Lando Norris has finally done it: after years of McLaren not being any good, last year’s championship battle that was never really there, and the entire season of inconsistent results, he is the Formula 1 world champion. He is the first Englishman to claim the title since Lewis Hamilton in 2020, and McLaren’s first since 2008.
He, however, won’t have a new F1 video game to celebrate this win with. Electronic Arts has confirmed that there will be no standalone F1 26 next year. Instead, F1 25 will receive a paid “premium content update” that adds the new cars, teams, drivers, and rules coming with F1’s big 2026 overhaul.
It’s the first time since Codemasters picked up the licence in 2009 that there won’t be a new official Formula 1 game for a season. EA has already pitched it as a “more expansive” reboot for the series.
In practice, players will just keep playing F1 25 with a fresh coat of paint, driver moves, stats, liveries, and regulations. But the gameplay will largely remain the same, absolutely not reflecting the major regulation change for both engines and aero.
F1 25 has been an incredible success, fueled by the passion of fans and the energy of the sport. With Formula 1’s momentum on and off the track, now is the perfect time for us to look ahead and build for the future.
We’re fully committed to the EA SPORTS F1 franchise. Our multi-year plan extends this year’s excitement with the 2026 expansion and reimagines the F1 experience for 2027 to deliver even more for players at every level around the world.
Behind this PR statement by the senior creative director, Lee Mather, hides an obvious takeaway: EA was clearly unsure whether the dev team would be able to deliver the proper gameplay system that reflects the regulations on the current annual model.
Opinions on this are split. Some welcome the end of the copy-paste content and gameplay that dogs yearly sports titles, arguing a properly funded, less rushed F1 27 could be worth the wait. Others are annoyed that the one year the cars change dramatically is the year there’s no fresh career-mode reset, no new visuals, and most importantly, no new gameplay systems.
This could be a bummer for the newly crowned Formula 1 champion as well, because Norris is also a gamer and a streamer. He has almost 2 million followers on Twitch, and his gaming, esports, and lifestyle brand Quadrant also heavily focuses on F1, sim racing, shooters, and vlogs. Lando is incredibly popular with a younger audience, so having him on the cover of the F1 26 box would have been a huge boon. And this could have possibly been his only chance: the alien that is Max Verstappen could dominate the new regulations again, usurping the championship crown.
F1 isn’t the first big sports sim to take a break from the annual content churn. Sports Interactive cancelled Football Manager 25 to work on this year’s iteration, releasing it with great fanfare, new licenses, and a modernized look. “Mostly Negative” reviews on Steam with a 30% approval tell you just how well it went.
Hopefully, Codemasters does deliver a better game than the studio has been making in the last few years. If the gameplay is different from what we have now, cars from different makes feel distinct, and the driver stats start to mean something, it will already be a success. If EA feels particularly generous and creative to give us the entire F2, F3, and F1 Academy junior series, it would be icing on the cake.
As for Lando, we doubt he’ll be particularly disappointed with this development, as he finally achieved his dream 20 years in the making. Lando Norris is the 35th F1 world champion!
Published: Dec 8, 2025 09:38 pm