Best F1 Games 2026: What to Play While There Is No F1 26

The best F1 games in 2026 are the ones you can play alongside a real race weekend, because EA Sports has confirmed there is no F1 26. The studio is selling a paid 2026 season expansion for F1 25 instead and says the next full game arrives in 2027, according to Video Games Chronicle. So the question is not which new title to buy. It is what to play while you wait, and the honest answer is a small stack of games rather than one.

What are the best F1 games in 2026?

Short version: F1 25 with the 2026 season pack for driving, a prediction or fantasy game for the weekend itself, and a browser replay tool for the races you want to take apart. No single title does all three, and that is the argument of this piece. You are welcome to disagree with it.

Is there an F1 26 game?

No. In November 2025 EA said 2026 would get an expansion for F1 25 and not a new release. The 2027 game, it said, would be "reimagined into a more expansive experience". At that point neither price nor release date for the expansion had been announced (Video Games Chronicle, 18 November 2025).

PlanetF1 reported in May 2026 that the season pack adds Audi and Cadillac, plus the new Madring circuit that hosts the Spanish Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Gabriel Bortoleto as cover stars. It described a summer release. Check the store for the current price and availability before you spend anything, because we have not verified either.

Which kind of F1 game fits you?

You want to drive. F1 25 plus the 2026 pack is the only licensed route to the new cars and the new grid. It is the one genre where you can lose six seconds at Turn 1 and blame the setup, which is both its charm and its therapy.

You want to run a team. Frontier's F1 Manager series has been reported as ended by several outlets, including Racing Games, so we would not plan a season around a sequel. If you own an earlier edition, it still plays; it just will not know about 2026.

You want to be right about the weekend. This is the cheapest and, in our view, the most underrated category. Prediction and fantasy games turn a race you were going to watch anyway into a small argument with yourself. You call the pole, the winner, the fastest lap, and the session tells you in a few hours whether you read it properly. Our F1 fantasy guide covers the official game's rules, and the standings page is where the season-long argument lives.

You want to understand a race you already watched. A 3D replay lets you move the camera instead of waiting for the director to find the fight. GridRaces keeps one at /3d, and we explain how to use it in our F1 3D simulation guide.

What is the best F1 game for a race weekend?

Our pick, and it is a position rather than a fact: for a race weekend, a prediction game beats a driving game. A driving game asks for an evening and a wheel. A prediction game asks for ninety seconds before qualifying and then makes every lap matter a little more. Neither replaces the other. They answer different questions: "can I do this?" against "do I understand this?".

If you only have room for one habit this season, make it the second one. The data side helps: the telemetry page shows the pace and stint numbers that decide most of the questions you will be asked.

How to build your own F1 game stack for 2026

1. Pick one driving title and ignore the rest. F1 25 with the 2026 pack is the licensed one.
2. Add one weekend game. Make your picks before the session locks, not during it.
3. Add one replay tool. Rewatch a single decision, such as a pit call, from a camera the broadcast never used.
4. Review once a month. Which of your calls were skill and which were luck?

That fourth step is the one most people skip, and it is where the learning happens.

What changes in 2027?

EA has promised a reimagined full game for 2027 and given no detail beyond that. Until it exists, treat any list of "best F1 games" with a date on it as a snapshot. This one is a snapshot of October 2026.

Want the weekend game without the wheel? Create a free GridRaces account and make your first picks with virtual Energy. No real money is involved, and nothing is bought.