3 Game breaking problems

I know this might be a point of discussion, but I'm curious to hear how others are enjoying F1 2025. My last F1 title was F1 2020, and before that, I owned F1 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2012, and 2011. In my opinion, F1 2020 was truly a high point for Codemasters' F1 games.

Race Strategy Changes pre race not possible

It feels nearly impossible to change my race strategy pre race. For some reason, when I'm racing 50% or 100 % races, I can rarely choose my starting tire compound or the tires I want to switch to during a pit stop. I should be able to instruct the game to start on hard tires and then switch to mediums, but this option isn't readily available. While the menu for race strategie is there and I can change fuel etc. I am not able to change the order I want to use my tires. I'm aware that some players suggest adding a third pit stop, then manipulating tire choices, and finally deleting the third stop. I've tried this, but it often doesn't work (most of the times). Most of the time, the game won't even let me add a third stop, and if it does, I still can't select my desired tires.

This issue became particularly frustrating during a recent race. It was supposed to be a wet race, but the formation lap was completely dry, and everyone else was on medium tires. Of course, my car was fitted with intermediates. Naturally, my immediate thought was to restart and adjust my strategy from intermediates to mediums. However, the game prevented me from changing my tires at all, only offering options between intermediates and full wets.

Another example happened today in Miami. There was a red flag with about six laps to go. I had already pitted twice, going from hard to medium to soft. After the red flag, the game forced me to put on "new" tires. There was no option to decline and stay on my current soft tires, which I had just put on one lap ago. While it makes sense to use a new set of softs if available, I didn't have any new sets left! So, what did the game do? It put on my six-lap-old softs from qualifying. This felt illogical and frustrating.

AI Straight-Line Speed

Perhaps I need to improve my driving, but I consider myself an average player. In time trials, I typically place anywhere between the Top 1500 and Top 8000, depending on the track and car. My main concern is the AI's straight-line speed. This particular aspect is incredibly frustrating and makes me hesitant to continue playing.

In the first few races, I noticed the AI was quite fast on the straights. I initially thought it might be my setup or my corner exit speeds. However, it seems the AI simply has an unfair advantage on straights. For instance, today in Miami, I started P6 and finished P16. My personal fastest lap was the fastest overall, so my lap times were competitive. The problem arises on the straights: opponents just fly past me, sometimes two or three cars at once. There's no chance to defend or fight against them. How is it possible to be 1.5 seconds ahead of the car behind you, and before they even open DRS, they're on your tail at 0.2 seconds and then accelerate past as if they're traveling at 380 km/h? No matter how low I set my wings, and even with the overtake button, defending is impossible, at least for me. I've tried this at Monza, Azerbaijan, and COTA, setting my wings as low as possible and using my battery charge as much as I can (though a limited battery charge doesn't help for more than a few laps). They still pass me with ease. And in the rare instances I'm close to a car on a straight, overtaking them is almost impossible, even with a tow, DRS, and the overtake button. While I can sometimes out-brake them, overtaking on the straights is simply not feasible. Getting overtaken by eight cars on the opening lap on the start/finish straight in Azerbaijan? That's a common occurrence. I'm racing with AI difficulty between 96 and 106, depending on the track, and this issue persists regardless of the AI setting, even at zero AI.

Fuel Consumption

The fuel consumption in this game feels disproportionate. I recently started a 100% race distance (63 laps) at Imola, with my car topped up to the maximum fuel load. I began the race with about 5.5 laps of additional fuel. For the first three laps or so, I was consuming an extra 0.07 per lap. I thought this might be enough to finish. However, after a few more laps, the fuel consumption steadily increased, and by lap ten, my fuel load was down to +4.52 laps. After 20 laps, it was down to 3.13 laps. I tried to conserve fuel, lifting and coasting as much as possible, and not shifting too late, but my fuel consumption remained between 0.11 and 0.15 per lap. By lap 47, my fuel was essentially at zero, and my engineer warned me that I needed to save fuel. With 16 laps remaining, I was effectively out of fuel, which meant an hour of racing was wasted because I couldn't finish. And even at Imola, with my AI set to 97, the AI cars are incredibly fast, making it impossible to keep them behind, even on the short straights. There was even a moment where Leclerc, ahead of me, almost spun at the exit of the last corner but recovered and still managed to increase his gap from 1.2 seconds to 2.5 seconds on that short start/finish straight.

I'm genuinely disappointed that these three problems exist, especially since they seem like issues that could be addressed relatively quickly. I don't know if I'm the only one experiencing these problems, but I'm truly let down because otherwise, the game is outstanding. I would give it 95 points on a scorecard if it weren't for these two issues. I could probably tolerate the first one, but the second one, concerning AI straight-line speed, feels truly game-breaking.

I suppose I'll have to return to F1 2020, as I doubt these issues will be fixed. These problems significantly detract from the overall enjoyment of the game. I wonder if others feel the same way about these points?