Yearly sports games can be a massive challenge for publishers, who have to convince people to spend another $60 to $70 on a game that is—at its core—mostly the same as the one that came before it, save for some incremental changes. EA Sports has taken a different approach with its F1 series, developed by Codemasters. Rather than rebuild and resell an entirely new F1 game, they created a DLC Season Pack that adds the new teams, a new track, and the new regulations for the 2026 F1 season to F1 25.
It’s an interesting strategy and certainly more attractive for players on paper, but did Codemasters and EA Sports land the execution?
F1 25 2026 Season Pack: What’s New?
When players purchase the 2026 Season Pack, they’ll get two new teams (Audi and Cadillac), a full grid of cars redesigned to the new 2026 regulations, and the new MADRING track in Spain, which will be available to players virtually before any of the F1 teams compete on the track in real life.
The inclusion of the 2026-spec cars means new driving features like overtake mode, boost mode, and active aerodynamics. The first two modes being products of the 2026 hybrid powertrains that have 50% their power provided by an electric motor.
Overtake mode works similarly to the retired-DRS mode. Essentially, if you’re within a second of the car ahead at a detection zone on the track, you can deploy Overtake mode at any point on the following lap, using electric power to commit to a pass. Boost mode also provides extra electric power and can be deployed at any point on track, but it is not dependent on your position relative to other cars. In fact, you can use boost mode to defend against a pass if you see fit. Also similar to DRS is the active aerodynamics feature, which allows you to adjust the front and rear wings on the fly to reduce downforce on the straights and reapply it in areas that require as much grip as possible. Active aero is limited to designated areas on a given track, but is much less restrictive than the DRS of old.
In practice, the new driving modes add a few more layers to race strategy, as deciding when and where to deploy them becomes critical to earning race positions and faster lap times. F1 race strategy is already fairly complex in general, so your brain is definitely going to get a bigger workout with the new modes in play. Despite failing miserably on more than a few occasions, I did find a lot of satisfaction in having the additional levels of control over the car.
The MADRING
In a series first, a new track will be made available first in-game before real life. The MADRING in Madrid, Spain, should be going through its final touches now, but Codemasters wanted to have the new course ready in time for the Season Pack. To build it, the developers relied on early CAD data from the track designers to create a finished version of the track that is as accurate as possible to what the real track will look like, according to the developers.
Having never been to Madrid or visited the site of MADRING in person, I can’t speak to the accuracy of the circuit, but I can say that I throughly enjoyed racing on it. The MADRING is a high-speed 22-turn course with some deceptively technical sections that demand your constant focus. The long straights and sweeping corners might lull you into a false sense of security, but if you give in you’ll be eaten up by tight chicanes that you didn’t see coming.
I’m sure high-level players will have it figured out after a practice session or two, but for us mere mortals it will be a bit more challenging. I still can’t get turns 5 and 6 right.
Does It Work?
Alright, so after diving into this season update, the question becomes: does this method of adding content to an existing game rather than building a new one actually work? In my opinion, the answer is mostly yes, though there are some standout flaws.
The problem with adding content in this way is that even though it is built into the existing platform of F1 25, the 2026 Season Pack is almost its own game within a game that doesn’t connect with F1 25 in some significant areas. For starters, none of the 2026 Season Pack content is available in the F1 World Series mode, co-op career, ranked multiplayer, leagues, vendor goals, and challenge career.
In fact, F1 25 and 2026 Season Pack content have completely separate save files, so no progression from F1 2025 crosses over into the 2026 content. They are essentially treated like two different entities. There are most likely technical reasons why the two modes can’t connect with each other more cohesively, but it is a bummer knowing that no one can compete in ranked online races in the new cars with the new driving features.
2026 Season Content is available in My Team mode, Driver career, grand prix, time trial, split-screen local multiplayer, pro-challenges, and unranked online multiplayer, so there are still plenty of places to experience the new cars and content, but leaving out ranked racing is bound to sting for many of the hardcore, high-skill level F1 players out there.
Is it worth dealing with those shortcomings to save the money you would pay for another full F1 game? Let’s consider the pricing.
On its own, the 2026 Season Pack for F1 25 is $29.99 on PlayStation and Xbox, and $24.99 on Steam. If you don’t already have F1 25, you can get the Season Edition, which includes the base game and 2026 Season Pack for $49.99.
Assuming a brand new F1 2026 game would be $69.99, you are saving roughly 40 bucks by only getting what’s new at the cost of losing out on a few things like ranked multiplayer. In my opinion, I think it is well worth it. Though I hope in the future Codemasters finds a way to include ranked multiplayer in season update packs.
If you’re an avid F1 fan or EA SPORTS F1 player, buying the 2026 Season Pack is a no-brainer. A new track, new teams, more nuanced race strategy, and a fresh run through of career and my team make the season pack well worth the price of admission.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| More Cars. | Execution of content is slightly disjointed. |
| Race the MADRING before anyone else. | No ranked multiplayer with 2026 cars and content. |
| New cars mean new race strategies. | |
| New content model saves $40 over buying a full game. |
EA SPORTS F1 25 2026 Season Pack Gallery
