There are many elements to track in the new F1 Manager 23 career mode. Here is our guide on getting started in the new game from car development to staff management and more.
Last week saw the release of Frontier Development’s second iteration of its F1 Manager game. Whilst the 2023 take on the series introduces a new gameplay mode focussing on recreating the real world events, the career mode is still the main draw to the title.
But in F1 Manager 23, the career mode gets a large overhaul with many new aspects and mechanics. With that in mind, it is most definitely a tricky game to start out with. Having been through the first few hours of the mode’s offerings, here is our guide to the F1 Manager 23 career mode. Find out all the best first steps to take.
Pick your F1 Manager 23 Team
Of course, the first thing one must do when starting out their F1 Manager 23 Career Mode is choosing their team. As the title’s marketing campaign continued telling fans, one can change later on by leaving the team – or getting fired. However, you will need contract offers in order to switch.
But for the meantime, the squad you pick here will stay with you for a while. So do choose wisely. Whilst fun to jump behind the reigns of Red Bull and dominate every race, we recommend going for a ‘rags to riches’ campaign. Select a lowly team that you can work up to being a good contender.
A team’s promise for future improvement can be seen in its facilities. Each team is ranked against its rivals in a number of categories. Those with good simulators, wind tunnels and recruitment teams will clearly have greater potential of rising through the ranks. Go for an outfit like Williams and you will be looking at a longer-term career mode goal.
We recommend kicking off with Alpine. Considering they are losing plenty of team members in the real world, it may be fun to improve their stock in-game. Furthermore, ranking middle of the road in terms of their HQ facilities, one can hit the ground running with development early on.
Explore the Career Mode Menu
After choosing your team, you’ll be greeted with the main menu. Here, you will find all the tabs relevant to managing your team as well as many data points critical to knowing what to do.
Upon your first visit, a tutorial will provide pop-up messages guiding you through everything you need to know. Whilst many fans criticise the game’s surface level management aspects, it still features many elements and mechanics to track. Therefore, it is definitely a good idea to study everything the tutorial guides you through.
Make sure you understand every element of the main menu before moving forward. One little error in spending or development could send you over the many restrictions in modern Formula One. Moreover, mismanage your team members and the board of directors may deem you unfit to run the team rendering you jobless.
Early Car Development
If you did select a mid-ranking team as aforementioned, it is a good idea to jump straight into car and team development from day one. In fact, the first week of one’s Career Mode takes place in the final week of the ATR (Aerodynamic Testing Regulations) period. As a result, one has around 60 hours of wind tunnel and CFD time to use almost for free.
The one impact early car part development will have later on down the line is its take in the cost cap. Therefore, it can be a small risk spending the money. But if you keep the development costs low by using fewer people and drawing out the development process, this shouldn’t be a huge issue.
The best solution would be to begin as many part development processes as possible. Spread the financial load over multiple parts and you will have a greater chance of success. In fact, setting on a development path before taking a look at the pre-season testing results may mean developing useless parts. But it is always a good idea to have elements in the pipeline as they will become available to use as early as Race 2 or 3.
F1 Manager 23 Career Sponsors
Once your role as team manager has begun, it’s time to prepare for your first race weekend. This involves reading up on past years’ strategies, checking for the possibility of a safety car and ensuring your cars are ready to race. Seriously, make sure you have enough car parts to survive a weekend.
But perhaps the most important financial action is to look up one’s sponsor expectations. Here, you will see where you must finish in each session in order to claim your sponsor rewards. Often, these are hefty sums of cash so bolstering your finances won’t go amiss with the team’s board of directors.
It is here that one can also bet on their own team. By offering ‘Guarantees’ to their sponsor, one can claim additional reward money for beating certain guaranteed results. However, if you do not meet them, you will end up losing money instead. This is why setting Guarantees, especially early on in your career is a large and risky gamble.
We would advise not to set these in the first race. However, from Round 2 and as you work out where your car lies in the pecking order, making more and more challenging Guarantees may prove fruitful. Make sure to read through the descriptions however as they can refer to either one or both drivers, they can also stick for multiple races.
Get Racing!
Now that you understand all the backend elements of your F1 Manager Career Mode, it’s time to hit the track. Simply hit the advance button in your menu to skip to the race weekend. Once the event has begun you can choose to either manage your drivers’ run plans or simulate them.
Unless you want to spend a full day enacting one race weekend, we’d recommend simulating sessions individually. Alter your drivers’ setups between each of the three Free Practice sessions. Move the aero and suspension sliders up or down depending on the racers’ needs.
Similarly, there’s no real need to manage the drivers’ run plans in qualifying. Simply skip ahead and get down to the nitty gritty of the race. Grand Prix are long so don’t worry about losing places here and there at the start. The most important is that the drivers don’t lose confidence. Make sure they are motivated by letting them set decent times through the middle of the race all whilst preserving tyres. Push your final pitstop as far back as you can and charge through the field in the final laps. This appears to be the best course of action in most events.
What were your first steps in the F1 Manager 23 Career Mode? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
