F1 Manager 2024 PC Review
Summary: A solid update to the F1 Manager franchise that adds some much needed mechanical depth with the mentality system and new Create A Team mode.
3.8
On the podium!
Running alongside the EA-developed games, the now annual F1 Manager series is on its third entry with F1 Manager 2024.
The original 2022 release was a flawed and basic take on the sports management genre, however, developer Frontier Developments took what they had learned and created a dramatically improved version in F1 Manager 2023.
With the 2024 season in full swing, it’s time to look at the latest entry and see if Frontier has managed to springboard off of 2023’s solid base game.
The core experience of the F1 Manager games is similar to almost any other management game you may have played. As the boss of a team, you’re charged with hiring and firing staff, making key decisions to develop the car, and upgrading any facilities to further push the team forward. All the while, keeping an eye on the budget and keeping the board of directors happy with good results.
It’s largely a menu-driven game. Some serious effort has been made though to make them intuitive and navigable, both with a mouse and a controller. It’s just as easy to play sat on a couch or Steam Deck, as it is at my desk. Something that isn’t necessarily always a given for this type of game.
So, what’s new in F1 Manager 2024, if anything? Aside from the obvious visual updates to liveries and sponsors for each of the teams, as well as improved character models, two things that are synonymous with annualised sports games. The big new selling point is that F1 Manager now has an equivalent to the mainline, EA-developed F1 games’ ‘MyTeam’ mode in ‘Create A Team’.
Here, you get to be the manager of a brand-new team. Choosing everything from the livery, drivers, and staff members to sponsors and engine manufacturers. It’s essentially the same setup fans of the other games will recognise, now viewed through a management lens.
As a new team owner, you can pick the level at which your team starts, based on a few archetypes. The plucky underdog with minimal budget to work with, out to claw their way to the top, right up to front running, championship contender. Complete with a huge bank balance and equally huge expectations for the season. These choices somewhat act as a difficulty selector and can tailor the experience towards one end of the spectrum or the other.
Another new feature is the Mentality System. This essentially boils down to how drivers and staff feel about one another and is affected by how everyone is treated. Prioritising one driver may lead to a championship but could negatively impact the other half of the garage leading to more problems down the line. It’s a welcome addition to the game, that adds a little more depth to characters’ motives beyond simple contract negotiations.
Races themselves, as you might expect, are not directly controlled by the player. Drivers will largely hit the track and do their own thing without much interference. As a manager though, you have full control of various parameters that dictate the flow of the race. Do you push your drivers early on to make up positions, but risk using too much fuel and damaging the tyres leading to more saving later on? Do you pit before your rival and try and get the jump on them? Or stay out and hope for a safety car?
Some knowledge of the ebb and flow of Formula One is perhaps helpful, though I can’t see a scenario where a complete newcomer to the sport would be jumping into F1 Manager 2024. In any case, the game generally makes it clear what is required in a given situation and the UI highlights key info such as fuel levels, tyre wear, and the current strategy for the race.
The visuals remain a high point of the F1 Manager series. Races, when viewed from one of the many realistic camera perspectives, look great. Mimicking many of the real-world broadcast views seen on TV. I’ve never been especially impressed with the sound present in the F1 Manager games. It’s generally fine and somewhat realistic, but it has never felt quite right to me. 2024 isn’t any different in this regard.
I found performance to be generally solid, especially while taking part in the races themselves, however, I did have some strange issues while navigating the menus in the HQ. The framerate regularly found itself in the 30s and below, in menus where nothing much was going on and the visuals were largely 2D. I couldn’t determine whether this was indicative of the game as a whole or just an issue exclusive to my system.
Final Thoughts
F1 Manager 2024 is a substantial update to the groundwork laid out by the previous games. The addition of the ‘Create A Team’ mode and the Mentality System adds another significant layer to the gameplay, allowing for far more customisation than the standard career mode.
Significantly more bugs are present in 2024 than in previous years. I was lucky enough to not encounter many, none of which were game-breaking. However, the Steam discussions and reviews are filled with players reporting on their issues. Something to bear in mind.
For fans of the series it’s a worthwhile upgrade to the previous titles in the series, and bugs aside it’s a solid game worth checking out if you’re a fan of F1 and okay with the slower gameplay offered up by management games.
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