EA Sports F1 senior creative director talks about career mode & co-op

When F1 24 was released at the end of May 2024, we considered it a solid upgrade and a worthy look for fans of the series in our review. We particularly enjoyed the additions to the career mode and immersion in the latest release. We've now had an opportunity to ask Lee Mather, the senior creative director for the F1 series at EA Sports, some questions about F1 24.

Shacknews: The new career mode options have been widely applauded. What was the inspiration behind allowing players to take control of real-life drivers and influence their career?

Mather: We were inspired by the new generation of Formula 1 fans alongside the fandom they show for the current F1 drivers. We wanted to give players the opportunity to race as their heroes and to build upon their legacy and accolades. We also saw this as a great way to connect many of the exciting new and engaging features of the new Driver Career even closer to the stars of the sport.

Shacknews: It would be fun to build a team from scratch, with sponsors and contracts, similar to the solo career mode, but alongside a friend. Are there future plans to allow players to enter a two-player co-op career using a custom team?

Mather: We saw the new Driver Career as a great opportunity to recreate our two-player Career experience. It’s a very popular mode that gives players the chance to experience the new Driver Career alongside or against a friend. At the moment fully custom player teams form the core experience of My Team mode where the player can enter their own team as the 11th team on the grid.

Shacknews: You frequently update the game to include special liveries for cars as they are being unveiled throughout the Formula 1 season. Are there any thoughts on allowing players to race with those liveries on-demand, regardless of where we are in the season?

Mather: Our players are always very excited when real-sports liveries are included in the game and we are continuously exploring ways to incorporate more of them.

Shacknews: The physics and handling update in F1 24 has received a lot of attention this year. What are some of the biggest challenges when it comes to emulating a realistic feeling, while also supporting a wide range of user hardware, from controllers to full-fledged sim cockpits?

Mather: Scalability is the key to us being able to support players of all skill and input types. We build the handling to be approachable and relatable on a wheel at its core. We want to create a model which delivers on the expected performance of the teams as well as the lap times fans see in the real world. From there we are able to layer on assists to help players of varying skill levels alongside filters to allow a player using a controller to compete with a player on a full sim rig.

Shacknews: Currently, the only way to adjust AI driver skill is at an overall level. Have you considered providing more granular difficulty settings related to AI drivers, perhaps by driver or by a set of parameters, such as likelihood of crashing, over or understeering, etc?

Mather: All of our AI drivers have unique statistics which impact their performance and their character on track. We adjust the driver stats over the course of the season based on their real world performance. While exposing several key stats as part of the gameplay, the drivers are made up of far more parameters. As we’re representing real drivers, we believe it’s important to recreate them authentically in-game.

Shacknews: The new challenge career mode provides bite-sized competition with other drivers while still being fully in control of one's results. Do you foresee expanding this into co-op or two-player career modes in the future, by incorporating a condensed season of some kind?

Mather: That’s an interesting concept. As we begin to understand how players are enjoying two-player and Challenge Career it’s something for us to keep in mind.

We'll be keeping an eye on future developments in the F1 series by EA Sports and hope to see some of our desired additions make their way into upcoming titles. You can stay updated on any news in the F1 series right here at Shacknews.

Jan Ole Peek

Contributing Editor

Jan has been playing video games for nearly 30 years and been a passionate geek for the better part of his life. His current gaming schedule is dominating by simulations of all kinds, ranging from flight simulation, to racing, farming, and anything else that lets him live out fantasies without having to get up from his chair.