There Is No F1 26: How F1 25's 2026 Season Pack Rewrote the Grid
For the first time in years, EA skipped a new Formula 1 game. Instead, F1 25 got a paid expansion with Audi, Cadillac, active aero and a new street circuit in Madrid. Here is what it adds and what comes next.
Formula 1 rewrote its rulebook for 2026: new power units, new aerodynamics, two new teams and a new race in Madrid. For a video game series that ships every year, that is a nightmare. Build a new game on old rules and it is out of date by March. Build it on new rules and you are guessing about cars nobody has raced yet.
EA's answer was to skip the year. On November 18, 2025, EA Sports confirmed there would be no F1 26. Instead, F1 25 would get a paid expansion covering the 2026 season, and the next full game would arrive in 2027, "reimagined into a more expansive experience." That expansion, the 2026 Season Pack, launched on June 3, 2026, priced at $25 on PC and $30 on consoles.
What F1 25 already was
To understand the pack, start with the base game. F1 25, developed by Codemasters and published under EA Sports, came out on May 30, 2025 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. It was the first entry since F1 2014 not to appear on the previous generation of consoles.
It brought back Braking Point, the series' story mode, for a third chapter following the fictional Konnersport team, which you can also pick as an 11th team in Career mode. It introduced reverse layouts for Silverstone, Zandvoort and the Red Bull Ring, a first for the series, with reworked DRS zones, grids and pit stops to match. My Team became "My Team 2.0", putting you in the owner's chair as well as the cockpit. And a tie-in with the Apple film F1 let you drive as Brad Pitt's Sonny Hayes for the fictional APXGP team.
Critics liked it: the game scored 80 to 82 on Metacritic depending on platform, and was nominated for Best Sports/Racing Game at The Game Awards 2025.
What the 2026 Season Pack adds
The pack updates F1 25 to match the real 2026 grid. The biggest changes:
- New teams: Audi and Cadillac join the field, with Audi and Ford power units also represented.
- New rules: Active aerodynamics, a boost mode and an overtake mode replace the old DRS and ERS systems, changing how you attack and defend on the straights.
- New drivers: Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas return to the grid and rookie Arvid Lindblad arrives at Racing Bulls, with Isack Hadjar stepping up to Red Bull Racing.
- New circuit: Madring, Madrid's new street track, is the only brand-new venue. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are still included despite changes to the real calendar.
There is one notable cut. Two-player Career mode is not part of the pack, because EA moved resources to the new simulation systems. Sepang was also listed as still to come at launch.
Owners of F1 25 buy the pack as an add-on; new players can buy a bundle with the base game, which replaced the old Deluxe Edition.
How it landed
The pack is an unusual product, and reviewers noticed. Top Gear's headline called it "the F1 game that's not an F1 game", which is a neat summary: it changes how the cars feel and who drives them, but the modes, menus and story stay the same as 2025.
The more interesting point is what the pack represents. For years, annual sports games have been criticised for charging full price for small changes. Here, EA charged a fraction of that for what was, honestly, a roster and rules update, and saved its big changes for a full game in 2027. Players who did not care about the new rules could simply keep playing F1 25 as it was.
What's next
EA has said little about the 2027 game beyond the promise of a "more expansive" experience. The gap year gives Codemasters time to rebuild around the new regulations rather than retrofit them, and the season pack shows players will accept an update instead of a sequel when the reason is clear.
For racing fans with a different taste, our Gran Turismo 7 and Forza Motorsport long read looks at how the two big console sims took very different paths in 2026.