It's been just over a month since the launch of EA Sports F1 24, and we once again had the amazing opportunity of speaking with series Creative Director Lee Mather on the game's new and improved Driver Career. In this year's Formula 1 title from long-time developer Codemasters, the team put a lot of emphasis on the new Driver Career, which now lets you play as one of the real 20 drivers in Formula 1. We also got to speak on possibilities the future may hold, like Classic Cars, along with other updates and improvements.
EA Sports F1 24 Exclusive Interview with Series' Creative Director Lee Mather
We spoke to Lee Mather, Series Creative Director of the EA Sports F1 Franchise, about the new Driver Career in F1 24. This year's F1 title from Codemasters brings a completely revamped Driver Career Mode that offers a ton of new features. The biggest new change comes in the form of letting you play as one of the 20 real drivers in Formula 1. Want to start a career as the defending Champion, Max Verstappen? Or would you rather begin with someone young like Logan Sargeant or Yuki Tsunoda? The choice is all yours.
Of course, there's much more to Driver Career this year, like a new secret meeting system, accolades, and a new Challenge Career Mode. With all of these new features, we knew exactly what we wanted to ask first.
Massimo: What's your favorite new feature in F1 24's New Driver Career?
Lee: “I love the ability to play as one of the F1 drivers. And then just the fact that it connects so nicely to their careers. So you get the accolades that you know you if you want to see Lewis [Hamilton] take his eighth championship, you can you can do that.
If you want to see the younger, upcoming drivers take a title, that's something you can work towards. And then that gave us the opportunity to connect it to the VO (voice-overs) as well. So when you cross the finish line, you actually get to hear that driver's voice. So I think, for me, it's that closer connection to the drivers that I follow.”
Not only does F1 24's Driver Career let you control real drivers, but you'll hear their voices too throughout the race. For example, if you're controlling Lewis Hamilton, and you finish first place at the newly updated Silverstone circuit at the British GP (which he just did in real life), you'll hear him celebrate at the end. It's a nice detail that greatly improves the presentation of the game.
Massimo: What Drivers do you like to play as?
Lee: “I find myself a real Oscar [Piastri] fan. I've really warmed up to Oscar. He's not only a really solid driver, considering he's still only in his second season, but he just seems to have a really great temperament and a really great attitude. I'd really like to see Oscar take that first victory outside of a sprint race. He's very close to a full race win.”
Piastri is indeed a fantastic driver, who just finished 4th at the British GP. McLaren is slowly creeping their way up the 2024 Constructor Standings, currently less than 10 points below Ferrari for 2nd place. While Red Bull still has a solid lead, it seems only Verstappen is helping the team earn points. Sergio Perez is struggling this year so far but still has plenty of time.
However, F1 24 players can still create their own custom driver if they want. But having the option to choose already makes F1 24's Driver Career the best it's ever been. But the improvements to Driver Career aren't just limited to who you play as, but how you play. That's where things like Accolades and secret meetings come into play.
Massimo: How does the team decide on the accolades for different drivers?
Lee: “The way we went about accolades was we always wanted the system to give you short, medium, and long-term goals depending on the driver you're playing as, and also ones that were realistic to that driver so that they'd be achievable. There's no point giving a driver with no championships an accolade with five championships. They need to be realistic.
We looked at all of the different things that a driver would build a reputation for and progress for throughout their career and just created a huge list. And then what we do is we pick the ones that are most relevant to the to each driver so that they always feel like they're something which is attainable by the player, be that short term, medium term or long term.”
In F1 24's new Driver Career, you're fighting for so much more now outside of the circuits. Thanks to the new Accolades system, you essentially have what feels like a new Trophy Room. And throughout your career, you'll be able to look back and see what you accomplished.
But while you look to earn Accolades, keep in mind that the sport of Formula 1 is always changing. So in F1 24's Driver Career, you'll see new seasonal modifiers that will make each year more challenging. These modifiers can range from inflation on car parts or restrictions on others. We wanted to know about the creative process behind selecting these modifiers.
Massimo: What's the process like of creating new seasonal modifiers? Is it based on real changes, or what works best for Gameplay?
Lee: “There was a mix of both. Some of them are obviously very real-world specific, like the financial ones and restrictions that are put in place. But what we were looking to do was to give those players who play beyond season one a way to really change the experience so they could get something different, and also to give them the extra agency to give them the experience that they want from it.
So it may be that you're more concerned with literally taking the car from the back of the grid and bringing it to the front of the grid. In that case, one of those modifiers might not be something you want to use. But if you're racing as Red Bull and you're dominating, you might want to start making your life a little bit more challenging, a little bit more difficult.
We wanted to create ones that were very relatable to the real world, but some of them are a little bit more abstract. But again, it's all about giving the player the way to be able to play the game they want to play.”
The FIA is always adding new rules and regulations to Formula 1. Most changes are often to help protect the drivers and increase overall safety. Then there are times when a new regulation helps prevent teams from cheating or using unapproved parts. In general, all regulations are made to improve the sport every year. It's cool to see the different ideas being used in Codemasters' game.
