Those stolen moments of late-night racing planted the seed for what would become a dream career — not behind the wheel, but behind the official game of the world’s most prestigious racing series.

“I really got into it (F1), despite the late nights,” Prescott told Speedcafe. “I sometimes would be up on the weekends watching the races when I wasn’t working.

“Working on the game now puts such a huge grin on my face, even though I’ve been making games for a really long time.”

Originally from the North Island city of Hamilton, Prescott has spent the past nine years in the UK after carving out a career in the games industry.

Landing a job at Codemasters — long considered the gold standard for motorsport gaming — was a dream move.

Now, as a senior software engineer at the company, which has since been bought by sports gaming behemoth EA Sports, he’s responsible for turning design ideas into actual gameplay: everything from online systems and race data to entirely new game modes.

“I’m the guy who takes the designs from our design team and converts them into tangible things in-game,” Prescott explained.

“For example, I might take the statistics from your race and make sure the correct information is uploaded to the online services, or create new game modes for our players.

“It’s a very varied role.”

His home and office may be more than 18,000km away from where he grew up, but make no mistake — the Kiwi pride runs deep.

Prescott says working on F1 as a New Zealander means more than just contributing to a game. It’s a way to help grow the sport’s presence back home — a country with a proud, if underrepresented, F1 legacy.

“Now that we have a Kiwi in the field again, I feel that F1 is becoming more popular once more,” he said. “In motorsport circles, it’s really popular and the fact that Bruce McLaren was a Kiwi really resonates with me.

“When Brendon Hartley was in a few years back, my interest was heightened even more. With Lawson in now, I’m super stoked to see him fighting for points in the midfield.

“When I play driver career, I always play as Lawson!”

With a new F1 game released annually, Codemasters splits development between two rotating teams — one responsible for odd years, the other for even.

Prescott is part of the “even-year” team (behind F1 24), while F1 25 comes from the “odd-year” crew.

Creative Director Gavin Cooper said the alternating team structure, introduced in 2018, allows for longer development cycles and a more refined game with each release.

“A lot of work has gone into managing that relationship between the two teams, making sure that there are clear lines of communication, areas of responsibility so we can have confidence that both teams are moving in the same direction, towards the same long-term goals,” Cooper told Speedcafe.

“That’s been a really positive area of growth; these days it feels much more like one team with areas of responsibility rather than two teams that previously may have approached things differently.

“Work on F1 25 was already well underway when F1 24 launched.

“It’s always a little bit scary how quickly we go from celebrating the even-year team game to hitting alpha on our edition and transitioning into our close-out phase.”

The biggest headline for F1 25 is the revamped ‘My Team’ mode, which lets players create and manage an 11th F1 team from scratch — including both drivers — in a career that spans the back of the grid to championship glory.

Additions this year include a powerful new decal editor for liveries, and the ability to control both drivers during a season, rather than just a single, custom-created driver as in previous editions.

“The push for My Team 2.0 came largely from our players, who have been begging for an update to the mode for some time now,” Cooper said. “Same for the decal editor, and the improvements to AI and handling.

“We have a very broad player base, and not all of them are active on social media/forums, so these give us really valuable insight into what the players as a whole are doing, as opposed to just specific groups.

“We listen to it all, and will continue to do so as we look to where we go post F1 25.”

Also returning this year is the story mode ‘Braking Point’, along with new content inspired by the upcoming F1: The Movie, starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris.

The collaboration with the film’s production team allowed Codemasters to add playable movie-inspired scenarios — including the fictional Apex Grand Prix team — into F1 25.

“We were lucky enough to be approached to be part of the film long before it was named/announced,” he explained.

“Given that chance, we were excited by the opportunity to create an experience that extended beyond the film, allowing players to recreate these thrilling on-track set-pieces in the context of putting themselves in the driver’s seat.

“The impetus to grab this opportunity with both hands was a bit of a no-brainer; they’re [the filmmakers] on record saying they wanted it to be the most authentic F1 movie ever made, and that premise of authenticity ties so closely to what we care about while developing the game that it just seemed a natural fit.”

While the development team didn’t work directly with the film’s stars, the movie’s production companies at Apple and Warner Bros. provided detailed facial scans and reference materials to accurately recreate the characters in-game.

Elsewhere, authenticity remains a major focus, with five real-world circuits — Bahrain, Suzuka, Melbourne, Imola and Miami — updated using LIDAR scan data collected during actual race weekends.

“These scans are from real Grand Prix weekends, so every detail is exactly how it looked at the time the race took place,” he said.

“At this point, we now have scan data for the entire championship, so we can carry that forward into the future as we look to build upon that momentum.”

As the series evolves with every release, dreams for the future remain front of mind. For Prescott, there’s one feature he hopes might one day become reality.

“My absolute dream feature would be to see every F1 car ever made in-game with realistic pit stops for each car,” he said. “This way, we could see how each car really stacks up against each other on track!”

Until then, he’ll keep doing what he does best: shaping the future of F1 gaming while carrying a little bit of New Zealand with him every time a new edition hits the shelf.