F1 26: When is the Release?

After an exciting drivers' world championship in 2025, many players are wondering when the new F1 26 will finally be released. In this post, you can find out when you can expect Codemasters F1 26 to be released.

Cover image: Screenshot F1 25 (Codemasters)

Since the official game for the current Formula 1 season has always been released at the end of May in the last two years, a release is also expected in this period in 2026.

Release Dates for the F1 Game

Title	Release date
F1 25	May 30, 2025
F1 24	May 31, 2024
F1 23	June 16, 2023
F1 22	July 1, 2022
F1 2021	July 13, 2021
F1 2020	July 5, 2020
F1 2019	June 24, 2019
F1 2018	August 23, 2018
F1 2017	August 25, 2017

The New Game will "only" be DLC.

Unlike in previous years, F1 26 will not be released as a standalone game. EA has announced that this year's iteration will be released as paid DLC. The DLC includes updates for the new cars, rules, teams, and drivers.

After the continuation of the collaboration between EA and Codemasters was initially uncertain and tied to sales figures, this issue seems to have been resolved:

"We are fully committed to the EA SPORTS F1 series. Our multi-year plan builds on the excitement of this year and extends it through 2026. For 2027, we are reinventing the F1 experience to deliver even more to players around the world."

- Lee Mather, Senior Creative Director at Codemasters

This means players can expect a comprehensive experience for F1 27, as this title has received significantly more development time.

Two New Teams: Audi and Cadillac

Two new teams welcome players to F1 26: Audi takes over from Kick Sauber, while Cadillac joins as the eleventh, brand-new US team. This increases the number of cars on the track from 20 to 22.

You can find a high-end steering wheel from Logitech for your F1 gameplay in this review.

We have already tested various steering wheels that are perfect for use in the F1 game.

Which Graphics Card?

If you want to know which graphics card you can use to play, you can check out the relevant hardware recommendations in our blog post about graphics cards in the F1 game 2025.

You can test how good your current graphics card is with GFXBench. On the GFXBench website, you can then compare it with the graphics cards we recommend to get a first impression of whether the game F1 25 could run smoothly on your system.

You can already warm up for the new season by getting the latest F1 game from 2025 for your platform: