As a Team Principal the race weekend is where all your hard work off the track starts to pay off. F1® Manager 2024 sees significant visual improvements to the track and cars, as well as new and updated gameplay features to test you and your team when it matters most.
In this final feature deep dive, we take a closer look at just how we’ve made F1® Manager 2024 the most authentic and realistic depiction of the sport to date.
Recreating the Spectacle of Race Day
Our focus in F1® Manager 2024 has been to deliver an authentic depiction of the sport by adding new and refined features based on community feedback.
We’ve already gone into depth about the introduction of Create A Team mode, managing your team members’ mentality and overcoming the management challenges of F1®, and today we’re going to take a closer look at the improvements made to the race day action.
Introducing revised implementation of mechanical failures, revisiting track visuals, improving AI behaviour and bringing helicam into the mix have all come together to create the most comprehensive F1® management experience to date.
Prepare for the Worst
Even the best laid strategies don’t guarantee a result thanks to the revised implementation of mechanical failures in F1® Manager 2024. Mechanical failures can now impact you or your rivals at any point during a race weekend and have varying degrees of severity which can swiftly set your plans awry.
There are several factors that can cause mechanical failures:
- The powertrain’s temperature
- The reliability and condition of the part
- Running over kerbs
Mechanical failures can impact a car’s engine, gearbox and ERS, making it more difficult for your driver to maintain performance. Failures will present as either a minor fault or a major fault. If minor faults are not addressed, they can escalate into a major fault and finally a total failure of the part, which might result in a car being forced to retire.
A temporary low level ERS fault may hinder your driver’s ability to recharge their battery for a few laps, whilst a total engine failure will mean an early end to your race. Recognising fault risks and appropriately resolving them will keep your car in the race longer, but the added pitstop time may make the difference between pole position and a place outside the points. Do you choose to push your car to the limits or play it safe?
These problems aren’t just limited to your team, though. It’s important to be in a position to capitalise on any mechanical issues that occur on your rivals’ cars, which could potentially result in unexpected points. Investing in high quality and durable parts ahead of race day may give you the tools you need to push ahead when other teams suffer from a failure.
Fight to the Front of the Pack
F1® Manager 2024 improves further on previous years with refinements to car behaviour on race day, creating more realistic and more dramatic races.
Improvements have been made to car smoothness on the track, how cars approach corners and how quickly they recover from incidents. For example, if possible, drivers will now recover much more quickly, meaning they can lose less time when getting back into the race after an incident.
Driver battles and bold overtaking moves are a staple of F1®, and this year, you'll see more battling throughout each lap. Drivers will now attempt to squeeze out and battle other cars more aggressively, especially into corners and run-off. This more aggressive approach will help alleviate corner queuing and paired with new mechanical failures, will bring a higher degree of unpredictability and excitement to race days.
You'll need to manage your drivers’ tactics to ensure they take advantage of opportunities, keep it on the track and bring home those much-needed points. Of course, you may be on the receiving end of such a battle as other cars attempt to usurp your position, so choosing when to go for those overtakes can make all the difference as you move up the order.
The updated F1® Sprint format also makes its way into this year’s game, challenging you to perform across an entire race weekend. Each Sprint weekend contains a single practice to dial in the settings in just a one hour-long session, followed by a Sprint qualifying session which determines the starting grid for the weekend’s Sprint race. This places more pressure on drivers to perform competitively out of the gate, while also allowing for adjustments after the Sprint race before before Parc Fermé comes into force again for qualifying for the all important Grand Prix.
A New Perspective
The improved action on the track can be viewed from a range of camera angles throughout the race, from returning cameras like broadcast or visor cam, to the brand-new helicam.
The helicam gives you a birds-eye strategical view to help inform your all-important decisions and brings an all-new perspective to the race day drama. To facilitate the expanded view of the tracks that helicam brings, we revisited and improved the environment surrounding the tracks to include more of the detail you previously couldn’t see.
You’ll also now see team accurate steering wheels across the grid, adding an extra element of realism when viewing the race through visor cam or onboard.
Enhanced Visuals on the Track
Circuits visuals have been refreshed and improved for the 2024 season, including the F1® Manager debut of the Shanghai International Circuit.
Track marbling has been enhanced using real-world data, meaning racing lines are clearer than ever around the circuit, whilst improved trackside detailing provides the perfect setting for the racing action to unfold.
Crucially these visual improvements are not only better looking than ever, but they are also more optimised for performance, resulting in enhanced visuals without sacrificing on framerates or load times.
F1® Manager 2024 is Coming This Summer
F1® Manager 2024 is the most realistic and authentic depiction of the sport to date, with a wide range of additions beyond the visual improvements, including Create a Team, the new Mentality System, Affiliate Drivers, Mechanical Failures and more.
Experience F1® races brought to life when F1® Manager 2024 releases on 23 July 2024. Pre-order now!
