F1 24 review: Get lapping that Verstappen fella

But now here’s your chance to upend Verstappen’s iron-clad grip thanks to the introduction of playable drivers in the long-running F1 game. Where previously the career mode limited you to racing a fictional character against the roster of real drivers, you can now choose from one of the 20 contenders in the current F1 season or several icons such as James Hunt and Michael Schumacher. Creating an avatar from scratch remains an option.

So if you fancy turning no-hopers such as Logan Sargeant or Valtteri Bottas into world-beating, Verstappen-lapping contenders, F1 24 hands you the keys.

That’s far from the only change of note in the latest edition of a series that can trace its roots to the early 1990s. But for obsessive fans, it feels like the most significant. As a franchise on an annual release schedule, you can’t expect wholesale reinvention – yet 2024 has a surprising amount packed in.

Three years after developer Codemasters was acquired by EA, you can clearly see the flourishes seeping in from the mega-publisher’s other sports titles. The creeping trend of microtransactions continues, albeit confined to the F1 World mode, an arcade-style procession of generally bite-sized challenges that earn car upgrades and grant perks from hiring staff.

Codemasters has lavished most attention on the career mode, broadening not just the driver options as mentioned but also the structure. The conventional career – including starting in F2 if desired – remains and now includes the potential for mid-season skulduggery where rival teams will try to poach you if driving well.

Maybe you don’t want to commit to the time-consuming strictures of a 24-race season with qualifying and the whole shebang. Then try the Challenge Career, which pits you against an online league of drivers in scaled-down events or specific scenarios from past races. You can also share the full Career with a pal either in competition or cooperation.

The developers make much of F1 24’s more authentic handling model but my guess is that only the most dedicated of repeat customers will pinpoint the improvements. At a push, you may notice how much more TLC your tyres need throughout a race. It’s not as if the handling was erratic to begin with, having accurately for years represented the tense wrestling match between car and player.

F1 24 takes the most appreciable leaps for the franchise in years but for all that it remains just an incremental upgrade for owners of the 2023 version. If you haven’t kept up to speed lately with Codemasters’ revisions, however, then F1 24 is the new model to get the pulse racing.