F1 24 Will Still Use The Old EGO Engine, According to Leak

Despite the launch being less than two months away, there are still many unanswered questions surrounding F1 24.

After EA Sports WRC ditched Codemasters’ in-house EGO engine in favour of Unreal Engine 4 last year, fans are wondering if F1 24 will get a long overdue engine upgrade. However, a new leak suggests that F1 24 won't benefit from a new engine.

Same old engine

Shared by a leaker on X, formerly Twitter, an off-screen photo from a work-in-progress build appears to show F1 24’s initial loading screen on a monitor. Codemasters’ EGO engine logo can be seen at the bottom alongside other company logos. Players are starting to receive invites for the F1 24 closed beta starting tomorrow, so the leak may have come from the beta's start screen.

This seemingly confirms that F1 24 will still be powered by Codemasters’ old EGO engine rather than Unreal Engine like EA Sports WRC.

This means F1 24 will seemingly use the same engine that’s powered every game in the series since F1 2015, although it may get some minor updates. Codemasters’ EGO engine was first used in the original Colin McRae DIRT game back in 2007 when it was known as Neon.

A modified version was renamed to EGO for the original GRID game in 2008. Since then, EGO has underpinned every F1 game since Codemasters acquired the license in 2009 and hasn't had any major upgrades since F1 2015 aside from incremental updates.

While EA Sports WRC was plagued with performance issues at launch, switching to Unreal Engine allowed Codemasters to build noticeably larger rally stages than DIRT Rally 2.0’s. EA Sports WRC was also Codemasters’ first current-gen-only game.

Conversely, F1 24 will be released on PS4 and Xbox One as well as PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Although the PS4 and Xbox One can run Unreal Engine 4, it's notoriously difficult to optimise for the older consoles as the initial console release of Asseto Corsa Competizione has shown.

Factoring F1 24 being released on the old consoles and EA Sports WRC's performance issues, sticking with the reliable EGO engine will ensure the game runs as smoothly as possible on all platforms. However, this means that F1 24 may look outdated. Switching to a new engine would allow Codemasters to fully utilise the power of current hardware. 

F1 24 reveal coming soon

We’re only a few weeks away from F1 24’s full reveal, so we should get clarification about the game engine soon. After announcing the game in February, Codemasters will lift the covers off F1 24 sometime in April, but a reveal date has yet to be confirmed.

F1 24 will boast an “overhauled” career mode and “more authentic” handling, but other details are being kept under wraps until the full reveal. With Codemasters seemingly sticking with its tried and tested EGO engine, it looks like fans will have to wait until F1 25 for the series to get a significant visual upgrade.

F1 24 races onto PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC on May 31. Players who preorder the Champions Edition will get three days early access from May 28.

Were you hoping for an engine upgrade in F1 24? Let us know in the comments below.  

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get the latest racing game news and deals straight to your inbox!