EA has confirmed the first details for F1 25’s 2026 Season Pack update will be made available this Wednesday, May 20. The reveal trailer for the upcoming DLC will be released at 4pm UK time, May 20 (11am EDT/8am PDT, and 1am AEST on May 21).
For the time being, EA has revealed the “cover” athletes for the update: seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, former F3 and F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto, and veteran driver Valtteri Bottas, winner of 10 F1 Grands Prix and current owner of the greatest F1 moustache this side of Nigel Mansell.
The presence of Bortoleto and Bottas would be no accident, since they represent the two new teams on the 2026 grid: Audi and Cadillac.
EA confirmed in late 2025 that there would be no standalone F1 game released alongside the real-life 2026 season, revealing that the 2026 Formula One World Championship would be coming as a paid expansion for the existing F1 25 instead.
The content update is set to reflect all the sport’s 2026 changes, with new cars, new drivers, and the new regulations. How the new cars are handled within the 2026 season DLC will be interesting considering how critical many current F1 drivers have been of their new characteristics. Two-time F1 champ Fernando Alonso has dubbed modern F1 a “battery world championship”, 2025 champ Lando Norris has lamented F1 has gone from “the best cars ever made in Formula 1 and the nicest to drive to probably the worst”, and four-time champ Max Verstappen has quipped that he’s swapped the simulator for his Nintendo Switch, joking that he’s now practicing with Mario Kart instead.
The next full game in the series is planned for 2027, and will be “reimagined into a more expansive experience with new ways to play for fans around the world.”
IGN’s F1 25 review noted there remain “several areas where it hovers frustratingly short of its full potential,” including its fascination with clothing and emotes over classic F1 cars and content – but that it’s “comfortably the strongest the series has been since the fan favourite F1 2020.”
Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.
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