F1® 25 - Patch 1.04 Discussion Thread

Driver numbers overlapping: As mentioned by many others, driver numbers are still having issues of overlapping & overriding with one another in career modes.

The first issue is F2 drivers are using their F2 numbers even after they're hired into F1, imo their numbers should either be randomized like in past installments, or letting player decide it for them manually.  

Second issue is Icon drivers' fixed numbers are overriding any of their F2 teammate's number, that means you will end up having both drivers using the same number when you have an Icon and an F2 driver in the same team. I've heard rumors that this issue extended further to when a fresh F2 driver was hired into a team with an F1 driver, the F2 driver will be using the same number as their F1 teammate. 

Please note that when a team is composed of two Icon drivers, they will be using their own fixed numbers (which means it's working as intended), whilst if you have two F2 drivers, each of them will be using their own F2 number (which means it's still wrong because they're overlapping with many existing F1 drivers on the grid).

AI start improvement: Personally, I don't think the improvement is anywhere near enough, and because AI doesn't defend the inside of turn 1 so it's still too easy for players to gain unrealistic amount of positions.

My recommendation is to have to AI start to be at least as strong as F1 22's for difficulty level above 101.

AI pace: I can't say anything about the rain pace of AI atm because I've just had a race where I somehow managed to keep up with them (110 Miami). However, AI's dry pace in low-speed corners is exceptionally slow:
- They brake too early
- They don't overtake other AI even when there are clear openings (example: suzuka hairpain)
- They often delay/stall their acceleration (example: last two corners of Monaco)

R&D balancing of career: Some AI teams seems to randomly make giant leaps of R&D progress mid-season. Whilst having development breakthrough is realistic irl, the level of those leaps in its current form in the game are just too large and tainted the gaming experiences. 

Another thing is regulation reset is too insignificant, causing teams to topped out their R&D too quickly in career. Parts adaptation should be much harsher to manage for both players & AI teams, simply paying cash to readabt is just too easy for this feature to cause any meaningful effect.

My recommendation is to have part adaptation to require:
- Resource Points & Money 
- Research time
- Fail chance to adabt 
- Unadabtable parts/branching paths (which means those parts are reset completely, and you'll have to wait till next year to research those parts/route again)

Imo, the key is to make sure if career setting for Cash generation & Resource points are set to LOW, no team should ever had a chance to "maxed out" their R&D ever in the entire 10 seasons campaign, because having maxed out R&D basically killed the entire management aspects of the career modes, and that also directly conflicts with the "spirit" of this sport.