Codemasters’ annual F1 franchise has been the go-to for fans of the motorsport for a long time, but last year, Frontier Developments threw another, differently flavoured option into the mix with F1 Manager. Returning soon with its sophomore outing in F1 Manager 2023, the management sim is promising improvements aplenty across the breadth of its experience, from smaller and iterative improvements to ones that are more expansive, and ahead of its release later this month, here, we’re going to take a look at a few key details that you should know about it.
TRACKS, CARS, AND DRIVERS
F1 Manager 2023 is, of course, an officially licensed F1 game, which means it’s going to be aligned and up to date with the 2023 F1 season. To that end, players can expect all the official cars, tracks, and drivers from the 2023 Formula 1 season, including the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, as well as the Las Vegas Strip Street Circuit. The six sprints of the season will also be included in the game, taking players to the aforementioned Losail International Circuit, Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps, Austria’s Red Bull Ring, the Circuit of the Americas, Azerbaijan’s Baku City Circuit, and Brazil’s Interlagos.
RACE REPLAY
One of F1 Manager 2023’s biggest new additions is Race Replay, a completely new mode that will allow players to relive specific moments and races from the 2023 Formula 1 season. Taking real world data from live F1 races, Race Replay will put players in recreations of key moments from throughout the season, and task you with performing your best to try and see if you can emulate them, or perhaps change course.
STARTING GRIDS
A couple of key elements will be crucial to forming the backbone of the Race Replay mode, one of which will be Starting Grids. As Frontier describes it, the race conditions and driver starting positions of every race from the 2023 season will be replicated using Starting Grid, which hopefully means you can look forward to authentic recreations of key moments from the season right out the gate.
RACE MOMENTS
Just as important a part of Race Replay as Starting Grids, if not more important, will be what Frontier has dubbed Race Moments, which is what will encapsulate the acting playing part of Race Replay. Race Moments will be how players will take control of specific teams at specific points of the 2023 season. Juming in during a race, you’ll be tasked with making crucial real time decisions that will determine just how different the outcome will be for you than it was in the actual season.
EXPANDED FOCUS ON F2 AND F3
The lack of focus on F2 and F3 in last year’s game was something that a number of players were disappointed in, though that’s being addressed in F1 Manager 2023. While you won’t be able to take control of F2 or F3 teams yourselves, their entire seasons will constantly be simulated in the background. Not only will you be able to see their race results and updated championship positions whenever you want, you’ll also be able to scout younger talent and recruit up and coming drivers in order to replace your older pros who might be in the tail end of their career.
NEW CONTRACT SYSTEM
Coming to the more granular changes, F1 Manager 2023 is also bringing about an improvement in how it’ll handle contracts, given players more options when planning out their team’s future. When F1 Manager 2022 would force you to sign up drivers the moment you agree a contract with them, in this year’s game, players will have the option to sign them up come the beginning of the next season, thus better allowing you to map out your team’s future.
DRIVER DEVELOPMENT
Chooding your team’s drivers and car will be a crucial part of your management career, of course, but just as important will be how you develop them over the coruse of that career. Drivers’ confidence ratings will now be much more crucial to their long-term development, not to mention their short-term performance goals in actual races. Another overhaul will come in the form of choosing the areas you want a driver to prioritize growth in rather than investing skill points.
CAR DEVELOPMENT
Where car development is concerned, players will now have to carefully analyse the risk/reward for each upgrade and part- the best parts will much shorter lifespans, while the more durable ones will have lower performance metrics. Do you focus on the latter, given their obvious costs and shorter lifespans, or do you go for the safer, more enduring option, even if it mans sacrificing short-term gains? The answer, of course, won’t be cut-and-dry every time, and you’ll have to make decisions based on your team is performing and developing.
SPORTING DIRECTOR
Another big additition in F1 Manager 2023 is the position of the Sporting Director, whom you’ll now have to recruit for your team. Like other key roles in your team, the Sporting Director will form an important part of your overarching structure, and in particular, will bring an added emphasis on your pit crews, their energy levels, their morale, and more. This will also give you increased control in how they develop and perform in key moments. Let’s turn our attention to that for a little bit.
PIT CREWS
F1 Manager 2023 will afford players much greater control over their pit crews, which will include more than just ensuring the need for speed during pit stops without having that lead to disastrous errors. Between races, you’ll also be able to manage your mechanics’ calendars with training to improve their pit stop skills, allowing them to better hone their craft. At the same time, however, overworking them between races could mean they are more tired and, as such, more error-prone when the actual races are happening.
NEW BROADCAST FEATURES
With F1 Manager’s focus being exclusively on the management aspect, you do not, of course, get to take control of the actual cars, though this year’s game is nonetheless promising improvements to its race broadcasts. Not only are car animations being tweaked to ensure they’re better aligned with instructions for drivers, players will now also be able to hop into the visor cam for any of the twenty drivers and view the action from their perspective. Drivers will also sport different visors with their own tints and, often, specific weather-dependent attributes.
MORE INCIDENTS DURING RACES
In addition to new broadcast features, F1 Manager 2023 will also feature more dynamic races with a greater frequency of key incidents taking place on the track. According to Frontier, this will include more wheel-to-wheel racing, early crashes, more frequent overtakes, improvements to the driving line, and more. As you’d expect, enhanced driver AI is also being touted, which should also add to this significantly (one would hope, at least).
NEW TYRE FEATURES
Tyre mechanics were obviously a thing in F1 Manager 2022, though they perhaps weren’t as effective or prominent as many would have hoped they would be. Frontier says it’s making key improvements on that front in this year’s game. In F1 Manager 2023, players will seemingly see much more tangible differences in different tyre compounds, while factors such as the temperature of the tracks and the cars will also have a greater effect on the rubber of the tyres you have equipped.
SAVING CHANGES
The commitment required to play through a race weekend could be a bit steep in last year’s game, owing to how it handled saving, though F1 Manager 2023 will be making some changes on that front, which many fans should be happy to hear about. Players will now be able to save mid-session, which means you can save up progress between practise, qualifying, and race sessions and come back whenever you want and pick up where you left off.
PC REQUIREMENTS
F1 Manager 2023 is also going to be available for PlayStation and Xbox consoles upon its launch later this month, but given the kind of game it is, it goes without saying that a significant portion of its audience will be on PC. And unsurprisingly, just like last year’s game, its system requirements aren’t particularly demanding. On minimum settings, you’ll need either an Intel Core i5-4590 or an AMD FX-8370, along with either a GeForce GTX 960 or AMD R9 280x (with 3 GB VRAM), and 8 GB of RAM. On recommended settings, meanwhile, you’ll need either an Intel Core i7-7700 or AMD Ryzen 7 2700, along with either a GeForce GTX 1080 or Radeon RX 580 (with 4 GB VRAM), and 16 GB of RAM. On either setting, you’ll also need roughly 30 GB of free storage space.