But perhaps the coolest new feature in Driver Career is secret meetings. Are you sick of racing for Aston Martin, and want to race for Ferrari? If you're worthy, you may receive the opportunity to meet with a new team throughout the season. These secret meetings help decide where you want to race next, but there's a huge risk involved.
Should meetings go on for too long, your current team could find out. This could result in losing favor with your current team. Additionally, the new team who's been working to get you might pull their offer. Regardless, secret meetings add a whole new layer of drama and excitement.
Massimo: Where did the idea of secret meetings come from? Did you work with real drivers as you built this feature?
Lee: “Secret meetings came about through a couple of things. Initially, we had contracts in previous games. We have a system where drivers could move midseason, and you couldn't commit to the long term. And we thought – that's not exactly how it works in the sport. So we wanted to do something that was a little bit more reactive.
Now you interact with the system over the course of the season, and you don't just make a decision, and then fire and forget. You actually have to go into those negotiation phases throughout the course of the season.
And something is always intriguing in the sport. I mean, it came up at the [Austrian GP]. [Kimi Antonelli] goes and has a coffee with Toto [Wolff] and instantly fires up those conversations. There's always rumors that he's likely to get a drive at some point. It's those sorts of rumors that we wanted to be able to recreate in the game so that there was a sliver of risk attached to the player actually opening a conversation with another team boss – because that's exactly what we see in the sport.
We see through the social media that comes out after the race weekend. We see it through the media through the weekend. They'll often say, – ‘Oh, you know X driver was seen sat down discussing who knows what, with a team boss' – and we thought that would be a really cool concept to include in the game.”
Teams will do anything to improve their performance. To some, it means improving the vehicle and bringing in great engineers and staff members. To others, it means developing or outright getting the driver who will be a difference maker. We've already seen Ferrari do the latter with Lewis Hamilton set to join the team next year.
Massimo: How has the feedback been for the new Driver Career from the drivers themselves?
Lee: “To be honest, we haven't had the opportunity to catch up with anybody since the game launched. It's been it's been a bit of a whirlwind. I think that the last driver that had time to actually spend some time with was Liam Lawson.
Liam had the opportunity to play the game. So he was able to give some feedback. And we sat there and he set some lap times for us for the pro challenges. So that was really cool.
For some of the teams, I've got some calls lined up for the coming weeks to start getting their feedback. It's really just about finding that window. They're in the middle of a triple header, and we launched just about a month ago. So it's finding that window of opportunity for everybody to get their thoughts together and have the time to process it. I'm looking forward to hearing what the teams have to say in the coming months.”
The Formula 1 Season is entering a critical state, especially in terms of the Constructor's Standings. Red Bull Still has the lead but Ferrari and McLaren aren't too far behind. Furthermore, F1 24 just released at the end of May, so there hasn't been too much time to catch up with the drivers. But Codemasters often work with the pros when making their game to deliver a fun experience. There's no doubt they'll be back in touch soon for more F1 24 content and beyond.
And speaking of time, some players enjoy the gameplay of F1 24's Driver Career but don't have the time to engage in a full session. That's where Challenge Career comes in. These bite-sized challenges that change throughout the season. Codemasters is always looking for ways to connect their game with the real drivers and sport. That's where Challenge Career fits in.
Massimo: How did the team come up with the idea of Challenge Career? And what's the process like of creating one for each driver?
Lee: “When we started creating the driver career, we had two other big considerations in mind. One was how that works with two two-player driver career. And the second one was how do we make it something which has a connection between the players who are playing it. We felt that it was something that you couldn't really relate to people's live driver careers too, because the variables are so vast.
So the concept was we could create a curated shorter gameplay loop in driver career using what we've got available to us. The accolades, the modifiers, the R&D, the finances, the driver market, the contracts – all of those things – are a great opportunity for us to create a very curated mode that everybody experiences in the same way.
You actually feel like you're playing against or with other people, even though you're playing their career mode that you know and love. But you get the opportunity to feel like you're part of a broader community as well, and see how other players are performing and progressing.”
Challenge Career is a multi-week seasonal challenge that pits the F1 24 Community against each other. Each Challenge Career comes with different episodes for players to complete. And when you're finished, you can check out the leaderboard and see how you fared against others. These challenges also provide different rewards, such as customization items and more.
The cool thing is that some future Challenge Careers will be decided by player voting. Others can be influenced by the driver's performances themselves. For example, Monaco GP winner Charles Leclerc's Challenge Career was released just days after his victory.
Speaking of Drivers, it's very obvious that F1 24's focus this year was on the Drivers themselves. Between playing as one of the 20 and new challenge careers, F1 24 celebrates those behind the wheel who race for glory. Additionally, F1 24 also lets you drive as many historic drivers. While there are obvious additions like Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna, we wanted to know about the team's decisions behind some of the lesser-known icons.
