As with all annual installment titles, a significant challenge lies in justifying the cost of purchasing the latest version and upgrading from the previous year’s edition. EA Sports aims to convince fans to make the switch to F1 24 with its new additions and improvements. The game boasts an overhauled driver career mode, enhanced visual and audio features, updated tracks, and numerous upgrades to the physics engine. These enhancements might just be compelling enough to persuade fans to upgrade.

Revving up: New features in F1 24

Last year, I applauded EA Sports for bringing back the Braking Point career mode, a story-driven experience that takes players from F2 to an F1 career. This year, F1 24 reinvents the driver career mode yet again. The expanded single-player experience allows players to not only introduce their own custom driver into Formula 1 but also to step into the shoes of existing F1 stars. If you've ever wondered how Max Verstappen's career might have unfolded if he had joined Mercedes instead of Red Bull, now you can find out. But the options don't stop there; you can now play through a full driver career as an F1 icon, choosing from legends like Pastor Maldonado, Jamie Chadwick, 1976 champion James Hunt, and seven-time race winner Juan Pablo Montoya.

No matter which driver you choose, the updated career mode revolves around a new driver recognition system that takes into account each of your decisions and affects your reputation. A higher reputation opens up opportunities such as offers from other teams via secret contract meetings, better success with technology upgrades, and more. Long-term milestones can also be achieved to ensure you cement your place in Formula 1 history. Perhaps the most intriguing addition to the driver career modes is the new Challenge Career mode. This mode features shorter weekly scenarios where you are placed in the cockpit of an existing driver and team to face specific challenges. Your performance earns points, which are then compared on a global leaderboard. All participants in this mode face identical scenarios, and at the end of each multi-week season, a champion is crowned. EA plans to create future challenges based on player voting and real driver influences.

Driver career mode also remains available at a team level, allowing you to take over an existing team or enter the Formula 1 paddock as a brand new 11th team. If only Mario Andretti knew it was this easy! This team career mode can also be played with two players in co-op mode. However, as in previous years, this option only works with existing teams. The dream of embarking on a co-op career with a custom team remains elusive. Here's hoping EA will grant us this feature in the future.

Codemasters has dedicated substantial effort to reworking the physics and handling engine in F1 24. Trademarked as EA Sports Dynamic Handling, this update revamps everything from the suspension system to the tire and aerodynamics models. EA promises a more authentic feel of weight distribution and center of gravity in the heavy Formula 1 cars. Collaborating with Max Verstappen, the new dynamic handling model ensures that setup changes and personalized choices have a more significant impact. Tires have also been overhauled, resulting in a noticeable difference in behavior between cold tires and those at the optimal temperature. Now, getting a tire change right during a Grand Prix will have much more realistic consequences. Additionally, aerodynamics have been upgraded to provide a more accurate depiction of actual race cars, and players can now control power unit settings, such as ERC modes, directly from the cockpit.

Enhanced upgrades: Tracks and drivers

A major consideration when deciding whether to upgrade from last year's iteration of the F1 series is whether the new version offers substantial improvements. This decision is even more critical on PC, where mods and add-ons often provide updates to rosters and teams. Since this year's driver roster is identical to last year's, the challenge of convincing buyers to upgrade is even greater. Alongside the new features mentioned earlier, Codemasters has meticulously updated four circuits this year: Silverstone, Spa, Lusail in Qatar, and Jeddah. These updates are primarily visual, including new buildings, trackside artwork, and adjusted curbs.

All teams have received livery updates, as usual, but drivers also got a technological upgrade this year, making them look slightly more realistic. Actually, that's not entirely true. They just look more like their eerily styled official F1 portraits now, but I suppose that does technically increase realism. A positive addition regarding the official drivers is the inclusion of new voice snippets captured from real Grand Prix broadcasts. This is a nice touch, but there frankly needs to be more of it. It's still disappointing not to hear the commentary refer to Carlos Sainz by name during the podium celebration. While I understand the difficulty with custom drivers, hearing generic references to official drivers is a definite miss. There are also still noticeable shortcuts, such as the fact that there seems to be only a single driver model, making the 5'4" Yuki Tsunoda appear just as tall as the 6'1" Esteban Ocon. Talk about immersion breaking.

Room for improvement

Almost a podium finish

This review is based on the PC Steam release. The game key was provided by the publisher for review consideration. F1 24 is available on May 28 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and PC.