]. The precision drive technology we've brought in previously has been refined further to allow pad players to get the best out of it and the feedback is there on the controller to understand what the car is doing.

"We've done some further work on the assists this year where previously, full traction control was just traction control but now it has a small element of stability assist as well to keep the car more stable.

"We've had a huge amount of feedback on both F1 23 and F1 24 we've taken into account. We had sim racers in the studio last November giving feedback, we've had feedback from the beta and people have different perceptions of how a Formula One car should feel.

"None of us have ever been in a position to have driven one and sometimes I think the perception is they should be incredibly difficult but to a Formula One driver, they're not.

"We want our players to feel like Formula One drivers, we want them to jump in the car, feel confident, feel racy and be able to go wheel-to-wheel to get that exciting on-track experience rather than just struggling to get around the track, which isn't a positive experience.

"There is a balance but the game scales beautifully, the assists make it really easy these days for players who are still getting to grips with it. On the extreme end of the scale, turn all the assists off and play with the car setup, all of those things are there."

Braking Point returns in EA Sports F1 25, focusing on Konnersport going for the world championships / Screenshot from EA

In EA Sports F1 25, Braking Point is back with a third chapter, focusing on Konnersport as the 11th team on the grid is now competing for both world championships.

There are now four rebalanced difficulty levels, up from three from the previous instalments.

Gavin Cooper, creative director, said: "One of the nice things is when we introduced the team and characters of Konnersport in 2021, we knew we couldn't bring them in and have them winning straight off the bat as that would never feel authentic.

"The great thing about having invested the time in these characters over a number of years, it feels as though they've naturally and organically grown to a point where we can tell these kind of stories, that there is a fight for the championship.

"As for where we go in the future, every time we finish one of these, we start to think about where we can take it next.

"It will always come down to what can we tell an interesting story about and how we can tell it and as ever, we'll be looking to see how players engage with this one before deciding where we could take it."

Lewis Hamilton is the cover star of the Iconic Edition of EA Sports F1 25 / Screenshot from EA

A big change in EA Sports F1 25 is My Team 2.0. Unlike in previous games where players juggled the roles of driver and owner, the in-depth career mode sees players take on a more authentic, management-focused role.

As well as handling the day-to-day running of the facilities that make an F1 team tick, team owners will have to recruit and manage a pair of drivers to represent their team. During race weekends, players will be given the choice of which driver they would like to race as.

"The community has been asking for My Team updates for a long time and the career mode in general, My Team 2.0 is following on from the driver career update we did in F1 24," Cooper said.

"There's a limit to how much we can do each year, every year we're trying to balance between pursuing entirely new things and going back and redoing things we've done in the past.

"This felt like the right time to give players what they wanted with My Team 2.0, not just with an incremental update but a complete revamp.

"We're first and foremost a racing game with management elements even though My Team goes a lot further on the management side of things, it's probably our deepest career mode to date but there's not a drive from our side to meet F1 Manager on their turf."

EA Sports F1 25 is out on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on May 30 with Early Access available to those who preorder the Iconic Edition starting May 27.

Elsewhere, an in-depth look at the tracks that can be raced in reverse and the new customisation options available in EA Sports F1 25 and check out more info about My Team 2.0.

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