Massimo: How do you decide on which historic drivers make the game's roster?
Lee: “There's the very obvious ones who stand out as absolute legends of the sport that everybody always comes out with first. Then there's those that have been entertaining throughout the years, and they've got a really strong following. They've created interesting stories throughout their career, as those who are known for their charisma and general engagement with the fans.
We don't just look at the performance of the drivers, we look at their impact as well. Also, [we look at] what they bring to the game in terms of – Are they a good spread? Have we got somebody who's incredibly dominant? And do we have somebody who was maybe successful in a smaller window?
We've got icons who took multiple titles, and then we've got icons who didn't take a title but had race wins. And there are fan favorites. So we wanted to cover multiple bases there with the icons. There's always discussion around who's favorites and who wants to pick which icon. But I think we've got a pretty good spread there. I think the team is pretty good at picking out who they think would be be ideal.”
I took the time to ask about a potential return of classic cars, which has appeared in the series before.
Massimo: I love playing as historic drivers in Driver Career. Is there any chance we might see classic cars make a return to the series, too?
Lee: ‘It's always a consideration. We had classics in the series twice. I think it's one of those that if we bring them back at some point, we want to bring them back in a different, unique, and exciting way. We don't want to tread over old ground. So always a possibility. It's always something that we do we do we are discussing.”
It's nice to hear that the team wants to bring them back, but they don't want to just re-release old features with nothing unique to them. Personally, I would love to see some of the classic designs make a return, even if just cosmetically. But I also know that Codemasters already has a lot of other things to focus on. Over the years, we've seen a few major additions to their recent Formula 1 games:
- New Driver Career
- My Team
- Braking Point (Not in F1 24)
- Challenge Career
- Fanzone
And then there's the number of gameplay improvements each year to make the game feel more authentic. So while I would like to see Classic Cars return, I also know that Codemasters has also been working hard at making some cool modes and features over the years. Additionally, they always plan things out ahead in terms of development.
So who knows? Maybe Classic Cars are coming back sooner than we think. Or perhaps after some time, they'll return in glorious fashion.
Massimo: Do all the new improvements and features this year give you and the team more ideas to implement in the future?
Lee: “Yeah, we take a look at all of the data, how people play the game, and we obviously review all the feedback and reviews. We work a couple of years ahead so we've always got a long-term plan as to what we want to do next.
Anything that we could take on board and fit into the next development we will, and then everything else goes into a very large repository of ideas and things to consider that we we triage on a regular basis. Then we share across the dev team to see which games, which ideas fit best.”
Massimo: Does the team plan to make any updates to Driver Career in F1 24?
Lee: “We'll continue to support the game. You've seen the number of updates we've already had, and we've got more updates to come. We will have driver status updates later into the year. And we will look at the roster of the team's performance, and decide whether we need to rebalance team performance based on what's happening in the season.
And of course, we'll have new challenge careers to do, and more of the content that we bring into F1 World as well. We'll be adding in some new customization items that people will be able to unlock through the unique challenges as part of F1 world. So we're going to continue to build so players will be able to play and unlock new cool content.”
Fanzone & Celebrating The Drivers of Formula 1
Although our interview was mostly about Driver Career, Mr. Mather was more than generous enough to stick around a bit longer and discuss Fanzone.
Fanzone is a new mode in F1 24 that lets players create rooms, celebrating their favorite drivers and teams. Other players can join your room to build your own club. The cool thing is that the progress you make in F1 World helps your Club earn points and climb the leaderboard. The top-ranked teams earn some free in-game content.
The nice thing too is that the mode has a pretty balanced point system. Therefore, the most popular teams won't just dominate all the time. If you and your Club put in the work, you can potentially reap the rewards.
“We added in the Fanzone feature as part of F1 World,” Lee said, “It's really interesting to see the picks that people are making there. It's not always a case of picking the same team and driver for that team. It's sometimes a real mix. And as you can imagine, there's quite a lot of people who are picking Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton as their pick. So I think interesting to see the preference of the fans and how that's playing out as part of the fan picks.”
Massimo: “That is really cool. Even though I'm a Ferrari fan, I like supporting Daniel Ricardo.”
Lee: “That's the cool thing about it and one of the reasons we implemented FanZone. You don't necessarily have to be a fan of a team or a driver together. You can be a fan of them completely separately. I think for my pick, I think I chose Oscar as my driver. But I chose Williams as my team.”
Overall, that wraps up our exclusive F1 24 interview with Creative Director Lee Mather. We're grateful to Mr. Mather, and to everyone who helped in making this possible. I said this during our last interview, and I'll say it again: the future of this series is in good hands. Codemasters has a decorated history of producing some amazing racing titles. And there's no doubt they'll continue to do so.
If you're thinking about picking up F1 24, check out some of our guides on Driver Career and My Team. Of course, if you'd like to learn more about the game, check out our review. If you'd like to learn more about the history of the series, check out our previous interview with Mr. Mather.
F1 24 is available for Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam, EA, and Epic Games Store.
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