F1® 25 Q&A - Gavin Cooper (Creative Director)

 

 

Hello drivers!

We hope you are very excited for the upcoming F1® 25 game!

Last week we released our F1® 25 My Team & Driver Career Deep Dive. There are a lot of exciting things happening, and to keep the wheels going we are going to host a Q&A with Gain Cooper (Creative Director)! Here's a little bit from him!

"I've been in the industry since about 1998, when my hobby of making levels for the games I was playing with my friends got me a job doing more of the same. Over time my skills and my interests led me more towards game design roles, and I was well-established as a design lead when Codemasters acquired the studio I was working at in 2008. In my early years I worked on a variety of different kinds of racing games such as Rollcage Stage 2 and LEGO Racers 2. After a brief diversion into the field of action games (Cold Winter and 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand) and a cheeky bit of more casual racing fun (Toybox Turbos and F1 Race Stars) I've now transitioned into my "grown up racing" phase, where as Creative Director I've headed up the design efforts on the odd-year F1 titles since F1 2019. Very much looking forwards to seeing players get their hands on F1® 25, and until then I'm happy to answer what questions I can!"

Please, post your questions below and we'll collect them during the week for Gavin to answer. Use the Like button at the top of each comment to vote for your favourite questions. Gavin will answer the most upvoted ones!

Before starting, here are some quick guidelines:

• One post, one question. Try to limit yourself to a question per post, as it will be easier to collect them.
• The focus of this Q&A is on Career Modes. If you have a question about soundtracks or other aspects of the game, it is probable that Gavin doesn't have the answer for you.
• There are some things he cannot answer, such is the nature of game development.
• Remember the Closed Beta is under NDA. Please refrain from asking any questions regarding the Closed Beta.
• You can throw in some fun questions too! Favourite cars, F1 memories, F1 pilots...
• As always, keep things fun, fair and respectful.

We have also prepared a small list of F.A.Q. regarding My Team to avoid redundancy:

• You said My Team has been fully revamped, what changes have been made?
  • One of the biggest changes is that originally, players acted as both Owners and Drivers of their team. Although there have been some examples of this throughout F1 history, it is not the most common setup in the sport. So, now the mode will be redefined to more accurately represent the sport, and the role of the Owner will be focused on running the team.
  • The new My Team will place more emphasis on managing the fates of both drivers. When race weekend comes around, players can choose either of them to get behind the wheel.
  • The progression system has also been updated. Owners will battle to improve the Fan Rating of their team by achieving objectives and winning key Rivalries against other teams in the championship.
  • Away from the track, players will also run the operations from an all-new Team HQ, an evolving space that will grow in scale, population, activity, and branding as the player builds the team’s reputation and staff. The size of the workforce, development costs, and facilities costs will play a big role, owners need to be careful not to breach the cost cap
  • Research and Development are also now separate branches, giving players the flexibility to choose when they manufacture a new part and how to apply it. For instance, completing only one of a new upgrade package is faster, but then they will need to choose which driver gets the upgrade first, which will affect their motivation and the player’s leverage in contract negotiations.
  • Sponsors matter more than ever, unlocking extra benefits and customisation options. Each sponsor’s brand values will impact the team in terms of expectations and goals they expect you to achieve. Relationships with sponsors will develop over time. As fan rating increases, players will also need to balance their legacy sponsors that have been there from the beginning with more lucrative offers from new brands.

• How has Driver Career been improved this year?
  • Players can now have more control over driver Icons. They can choose to enable or disable each of the individual driver Icons and, for the first time, whether the AI teams can recruit Icons.
  • The mode will also benefit from the Konnersport and movie content integrated into the game. Players will be able to add an eleventh team to the grid, either Braking Point’s Konnersport, or the APXGP team from F1 (exclusive to the Iconic Edition).

Thank you in advance for submitting questions and taking part! We hope to bring you more in the future and look forward to chatting with you all!