F1 Manager 2024 Create A Team & Mechanical Failures: Our First Impressions

This summer, F1 Manager 2024 sets out to expand upon the previous two games that allowed F1 fans to take full control of a Formula One team. We had some hands-on time with a preview version – here’s what we noticed.

Images: Frontier Developments

Sim racers love to drive first and foremost – that should go without saying. However, there are also those that enjoy the managerial side of racing, which the EA Sports F1 games already show to an extent via the MyTeam career mode.

Since its first iteration released in 2022, Frontier’s F1 Manager series goes deeper into this element. Hire and fire drivers, PR personnel, engineers, chief mechanics, and more, build up your headquarters and expand it to a state-of-the-art facility, sign sponsors – there is plenty to do when not taking the wheel of a hyper-modern racing car.

F1 Manager 2024: Create Your Own F1 Team​

For the first time in the series, F1 Manager 2024 now also lets players create their own team. Previously, they were limited to taking control of any of the ten existing teams on the F1 grid. Now, somewhat ironically considering the continuous snubbing of the Andretti/Cadillac effort, they can create their own squad to be the 11th team on the entry list.

The mode goes far beyond simply choosing a team name, logo and livery, however. Creating a team is rather in-depth, allowing players to create a custom logo and livery in a bespoke editor that grants far more freedom than just picking a preset design and applying colors to them. In fact, they get to combine and edit countless shapes, letters and numbers to nail down the design just how they like it.



Additionally, they get to choose a back story of sorts before getting started. There are five origin stories, plus another slot that gives you full freedom regarding the state of your team when you enter F1. Want to start with high-quality cars, facilities and staff? You can do so without problem. Has your team been highly successful in junior categories before getting its big break? How about managing a small team that has found a brilliant technological advantage, but is short on funds? It is all your choice.

Depending on the scenario you choose, certain elements are influenced, such as your starting balance, powertrain manufacturer and quality of your cars and facilities. That way, they present different difficulty levels to players – so everyone should feel at home.

Managing Expectations And Mentalities​

Going into the new season, you get to pick drivers and key staff for your team, all with different strengths and weaknesses – and salary demands, of course. To help paying them, picking a sponsorship package before the season gets going is key. These consist of a title sponsor and up to five optional sponsors. You can place their logos on your car as you wish by adjusting their positon, color, and more.

More sponsors mean more money, but also more expectations and goals to fulfill. These goals include race results, but also numerous other factors. Sponsors might want your drivers to make appearances at certain events or get factory tours for their guests, which in turn will influence the mentalities of drivers and staff.



This Mentality System is brand new and affects not just your drivers, but also any other staff you hire for your team. With all of them having different personalities, what they are happy or dissatisfied with might be vastly different depending on the person. Keeping everyone as happy as possible is key here – but not always easy. Remember that your decisions impact your staff.

While drivers may be very happy with the car’s performance and the most recent race results, your pit crew might be rather unhappy about the amount of training they had to do to achieve this. Balancing these things should be at the top of your priority list as a result, as a happy team will deliver better results, be it on track or when designing new car parts.



For instance, it is possible to prioritize one of your cars’ performance over the other – perfect soil for a teammate rivalry that might see one of your drivers getting poached by another team. Better have an affiliate driver from F2 or F3 ready for their debut in that case – signing junior drivers and while they are still racing in other series is now possible, too. Available drivers include real talent, but also generated, fictional drivers.

Mid-race Mechanical Failures Debut​

Meanwhile, the on-track portion of F1 Manager 2024 has seen another key addition. While absent from previous entries to the F1 Manager series, mechanical failures are now part of the game. Managing failing components throughout the race adds a highly interesting layer to the Grands Prix - and one that is much needed to create a more realistic experience.

The components to keep an eye on are split up into the Tyres, Powertrain and Aerodynamics categories. Naturally, they all have different effects on the car once they start to let go – and that was noticeable in the preview version already.

In our hands-on time, we were given a scenario to demonstrate this. At the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, we took control of the Red Bull team after a dismal qualifying session, with both drivers starting from the lower midfield. Simply telling them to push to get to the front as quickly as possible was not the way to go, however, as both cars struggled with mechanical gremlins.



That meant that both Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez had to make up ground while nursing their respective cars. Initially, having them push occasionally and switch their ERS modes to attack worked well, but components started to fail as the race went on.

The ERS systems on both cars were starting to pack it in, with Pérez struggling for pace much more than Verstappen. However, Checo’s car seemed to fail much more gradually than Verstappen’s. As the Dutchman was fighting for a podium spot, the ERS became barely usable with about 15 laps to go. We were forced to switch it to ‘Harvest’ for most of the final part of the race – otherwise, ERS was fully used up within a lap and a half, even on ‘Neutral’.

In the end, Verstappen somehow dragged the car home in fifth – with the ERS system at 0.7% health. Perez fell back further at the end, only managing to finish in 16th. Still, considering the starting positions and the state of the components, P5 felt like a success in the race.

More Believable Car Behavior​

The session also gave us a chance to take in the in-race gameplay. Track visuals have been improved for F1 Manager 2024, and the overall visuals themselves look good, especially for a manager game. They are not in the same league as those of the main line F1 series of games, though.

However, the cars sometimes behave unnatural with very abrupt motions, or a somewhat hilarious instant side-tilt when going over certain kerbs. This might be fine-tuned for the final version, however. In general, the cars behave a bit more believable than in F1 Manager 2023 - no more side-by-side battles for laps on end like it happened so often in the predecessor.

On the audio front, the radio messages F1 Manager 2024 uses for communication between engineer and driver – using real radio samples – are a nice touch, like in the previous games. They do not feel quite natural, however, as they are often very short. Still, they are a nice feature that is great at breaking up otherwise monotonous moments.

F1 Manager 2024: Editions And Preorder Bonuses​

Fans of the series will have to have some more patience until they can get their hands on the game, however. F1 Manager 2024 is set to launch on July 23 – two days after the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix. The game will be available on PC via Steam and Epic, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X|S at £29.99/$34.99/€34.99. As a pre-order bonus, players receive a Create A Team livery preset based on the F1 2024 Show Car.

The Deluxe Edition launches at £39.99/$44.99/€44.99, and those who pre-order it can look forward to a 10% discount, as well as five additional Race Replay scenarios and five additional livery patterns inspired by classic designs.

Are you looking forward to F1 Manager 2024? Let us know on Twitter @OverTake_gg or in the comments below!