Winning races in F1 25 is not just about raw speed but also about knowing when to pit which tyres to trust and how to manage your fuel from start to finish.
Not planning ahead means getting stuck on worn tires or fighting for grip halfway through.
Learn how to prepare your race strategy, respond in the heat of battle, and make key decisions about tyres, fuel, and pit timing in this guide.
How To Choose The Right Tyre in F1 25?
Since F1 rules require drivers to use at least two different dry compounds in a race, you’ll need to plan your stints around that.
Tyres are the backbone of your race strategy, and you usually choose from soft (red), medium (yellow), or hard (white) compounds, each one offering a trade-off between grip and durability.
Soft tires deliver top speed but wear down fast, which makes them risky for long runs. Mediums are well-rounded and usually the preferred option for flexible plans.
Hards are built to last but sacrifice pace — they’re slower per lap but can stretch further if you’re trying to minimize stops. Using medium and hard tyres in one stop works well on most circuits to stay competitive and hold your place.
But on tracks where tyres wear out quickly or when pushing for faster laps, doing two stops with softer tyres could be a smarter move. It all depends on the track, your pace, and how aggressively you’re pushing.
You can preview tyre wear and expected stint lengths in the race strategy screen before the event. These are shown visually with colored bars and a dotted line tracking how lap times will change as tyres wear.
When your tires wear down to about 65–75%, your grip falls off fast, and your lap times take a hit — so plan to pit right before that. This is key to avoiding unnecessary time loss or a lock-up that ruins your race.
What’s the Smartest Pit Strategy?
Every pit stop costs about 20 to 25 seconds, meaning an extra stop over your competitors can ruin your race strategy.
This is why the right timing and number of stops matter just as much as going fast. Before each race, you get to pick from two starting strategies in F1 25: the default or an alternate one.
The default tends to be faster in theory, but the alternate often balances tyre life, race duration, and your grid placement. The good news is you’re not locked into either one.
You can fully customize your pit strategy: choose which tyres you’ll start on, when you’ll pit, how many stops you want to make, and which compound you’ll switch to after each stop.
If the race conditions alter or you catch a break, use B (Xbox), Circle (PlayStation), or Numpad 0 (keyboard) held down to open the pit strategy options.
This opens the live pit window, where you can adjust your next stop or call your race engineer to suggest a different compound altogether. It’s an easy way to adjust your plan quickly, especially when a safety car throws a curveball.
How Much Fuel Should You Start With?
The safest bet is to add an extra lap of fuel on top of your estimated requirement.
You get room to really push without needing to lift off and coast as you finish. Keep in mind that how much fuel you carry changes your car’s handling and pace, particularly during the first laps. Fuel strategy is a bit more laid-back than tyre work in F1 25, but it still counts.
Without refuelling during the race, you have to fill up enough at the beginning to cover the entire distance. If you start with too little, you might run dry before the last lap; too much fuel adds weight and slows you down early on.
The more weight you add, the less responsive the car becomes. It’s a trade-off between early speed and long-term safety. You can adjust fuel load in the race strategy screen before the Grand Prix. Once practice is done, F1 25 calculates fuel needs based on how hard you push the car.
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