F1 Manager 2024 Renews And Revitalizes Management Titles

F1M24 Image 7.jpg
Mercedes simulated pitstop. Images: Frontier Developments
F1 Manager 24 is finally here. This year's game expands greatly upon the 2023 offering, so here are our top five new additions to the title that allow it to punch above its weight in the manager game category.

F1 Manager 2024 turns F1 fantasy into reality for fans with new modes, customization and AI improvements. With the new Create A Team mode, players can experiment and create detailed logos and liveries using the built-in creation tools. Not only that, but players can write their team's own origin story to live out their destiny and set the starting parameters of their career.

Taking your team to the top will require careful management of both talent and resources, from negotiating sponsorships and driver contract poaching to maintaining your staff's mentality. F1 Manager 2024 has come out firing and it has shown the progress made from last year's game already.

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Race weekends place simulation and strategy at the forefront for new team managers. Players need to react to each event as it happens; from a sudden downpour of rain and a late safety car to the managed risk of the newly implemented mechanical failures.

Team Principals have to weigh the risks and rewards of each decision they make. Simply instructing the drivers to deliver the best possible results won't cut it. Players can now also immerse themselves in a broadcast-like setting using the new Heli-cam. This allows the player to strategise from the skies or put themselves in the thick of the action.

An impressive 70,000 lines of real team radio are on offer, making sure the F1 Manager 2024 doesn't get repetitive in common scenarios like pitstops and accidents. This new bolster of team radio brings the sport to life like never before. Before you rush to try F1 Manager 2024, here are five new features and bonues to look forward to.

Red Bull.jpg


5. Mechanical Failures​

It is hard to believe that a game based around managing motorsport has never had mechanical breakdown implemented before. That changes this year with F1 Manager 2024. Additions like these are essential for keeping new and experienced players on their toes.

With the addition of mechanical failures comes an element of risk. Do you give that engine one more race? Or is the championship too close to risk a retirement? You could still lose the race even if you are out front and clear of the field if your engine decides it wants to go bang; a worry avoided in previous iterations of F1 Manager.

Merc I1.jpg


4. F1 Manager 2024's Price​

In a world of AAA games costing more and more each year, F1 Manager 2024 is a light in the darkness; especially for those of us who don't want to spend a small fortune on a game. The price currently sits at €32.99, £29.99 and $34.99 for the standard edition.

There was no DLC released for F1 Manager 2023 outside of an optional upgrade package to gain access to the deluxe edition content for base game users. If that trend continues, the purchase price is the final figure you will have to pay to get access to all of F1 Manager 2024. A rare feature in 2024.

3. Helicam and Detailed Live Cameras​

The last few versions of the F1 Manager game have had very restrictive and rather uncreative camera angles. This year's game changes that with a fantastically implemented Dynamic Helicopter viewing angle. For the first time, the cars will be available to be viewed in detail for the entirety of a race weekend.

Helicam.jpg

Helicopter camera in action, showing the detail of this Red Bull and Aston Martin battle.

Whilst the far zoomed-out map with little dots representing the cars was, and still is, a great way to plan your race strategy, this new helicopter camera is a game changer. It gives fans of the title a new way to experience how their management decisions affect the race.

2. Mentality Management​

The new mentality system adds an entirely new level of management to F1 Manager 2024. The issue that previous titles have had is that the actual management side of the game was somewhat lacklustre in terms of content.

Mentality.jpg

The newly implemented mentality screen for team members and drivers

Thankfully, for 2024 the developers have added an entirely new aspect to management where you have to carefully control the mentality of your drivers and team members as a whole. This addition fills a hole that was impacting F1 Manager games of the past moving up the ladder of management games.

1. Create a Team​

The brand new 'Create a Team' mode is by far and away the most requested addition following on from F1 Manager 2023. This new mode allows you to build and form a team from the ground upwards. Everything from driver choice, engine manufacturer and even the teams origin story.

MyTeam.jpg

The brand-new Create a Team mode main menu

When you are in control of your very own Formula One team, you can pick who you want to fill your cars. If you can afford them of course. you can pick from the range of officially licensed Formula One, Two and Three grids from the 2024 season.

