F1 24 Review: Driver Career Becomes Iconic

Annual games with non-annual features always face an uphill challenge, but F1 24 brought out the big guns this year with a major upgrade to Driver Career. Not only can you now build a solo career around the top names in modern F1 racing, but you can even do that using several legends of the past.

Additional handling changes and tweaks year over year continue to inch forward and already impressive system, but not every F1 24 gameplay shift will please all players. For those still deciding whether to leave the pit, our F1 24 review outlines whether this installment is a first place finish.

F1 24 Review

Like most of the games in this series, F1 24 shines on the track. Already strong gameplay systems were enhanced this year with the introduction of an Dynamic Handling mechanic, which was developed in close connection to cover star Max Verstappen, to create a predictable and realistic experience for all players. There's a new suspension kinematics system, new tire behavior, enhanced aerodynamics, and upgraded power control with things like ERS deployment.

Early builds of the game faced some hiccups and criticism from the most dedicated players, but after a day one update the pure gameplay of F1 24 is extremely solid and seems to have settled. Once you've found the difficulty and settings that give you just enough of a challenge, it's easy to nestle into the excitement of each race.

Driver Career got a huge upgrade in F1 24 as you can now essentially play what works as a solo driver version of My Team, not unlike using a solo player in Madden 24 Franchise Mode. Players can choose existing modern drivers or an icon of the past like Pastor Maldonado, Jamie Chadwick, or even James Hunt to plop them into a modern career and see how things play out.

Immersion in Driver Career is enhanced by their use of real-world race audio for many drivers, but that improvement becomes a bit of a novelty as it usually only triggers at the end of a race. The same rings true for the new mid-race objectives being delivered by your team, which can quickly become something you ignore entirely without much consequence.

In addition to the Driver Career improvements, they've added a unique Challenge Career featuring specific scenarios that will change throughout the year. It's a nice bit of single player competition with online leaderboards, but chances are a huge chunk of the player base will never bother with it.

F1 24 is undeniably gorgeous with some really great pure gameplay, but the full game experience isn't quite enough. Their story-driven Braking Point mode isn't present this year as it's currently using a bi-annual cycle, and limited pick up and play options make the whole thing get a bit frustrating.

For new players, it would be extremely easy to not even realize there's a Play Now style Grand Prix and Time Trial mode where you can choose a car and hit the track. At a glance, your only option to play as any of the existing F1 drivers is to start a new Driver Career. If you'd rather do a single quick race, you have to actually head into F1 World and scroll far to the right to find Grand Prix and Time Trial modes.

Unfortunately, all those cool F1 racing legends don't exist here. You can only use existing drivers on their specific teams for Grand Prix, so all the F1 Icons are locked inside Driver Career and require a full new career setup to even take out onto a track. F1 World itself just feels like a microtransaction machine pressuring you to purchase random cosmetics, and encasing the quick play options within that was a poor decision.