Jak Crawford is assigned number 11 still despite Sergio being back Leo Fornaroli is assigned number 1 which for obvious reasons needs to be changed These are the numbers they get in race 1 of a bra...
Ideas
So, the F1 25/26 game is licensed to let a driver switch teams during a career, BUT it doesn't have the license to let them change their number. Is that right? So, could this lead to duplicate numbers? Because that’s what the licensing agreement between EA and FIA F1 stipulates, right?
The licensing agreement can be whatever the teams, the FOM and EA agree on. For a long while they didn't even allow driver transfers to happen in game. Then Liberty Media took over and started relaxing the rules a bit.
As you pointed out this wouldn't be a difficult change to make, just add some sort of number randomizer for all F2 drivers at the start of the career. But they haven't done that despite this "issue" being present for years.
That would seem to indicate that they are limited by the license and don't really have a choice in the matter because as much as people want to accuse them of being lazy, they've fixed plenty of other things that were far more complicated.
So, EA should NEGOTIATE that possibility in the licensing agreement to avoid such absurdities, and only then incorporate it into the game. In other words, the problem lies in the LICENSE and can be resolved. All it takes is logical argumentation and commitment from EA