The debut of the livery editor gives players the creative freedom to design and lead their team in the direction they want whilst looking how they want to. It isn't just the liveries that are changeable. The suit and helmet are also fully customizable. This feature strengthens the new 'Create a Team' mode even more.

Livery's.jpg

F1 Manager 2024's exciting new livery editor.

The F1 Manager series has always been a step behind other management series like the Football Manager games. But with the 2024 iteration, F1 Manager 2024 is looking like it has firmly placed itself back near the top, much to the delight of racing fans around the world.

Will you be giving F1 Manager 24 a go with all of these exciting new features? Let us know on X @OverTake_gg or down in the comments below!
About author
Connor Minniss
Website Content Editor & Motorsport Photographer aiming to bring you the best of the best within the world of sim racing.

Comments

So is it still effectively a very good one season mangment sim? Or are there rule changes, engine changes, , design changing, track changes, even new teams or name changes? Some of those were in Grand Prix Manager. I’m assuming not due to the license.

What about team orders and disgruntled drivers, the max lines must be full of expletives!
 
Reasonably priced, indeed. I may give it a shot, but I'll wait to read many reviews first.

The "mentality management" feature is interesting. I'm guessing that the hardest level of difficulty for that feature is managing the Red Bull team. :D

It’s not in the game but there is a cheat code where you can get around the cost cap and harassment allegations
 
Club Staff
Premium
So is it still effectively a very good one season mangment sim? Or are there rule changes, engine changes, , design changing, track changes, even new teams or name changes? Some of those were in Grand Prix Manager. I’m assuming not due to the license.

What about team orders and disgruntled drivers, the max lines must be full of expletives!

There's rule-changes in the sense that there's a supposed change in downforce-levels etc, and you need to do research to mitigate the loss and so on.
Track changes, new teams, engines etc. etc. etc. is not a thing. Negotiation with suppliers, sponsors etc. is not a thing.
Negotiations with drivers is currently broken. The big new "counter offer" just doesn't work, and the "fix" is to put a deadline for the offer on the same day you give it, and don't counter.
The on-track bit are micromanagement, even more than 22 and 23, so why you hire race engineers is a good question.
The mentality-bit is not balanced either, and it stacks with the (must be bugged) confidence on track. So it is better, if you play as e.g Red Bull to hire a couple of 85-rated drivers instead of top-rated drivers. And the 85-rated drivers will be extremely happy and have a great mentality as everything in the team is way better than they "deserve", so that will give a stat-boost. And with the setup and practice driving, they can end up getting double digit + in skills just from being happy and confident, and suddenly that 85-rated driver, is having a 97-98 rating.
While, if you have Verstappen and Norris, it is much easier than their mentality goes down, as they expect the very best all the time, and suddenly they are in reality a 90-rated driver in the race.

The drivers lose confidence way to easy in the race. So never go for a 1 stop strategy, as you will likely lose some positions due to taking care of tyres, or being on a slower tyre. That will kill the confidence. Even though, a driver starting on the hard tyre, losing a spot to a driver on soft tyres, shouldn't kill the confidence.
I started my own team, and Frederik Vesti somehow got in to Q1 with what is rated the 22nd fastest car (so... slowest). After lap 1 in the race he was 18th, his confidence was rock bottom and he had -7 (!) on his skills due to a complete loss of confidence. All because he qualified way higher than he should.

Oh. And the create-a-team... the goals are bugged. I chose to start with middle amount of money and facilites, but the worst possible car, and with Liam Lawson and Frederik Vesti as my drivers. The staff is the best non-F1 and non-generated people. It is basically a proper start-up, backmarker-team. The short term goal is to be 7th in the constructors... The only driver on the grid worse than one of mine is Sargeant. I have the worst car, and worse staff than any other on the grid. 7th in constructors or I'll be fired. HUH?!

Other huge bug that can ruin a create-a-team save... The generated affiliates. You do start with a couple of generated drivers in your affiliate-pool when you have your own team. I am seemingly one of the lucky ones, as my two (awful) affiliates have the same salary as my race drivers. But people are having randomly generated affiliates having salaries up towards 10mil per season, and with a contract long enough that it costs them the same or more to fire them.
For me, Lawson and Vesti added together has under 6mil a season in salary, and my team started with 15mil on hand. If I'd gotten two 10+mil a season affiliates I've would've been economically screwed as well as screwed by the goals I have to reach.

