Building a championship winning F1® team boils down to more than just designing a fast car. Successfully managing the personalities of your staff and drivers can make the difference between a flash in the pan or long-term glory and a place in Formula 1® history.
F1® Manager 2024's brand new Mentality System brings personalities to your staff and drivers, creating new opportunities and challenges for you to manage as Team Principal.
Today we’re going to take a deep dive into this new system, including how Mentality will play a key role in team relationships, contract negotiations and creating a long-lasting legacy.
A New Layer of Management
Creating an authentic F1® management experience has always been at the core of F1® Manager and where would the sport be without the people? The introduction of the new Mentality System in F1® Manager 2024 brings with it a brand-new way for you to interact with and manage the individuals who make up your team.
In previous editions a star driver could only be good news for your team, but this year you will need to consider how this impacts your other driver and support staff. If your star driver is dominating, you may find that your other driver feels undervalued. A weak link in your staff won’t only cause delays or deliver poor results, they’ll also impact the morale of the entire team.
Mentality brings a whole new set of dynamic scenarios to the table, creating new and unpredictable challenges for you to overcome as you lead your team to victory.
Together, Through the Ups & Downs
There are three key elements that impact a person’s Mentality in F1® Manager 2024.
- Personal Situation – the driver or staff’s happiness with their personal situation, affected by their contract, personal results, especially compared to their teammates, and their inclusion in sponsor activity.
- Team Performance – the driver or staff’s happiness with the performance of your team, based on race results as well as the overall constructor’s standings.
- Team Principal – the driver or staff’s happiness with your performance. You’ll be judged on the calibre of the staff and drivers you are hiring, quality of your facilities, and the overall performance of the car.
The new Mentality Hub allows you to easily keep track of the Mentality of your team, highlighting where your team is happy and where there are trouble areas. This also allows you to get a snapshot of the biggest issues currently affecting morale. From here, you can dive deeper to get a full breakdown of each driver and staff member’s current opinion of you and the team around them.
Keeping your team Mentality high is crucial to success on your road to F1® glory. A positive outlook can provide many benefits throughout a season, but a pessimistic atmosphere could result in poor performance if not managed correctly.
Far Reaching Consequences
The new Mentality System has been directly integrated with the other management mechanics within F1® Manager 24, creating new interactions between the systems and new considerations to keep in mind when leading your team.
Mentality directly affects the ability of your team to perform at their best. Happy staff members will receive a boost to their attributes, which could give you an edge in the race to develop the best car over the course of a season, whereas unhappy staff will slow down the progression of quality new parts. The same applies to drivers, who will receive performances boosts, or hits, depending on their Mentality.
Your staff and driver development rates will also now consider the individual’s Mentality. It’s imperative to keep your rising stars motivated to see them reach their full potential within your team - failure to do so could stifle their development, leaving you with an unhappy driver and regrets over what could have been.
Mentality also plays a key role in the working relationships within your team, with the affinity between a driver and their Race Engineer crucial to maximise results over a race weekend. You’ll see increased affinity growth if the pair are happy, but an unhappy duo could lead to a breakdown in communication between the two, and less efficiency on the track.
Another Bargaining Chip
The Mentality System also brings new considerations to the financial side of team management and is fully integrated with this year’s refreshed contract negotiations.
A happy driver is much more likely to be patient in negotiation, giving you more chances to strike a deal, but a disillusioned driver or staff member won’t give you much breathing room, and they’ll be much more open to negotiation with a rival on the grid.
The new Mentality System is also used by your AI opponents, presenting opportunities for you to successfully poach unhappy team members – or risk your opponents’ taking advantage of your internal strife to snatch up an unhappy driver or staff member.
Mentality will also play a part in how you approach sponsorship deals. You’ll have to weigh up the financial benefits of any sponsor with the impact it might have on your driver’s happiness and performance. The extra influx of cash won’t mean much if it upsets your driver and causes them to underperform in a critical race!
A Human Element
The Mentality System is a dynamic feature based on real world data that considers the current situation and history of your team members to create their own personality, demands and reactions to in-world events. This system is always evolving and considering new developments, so the Mentality of your team members will change and evolve as they grow.
A lower-rated, or younger driver, is much more likely to be patient with a slower car than a multiple-time world champion looking to secure another title as soon as possible.
As the season progresses, the Mentality of your staff will evolve, and you’ll have to keep this in mind when managing their needs. That young up-and-coming driver might have been a cheaper option at the start of the season, but after a run of successes, they might start expecting more and more from their teammates, Team Principal and salary.
F1® Manager 2024 is Coming This Summer
Alongside other new features coming to F1® Manager 24, including Create A Team mode and mechanical failures, the Mentality System will bring a new level of depth and unpredictability to the experience, creating new stories with every season played. How you manage these personalities throughout your career will define your legacy as a Team Principal.
Join us soon for another deep dive into navigating the challenges of F1®, as we take a closer look at mechanical failures and other new management mechanics.
F1® Manager 2024 launches 23rd July 2024. Pre-order now!
