F1 Manager 24’s challenging realism takes race day strategy to the next level

F1 Manager 2024, Frontier’s latest racing management sim, prioritizes authenticity, offering an experience that’s both incredibly realistic and deeply engaging for Formula 1 enthusiasts.

For any management simulator, the core loop revolves around how efficiently you handle all your resources and the decisions that you make as events unfold, which is where this title has excelled.

Despite being new to management games, my love for F1, coupled with countless hours of racing titles, meant I relished every challenge offered by this preview build of F1 Manager 24.

Create a Team

I spent most of my time tinkering with the new Create a Team feature. This is the first time F1 Manager has included a feature like this and it’s extremely detailed. 

In this mode, you start your team from scratch and compete against the 10 already established teams that you regularly see on the grid. 

From choosing the amount of funds and the quality of resources at your disposal to the selection of your drivers, the decisions that you make here will heavily influence your performance throughout the season. 

Being able to start a team from scratch and pursue a championship felt very refreshing because it was a completely fresh experience and forced me to think about more than just the action on the track.

Since I didn’t know what to expect from the game, I chose two AI-generated drivers and paired them up with two well-established race engineers which is where I was first introduced to the Mentality System. 

Mentality System

The Mentality System will affect how your crew performs on track and while negotiating their contract with you. Since I had chosen two AI-generated drivers with no experience, my race engineers didn’t have a high Mentality score because they didn’t have faith in the drivers, which affected the car setup and their performance during the race weekends. 

The driver and team morale are important factors that I had to account for, and keeping everyone motivated constantly was a welcome challenge. The Mentality System is well-designed and adds a layer of unpredictability to the game, without which the game would feel rather bland.

There’s also an elaborate Sponsorship management system where you pick the sponsor and the optional objectives based on how much money you need. Once you’ve completed all this, you’ll be on your way to your first race weekend in Bahrain. 

Race weekends

The race weekend segment is exactly what it used to be in the previous game but with more features. I spent a lot of time adjusting the performance setup of both cars before they hit the track for the practice runs. 

During races, I got to experience F1 Manager 24’s new mechanical failure feature. Apart from the tire wear and fuel consumption, you also have to monitor the ERS, gearbox, and engine. The constant threat of mechanical failures and constant part wear made every race more realistic and unpredictable. 

During my very first race, one of my cars ended up experiencing mechanical faults because I had been pushing it too hard during the practice and qualifying sessions. As a result, not only did my car struggle to get the desired position but I couldn’t finish the race because it ran out of fuel in the last lap. 

Apart from the mechanics, the game also features multiple cameras including the heli-cam which made me feel as if I had the front-row seats at a real race. You get a lot of control over every single aspect of your team, which makes it all the more rewarding when you achieve a podium finish.

Affiliate drivers

Adding to the overall experience is the affiliate driver system where you can add some upcoming drivers to your team. These drivers are ideally a part of the F2 and F3 divisions but they’ll be able to drive for you during the practice runs. 

If you’re playing the career mode you’ll have an existing roster of affiliate drivers, but in the Create a Team mode, you’ll be able to scout them as your team grows and achieves popularity. 

Although most might feel that curating a set of affiliate drivers is very inconsequential, it adds to the sense of accomplishment you feel when you see them get called to the main team and finally make their way to the podium.

Overall, Frontier’s F1 Manager 24 provides a solid experience that both beginners and management sim fans will enjoy. Its focus on realism compelled me to come up with different strategies on the fly, leading to some intense and satisfying moments.

Every decision I made, from choosing the sponsors to how much I wanted to push my drivers during a race had a major impact on the races, which beautifully recreated the highs and lows of motorsport.

While the depth of detail might be overwhelming for some newcomers, it provides a rewarding challenge for those who want to truly feel the pressure of managing a top F1 team. After just a small taste, I can’t wait to return to it on its July 23, 2024, launch to try out some more strategies and chase down the title.