F1 24: are you ready to hit the track in the new Career Mode?

The 2024 Formula 1 season is definitely getting into the thick of the action in this long championship full of Grands Prix. At the same time, the developers of Codemasters are completing work on the official F1 24 video game, which this year will debut for all old and new generation PC and console owners on May 31st.

After having dissected the exquisitely technical peculiarities introduced in F1 24 in our dedicated special, today we want to describe the changes made to the legendary Career Mode. For more than a decade now this game mode has undoubtedly been the most popular and played among virtual Circus drivers. This year the developers, in the absence of the Braking Point mode, have focused on improving the Career Mode, to make it even richer and more satisfying, bringing the experience lived in the game closer to that which official Formula 1 drivers live every day.

In the shoes of a real pilot

For the first time in the history of official Formula 1 video games we will be able to play as a real driver and not a virtual alter ego. We will be able to choose whether to take on the role of any member of the F1 and F2 teams to continue their career and achieve new ambitious goals. For example, Lewis Hamilton fans will be able to impersonate the English driver to “help” him achieve the coveted eighth drivers’ title. Those who are nostalgic will also have drivers from the past such as Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna or James Hunt at their disposal to continue to keep their legend alive and break new records.

Players will have specific challenges available within Career Mode, which represent rather realistic individual objectives of Formula 1 drivers. In addition to the example of Lewis Hamilton mentioned above, in the role of Nico Hülkenberg we will for example have to try to reach the our first victory, or with Fernando Alonso try to win a drivers’ championship again.

Statistics and Recognition in the paddock

Each driver, whether real or created from scratch by the player, will have well-defined statistics, which represent his skill and their evolution over time. The game will keep us under close surveillance at all times, monitoring our behavior on the track and updating every statistic present accordingly. In Career Mode we will therefore have to try to improve these parameters to make our driver more attractive for signing the contract with a high-level team. The agreements with the teams have also been revised in F1 24, with the possibility of renegotiating a contract during the season, defining specific objectives and perhaps even a multi-year contract with stellar bonuses.

The player will also be given a new Recognition score in the paddock. This will take into account our individual statistics and therefore the performances on the track, but also other elements such as the completion of the objectives of our contract, the internal fight with our teammate, remaining faithful to a team to bring it to victory or the secret negotiations with other teams to change teams.

Research and development

Increasing our Recognition in the paddock will bring substantial advantages, such as the possibility of directing the team’s research and development department, giving priority to our requests instead of those of our teammate. For example, if we care more about engine power, we will at all costs want the team to work to improve the latter, even if our teammate is more inclined to bring aerodynamic improvements. Furthermore, development failures will decrease and we will be able to put multiple improvements into development at the same time.

By working closely with our engineers, we will be able to define specific objectives for the race weekend. By completing these objectives, new development opportunities for our single-seater will be unlocked, such as reducing costs or the possibility of finishing the processing of a new component earlier.

At the end of the first season, we will also be able to apply modifiers called Research and Development Scenarios. These will allow us to alter the evolution of our car a little, applying additional challenges to make Career Mode more difficult. For example, we can apply a Scenario that prevents us from developing the aerodynamics of the car, or that allows us to implement only minor developments over the next season.

The new Rivalries

It certainly couldn’t be missing in a self-respecting Career Mode a system of rivalry between drivers. With F1 24 Codemasters has introduced three new types of rivalries. The first, the most classic and already present in the previous chapters of the series, is the rivalry between stablemates. In addition to this, the rivalry between a driver with a similar score in the championship and the rivalry with drivers who have similar statistics to us has been implemented.

Everything was divided into three different levels of intensity of our challenges with other drivers. The first level consists of a simple battle between two riders in a limited number of races, for example having a similar score in a championship stage. We then move on to the most intense rivalries, such as the world title fight that took place between Verstappen and Hamilton in 2021. Finally, the most important and impactful rivalry is that of our career. Here historical rivalries will come into play, such as that of Senna and Prost, which we will only be able to build by completing several seasons of Career Mode.

Challenge the community

In addition to the numerous new features already mentioned, Codemasters wanted to add a new mode focused on community and sharing progress online. These are small events, based on the skeleton of Career Mode, which pit all the various drivers in the world in competition. Each event, created directly by Codemasters, will feature a handful of circuits on which to compete, in different weather conditions and with specific teams and drivers. Between each race, we will be able to develop new components of the car, just like in the classic Career Mode. By finishing all the races in a given event, we will receive a final score based on our performances and we will be able to compare ourselves with other friends and online players to see who made the most of every aspect of their team and results on the track. Everything will be intelligently divided into four different difficulty levels to ensure that pilots can compete against opponents of the same level.

Codemasters will work to create new events, also following the suggestions received from the online community. In this way we will be able to have interesting challenges, such as a succession of circuits characterized by low speeds, where our research and development department will have to sacrifice developments on engine power and perhaps find additional aerodynamic load for the slower corners. Or we could encounter race weekends full of rain and bad weather, where we will have to let the performances of some talented drivers shine on board a less competitive car.

The 2024 Formula 1 season is in full swing as fans anxiously await the debut of the official F1 24 video game, which promises to take Career Mode to new heights of realism and immersion. With the unique opportunity to embody historical and current drivers, facing realistic challenges and managing the development of their own single-seater, players will be immersed in an experience once again one of a kind. The new rivalry dynamics, statistics management and online community involvement make F1 24 the best way to experience virtual Formula 1. But will all this be enough to stand out not so much from the non-existent competition, but rather from the previous iterations of the series?