They've put a lot of effort in to the create-a-team thingy, but with the exception of the affiliates (which is a really nice addition), there's not much added Manager stuff in the game. It is still an F1 Race Engineer game.
 
There's rule-changes in the sense that there's a supposed change in downforce-levels etc, and you need to do research to mitigate the loss and so on.
Track changes, new teams, engines etc. etc. etc. is not a thing. Negotiation with suppliers, sponsors etc. is not a thing.
Negotiations with drivers is currently broken. The big new "counter offer" just doesn't work, and the "fix" is to put a deadline for the offer on the same day you give it, and don't counter.
The on-track bit are micromanagement, even more than 22 and 23, so why you hire race engineers is a good question.
The mentality-bit is not balanced either, and it stacks with the (must be bugged) confidence on track. So it is better, if you play as e.g Red Bull to hire a couple of 85-rated drivers instead of top-rated drivers. And the 85-rated drivers will be extremely happy and have a great mentality as everything in the team is way better than they "deserve", so that will give a stat-boost. And with the setup and practice driving, they can end up getting double digit + in skills just from being happy and confident, and suddenly that 85-rated driver, is having a 97-98 rating.
While, if you have Verstappen and Norris, it is much easier than their mentality goes down, as they expect the very best all the time, and suddenly they are in reality a 90-rated driver in the race.

The drivers lose confidence way to easy in the race. So never go for a 1 stop strategy, as you will likely lose some positions due to taking care of tyres, or being on a slower tyre. That will kill the confidence. Even though, a driver starting on the hard tyre, losing a spot to a driver on soft tyres, shouldn't kill the confidence.
I started my own team, and Frederik Vesti somehow got in to Q1 with what is rated the 22nd fastest car (so... slowest). After lap 1 in the race he was 18th, his confidence was rock bottom and he had -7 (!) on his skills due to a complete loss of confidence. All because he qualified way higher than he should.

Oh. And the create-a-team... the goals are bugged. I chose to start with middle amount of money and facilites, but the worst possible car, and with Liam Lawson and Frederik Vesti as my drivers. The staff is the best non-F1 and non-generated people. It is basically a proper start-up, backmarker-team. The short term goal is to be 7th in the constructors... The only driver on the grid worse than one of mine is Sargeant. I have the worst car, and worse staff than any other on the grid. 7th in constructors or I'll be fired. HUH?!

Other huge bug that can ruin a create-a-team save... The generated affiliates. You do start with a couple of generated drivers in your affiliate-pool when you have your own team. I am seemingly one of the lucky ones, as my two (awful) affiliates have the same salary as my race drivers. But people are having randomly generated affiliates having salaries up towards 10mil per season, and with a contract long enough that it costs them the same or more to fire them.
For me, Lawson and Vesti added together has under 6mil a season in salary, and my team started with 15mil on hand. If I'd gotten two 10+mil a season affiliates I've would've been economically screwed as well as screwed by the goals I have to reach.

They've put a lot of effort in to the create-a-team thingy, but with the exception of the affiliates (which is a really nice addition), there's not much added Manager stuff in the game. It is still an F1 Race Engineer game.

Sounds like Grand Prix is still got things this fans hasn’t. Although I’m sure I’m remembering it through rose tinted glasses
 
Yet to play but, even though I genuinely think that the engineering side of manager games is really fantastic, I also think it digs a lot more than the usual manager would do in real life. Toto Wolff surely does not take part on aerodynamic parts or porpoising, neither race strategy. I think new F1 managers should have a dual system of gameplay: one in which you take part in every decision, just like it is today. Other, more realistic in some sense, put you in the shoes of a real manager, i.e., taking overall decisions that will impact the whole organization. It could for sure involve some degree of decision making in car development and race strategy, but much more as a consultant would do. I'm thinking here in a Civilization-like advisor system in which your board of engineers offer you advice and offer some scenarios from which you need to choose based on some degree of information. Your choices would still matter, but would depend more on the quality of your staff in producing better cars and crafting better strategies.

what do you think?
 

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