By far the driest laugh among those in attendance watching a preview of F1 24 came at the mention of “secret meetings,” a new wrinkle that Codemasters is using to spice up an even bigger overhaul of its driver career mode. After all, we saw an incredibly secret meeting just in January when seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton announced he was leaving Mercedes and moving to Ferrari next year.
It’s the kind of soap opera story arc that F1 fans find so exciting even in the off-season, and which has been largely missing from the video game series’ otherwise deep driver career mode. The internal tensions coalesced into a linear rivalry about beating your teammate. You led the development of your car whether you were the team’s first or second driver, and contract negotiations ended with awkward mid-season changes or didn’t present much of a challenge in getting the best deal out of a reticent team boss.
If all goes as promised, that will change in F1 24’s new career mode, which was overdue for a major upgrade considering it’s been a bread-and-butter mode for 15 years. More recently, Codemasters has introduced new features such as the addictive My Team, which allows users to create and race for their fictional team, or F1 World, which is more of an online career, the game’s multiplayer, Grand Prix and time trials combines modes.
F1 24 Driver Career offers much more than just a new paint job
The good old driving career recently saw a major update when Codemasters introduced a cooperative/competitive option with another friend as a teammate or rival in another car. That was in 2021, and even then, the linear progression of the mode, free agency, and lack of sports tabloid press had been the same for nearly a decade.
Creative director Lee Mather pointed out that Driver Career’s last major update came in F1 in 2016, as if to reassure fans that Codemasters knew the mode had waited too long, while innovations like a narrative, F1 World and My team came into play.
“The career is where the true authenticity and the Formula 1 season really shows,” said Mather. “And that’s why we thought this year was the best time to start a new driving career in F1 24.”
The real Formula 1 drivers are finally part of the playable squad
First of all, fans can now play a career mode as an existing driver. I was stunned to realize that this has never been an option since the last major overhaul in F1 in 2016. But that’s because I always played as my created avatar and assumed that others did the same, and found this type of fantasy competition more attractive.
Boy, was I wrong? Fans regularly complain about this. “We want players to be able to play the way they want,” Mather said, noting the feedback. Driver avatars are still available for those who prefer, “but now you can also play as one of your F1 heroes,” said Mather.
“You can choose one of the drivers from the existing Formula 1 squad,” Mather said, “a Formula 2 driver or one of the icons,” which are all-time greats, usually available as Premium or Deluxe -Edition content appears.
#F124Tire physics have changed significantly, both in dry and wet conditions 🌧
Coming May 31st: https://t.co/JJptpLEEdW pic.twitter.com/1QPZ6Ha5Ek
— EA SPORTS™ F1® (@EASPORTSF1) April 24, 2024
F1 contracts and team selection are less certain
Formula 2 is still part of a driver’s career if players want to start there, but Mather said the opportunity to sign with one of the 10 Formula 1 teams would be more strictly regulated and dependent on your performance at the youth level.
In the past, it was so easy to choose your preferred team, and choosing a driver academy in Formula 2 simply meant getting a development bonus, rather than excluding certain teams or making others pay more attention to you.
To get your preferred seat, choosing the driver academy is more important. “Your progress there will impact your ability to negotiate your contract and the level you reach when you move to Formula 1.”
Driver contracts are now becoming much more varied and broken down into classifications to give junior staff an idea of what is appropriate, rather than everyone asking what the limit is and having it all but approved. Contract values are influenced by a driver’s ability to achieve the season goals set by a team. Other factors also come into play, including driver recognition. This is where the secret meetings come into play.
Recognition brings even more excitement to a long F1 season
Recognition is influenced by on-track and off-track actions and is essentially a rating that reflects whether your driver is a good teammate, a loyal second-seater, or a nuisance at the factory. “Secret meetings will happen when another team is so interested in your skills that they want to poach you,” Mather explained. However, there is a risk of being found out. If this is the case, you will see the recognition value drop as the offer is withdrawn and your existing team now resents you.
“One of the benefits of recognition is that you are recognized as a driving force within your current team,” Mather said. “And that’s important because you want to be one step ahead of your teammate, you want to make those decisions, you want to be the one setting the direction of research and development for your team.”
If this isn’t the case, or you don’t have the truck to even join the discussion, your teammate might focus on developments that don’t interest you – for example, the powertrain rather than aerodynamics. With high enough recognition, drivers unlock benefits such as the ability to select R&D employees, an “R&D Rush” perk that means better parts are delivered faster, and even secret vehicle upgrades.
It doesn’t sound like a breakup is inevitable if your driver’s recognition suddenly drops, but I’d at least be willing to risk that just to make Driver Career’s role-playing elements more challenging. This is also in line with another of Codemasters’ goals for Driver Career, which is to make the game replayable beyond a single, full, and very long season.
Two new twists to increase the replay value of F1 24
I have to admit that most of my years in the past ended with my car being perfectly developed, my team either becoming constructors’ champions or finishing a very satisfactory second or third place, and with little incentive to get back to work. To solve this problem, Codemasters is giving players the option to choose an “R&D scenario” to start their next year more challenging.
“So you might have financial difficulties; You may have R&D issues that make it harder for you to move forward,” Mather said. It also works as a kind of cheat code for those who want to skip the second year entirely. “They could have unlimited resources. It’s a great way to adapt the way you play for subsequent seasons after completing the first season.”
These are far from the only upgrades for a driver’s career. But they’re the ones that probably touch on most of the features of this mode, or at least the success you’ll see in the long run. Short-term changes include things like awards (which factor into recognition) and are essentially milestone events that reflect where a driver is in their career. Nico Hülkenberg’s list of accolades (finally a podium finish!) is not comparable to that of Lewis Hamilton (he won his eighth title and broke the joint record with Michael Schumacher).
Rivalries between different drivers will now take place over short, medium and cross-season periods to reflect the different storylines of a real-world F1 season. Race engineers also give drivers specific instructions during a Grand Prix, compliance with which pays dividends in both recognition and overall progress.
Challenge Careers: A multiplayer leaderboard for the person leading the best team
Finally, Codemasters offers the ability to play a career against friends without the hassle of coordinating a start time offline that everyone can attend. This is the case in the Challenge Career, where drivers compete against each other asynchronously in smaller “episodes”.
“So you might get certain tracks for three weeks and then move on to another set of tracks and another set of tracks. And we curate that story,” Mather explained.
Honestly, it sounds a lot like some of the multiplayer challenges the game has seen in recent years, only spiced up with a more career-like shell that includes a lighter R&D component. Unlike the multiplayer challenges, this one measures who is best at leading a virtual team.
Of course the money-making F1 world is returning. And my team, without an upgrade, is still there to eat up hours for those whose team leaders are years old (raises hand). So F1 24 looks to be an incredibly comprehensive package of racing action – assuming all of these features are as compelling as advertised.
Fans will find out when F1 24 launches on May 31st for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.