Learn how to efficiently use car upgrades to win races in Codemasters’ F1 2020 My Team mode.
Photo credit: Koch Media / Codemasters
To become victorious in Formula 1, it not only requires great driving skill, but also a good car. Sebastian Vettel would agree. The same applies for the F1 2020 game and especially the My Team mode. While great overtaking skills are nice to have, your car must evolve alongside your skills. Find out how to perfectly manage research and development in My Team in our guide.
The basics of R&D
Let us begin with the basic terms of research and development in F1 2020. There are four different departments of your car that can be upgraded. Those are Durability, Chassis, Aerodynamics and Powertrain.
R&D in F1 2020 works in the form of a tree. That means to get the big upgrades at the end of the tree, you must first unlock smaller upgrades in the build path beforehand.
Improvements on your car are divided into minor, major and ultimate upgrades, depicted as smaller or bigger boxes in the tree. Ultimate upgrades are the most expensive but also grant your car a huge leap forward.
The bigger an upgrade, the more time it will need to arrive after buying it. The developments also have a certain chance to fail in first instance. In this case, you need to spend half of the development cost again to finally fit the component into your car.
How to generate Resource Points in F1 2020
The currency used to buy upgrades in F1 2020 is Resource Points. A basic amount of 20 RP per week is generated by each of your four facilities. In addition, you receive resource points for driving. In free practice, there are several programs to complete which grant you up to 50 RP upon perfect execution. But those programs quickly become quite boring and annoying as they are repetitive and also take a lot of time to complete. Find a detailed view on the programs in the video below.
If you are familiar with the tracks already, we recommend simulating free practices. This will grant you a good amount of RP, however not as much as fulfilling all programs manually.
The better your results in qualifying and the race, the more resource points you can bag. Not only your drive generates resource points, but your teammate’s also does. Investing money in the driver market thus can kill two birds with one stone. A better driver in the second seat will likely end up with better results than an F2 driver. He can improve your standing in the constructors’ championship as well as your RP balance.
Upgrade your facilities
Once you start your journey in Formula 1, your research and development will not be great at first. Throughout the season, there are several ways to improve it.
Your four car-related departments can be upgraded in between race weekends in order to make them work more efficiently. For each facility, there are four different sections to improve:
- Fabrication: Increase the amount of possible simultaneous upgrade fabrications
- Build Time: Reduce the build time of upgrades
- Quality Control: Reduce the chance of fabrication failure
- Resource Point Generation: Increase weekly RP generation
Each section can be upgraded three times, becoming more costly for higher tiers. Quality control and build time are particularly nice improvements. If you decide to use many RP points for a certain department in the R&D tree, make sure you also use your money to upgrade the respective facility in this section of the game.
Another indirect upgrade to your facilities comes from the interviews you give during race weekends and at the beginning of the season. Before you head into the interviews, bear in mind which department you want to max out, then give positive answers about that department to the media. The department’s morale will increase, leading to less failure chance and reduced RP costs.
Which department to maximize first?
Let’s get to the biggest question of all: which department should I focus on first? In our opinion, there is nothing more important than getting a good power unit.
Straights are a crucial overtaking point in F1 2020, especially because the AI is very fast on those and slipstream is very strong in the game. Therefore, investing in the Powertrain department is a good choice both offensively and defensively. Try to aim especially for upgrades allowing you to use the rich fuel mix more effectively as this will boost your top speed significantly.
The optimal build path
Focusing on Powertrain does not mean you should just drop all the other facilities. Another very crucial department for your team is Durability. In F1 2020, you get grid penalties if you have to use additional gearbox or engine parts because your standard set has been worn out.
This can become quite a big problem for your team. While you might be able to charge your way through the field despite a ten-place grid penalty, your AI second driver mostly is not. This will cost you many important points in the constructors’ championship as well as RP points.
Therefore, be sure to make your car fast but also reliable. Chassis and Aerodynamics also have important upgrades, with the latter being the more useful department. We recommend to heavily invest in both of them later in the game, after finishing most of the upgrades in Powertrain and Durability.
Keep the rule changes in mind!
A few races before the end of each season, your team will alert you about rule changes becoming effective in the next year. These rule changes require you to invest RP in saving your car upgrades which get lost otherwise.
We highly recommend you stop spending RP in the last third of the season to save for possible big rule changes. Bringing all your upgrades into the next season is an essential step to become the best F1 team long term. There is no saving too many RP as you can still use them for upgrades once you have saved all your progress. Better safe than sorry!
With all these tricks in mind, you are now not only a good driver, but also an excellent F1 car engineer. Time to use your knowledge and become the successor of Mercedes with your team.
What is your most important advice for R&D in F1 2020? Tweet us your opinion at @overtake_gg!
