F1 Manager 2024 Review: Incremental Gains, With One Big Exception

I’ve got a confession to make. I’ve never really been hooked by F1 Manager. Strange, really, as I’ve followed Formula One for practically my whole life, and sunk a disgusting number of hours into the benchmark of all management video games – Football Manager.

Seemingly, the revival of officially licensed F1 management games after a two-decade absence following EA Sports’ unrelated and often-forgotten F1 Manager should’ve been the glorious merging of two of my favourite things. Yet it just never quite clicked.

There’s a reason for this – I never really felt like I was in charge. It seems silly to say given that you know, you’re running an F1 team, but hear me out. The series has always limited you to taking charge of an existing team, its established facilities, its line-up of drivers and all the associated gubbins. Sure, you could sign new drivers and upgrade buildings but it always felt like I’d been in someone else’s shoes. That is, until now.

F1 Manager 2024, on paper at least, changes all that. Its new headline feature is Create a Team which, as the name not-so-subtly tells you, gives you the opportunity to start the 11th team on the grid from scratch.

Setting that team up has a sandbox feel to it. You can go for a pre-set legacy giving you numerous curated back stories which affect your budgets, car performance and facilities or opt to completely pick and choose them.

For this review playthrough, I opted to go completely middle of the road in everything. I wanted to have room to grow the team, but without being a complete straddler at the back.

This is where the first area for improvement for Create a Team comes in. You can pick literally anyone on the grid regardless of your initial budgets or standing in the sport, meaning you could opt for a dream team of Verstappen and Hamilton out of the blocks which will cripple your monthly costs but can offer some excitement for a few races.

There is a reputation system baked into the game, but it'd be nice if that mattered from the get-go might add more of a sense of realism. I’d like to grow a team that later attracts the talent, rather than no-questions-asked buying them out from the beginning. 

That said, I went with the Oceania dream team of newly-crowned race winner Oscar Piastri, largely to liberate him from having to work with Lando Norris, and Liam Lawson who sorely deserves a spot on the real-world grid. Room for growth, but not awful to start with.

Not that either of them seemed particularly happy with that, thanks to the mentality system. This is the biggest new mechanic introduced for F1 Manager 2024, which sees you having to manage the happiness of not only your drivers but your staff members too. Their mentality – good or bad – will have an effect on your team’s performance out on the track. It’s a handy indication of what you’re doing well and where you can improve, in this case, the Car Throttle car being in dire need of upgrades.

To fund said upgrades, you’ll need money coming in – leading us neatly to an overhauled sponsor system. You can now agree to engagement activities which will net you some bonus cash from your selection of sponsors, although at a cost to your team’s preparations. A neat idea, but one that I’ve yet to notice has any game-altering impacts.

It does at least give you a reason to put some fake sponsors on your car’s customisable livery, but it’s a bit of an awkward thing to do – the preset decals often look a bit naff and there’s no easy way to simply switch between the logos of the companies you’re signed with. Codemasters has nailed this with its F1 games, and I think Manager developers Frontier should look to nab some inspiration there.

Rounding out the new gameplay mechanics is a driver affiliate system, effectively letting you set up your own driver academy. It’s a nice way to get in early on rising talent and farming them out to F2 and F3 teams rather than the old system of giving them the odd practice session and hoping for the best. Admittedly, I’ve yet to get far enough into the game to notice a long-term benefit but it’s a point I’ll revisit in the future.

Once you’re into a Grand Prix weekend though, this is same-old F1 Manager. You still have the slider-based setup system which I personally have never quite liked, and it’s the same rinse-repeat routine of getting your drivers prepared and then managing the strategy through the race. There are mechanical failures to worry about now, though, so that’s something to keep you on your toes.

Oh, and there’s a new option to simulate sessions in case you can’t be bothered to play the game – which seems a little redundant.

If you’re quite happy to manage an existing team and already own F1 Manager 2023, it’s probably not worth the £29.99 (on Steam) to make an incremental leap. If you’re anything like me though, Create a Team brings enough of a personal touch to make this the first truly compelling F1 Manager title from Frontier.

It’s not a perfect mode, and that’s no surprise considering it’s in its infancy for an annual title, but it is a game-changing one. Now, if you need me, Car Throttle has a championship to chase.