by 2026 has been a weird year for F1, as the teams and fans grapple with controversial technical regulations that require a new start procedure, complicated electrical energy management and movable front and rear wings - alongside the debut of a new team, Cadillac, and a new track, the Madring. It's a whole lot to fit into a new F1 game, and so EA told us last year that it was cancelling F1 26 in favour of a paid expansion pack that brought those changes into the existing F1 25 game. Now, two weeks ahead of launch, a new trailer for the 2026 Season Pack has appeared - but key questions remain unanswered as to how this will all work.
First, the fairly obvious stuff. The 2026 update will include the full driver lineups for this year, with Kick Sauber becoming the Audi works team and Cadillac joining the grid as the 11th team with Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas. Isack Hadjar joins Red Bull from Racing Bulls, with Arvid Lindblad replacing him as the only rookie this year. Presumably, the cars' stats will also match their current form this season, with Aston Martin suffering a huge loss of pace in these regulations while Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari sit at the top of the pecking order.
The more interesting news is that the new Madring track, which is still under construction and has only recently seen its first laps driven by Williams racer and Spaniard Carlos Sainz, will feature in the game. Las Vegas was added to F1 23 under similar circumstances, but it'll be fascinating to see how the game and real-life versions compare.
Where there's relatively little detail is in how the new regulations are being implemented in the game - though tiny text in the trailer reveals "some final car models will release in a post-launch update". A press release promises more responsive "lighter, smaller cars with active aerodynamics", the new overtake mode which dumps all available electric energy, and new assists (presumably to automate all of these new systems if you don't want to deal with them while entering a corner at 180mph). A new F2 season is also mentioned.
That certainly sounds like everything is present and correct, but without any real video proof we'll have to wait and see. There is a "deep dive" scheduled for 26th May that should hopefully answer some of those questions. In the meantime, we do have remarks from Ferrari driver, seven-time world champion and EA Sports ambassador Lewis Hamilton:
"This year, we've entered a new era in Formula 1, with new regulations which have changed so much about the sport. The EA Sports team has done a great job bringing these changes to life in the F1 25: 2026 Season Pack, from the cars and power units to the new tracks like Madring."
Hopefully, for the sake of Aston Martin fans, the game won't include the persistent Honda power unit pulsation that have beset the team's early outings and made the car nigh-undriveable in the first few Grands Prix - though the suggestion that it be tied to controller vibration from /u/FrostWPG on Reddit is the funniest thing I've read all week.
The Season Pack will be released on 3rd June for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC, and will cost either $25/£22 as an expansion pack or $50/£45 bundled with the F1 25 base game.