Navigating The Challenges of F1

F1® Manager 2024 introduces several changes to the way daily management plays out away from the track, giving you more tools to navigate the range of challenges the world of F1® throws at you as a Team Principal.

Today, we’re going to take a deeper look at how we’ve improved some of the game’s systems based on player feedback, as well as a highly requested new feature that enables you to plan for the future better than ever before.

Spinning Plates

Authenticity is at the core of our design philosophy for the F1® Manager series and with F1® Manager 2024 we’ve brought a range of new features and refinements to make the experience more detailed, challenging and replayable.

As a Team Principal, the decisions you make before race day can have just as much of an impact as your calls from the pit wall. We discussed the impact the new mentality system will have in our last deep dive, but that’s only one area where we’ve added new depth and challenge to daily management in F1® Manager 2024.

Community requested improvements to the sponsorship system, a new marketability value for drivers and the introduction of the Affiliate Drivers systems all bring new challenges and decisions for you to make as Team Principal. These additions, alongside Create A Team and Mentality, bring a new layer of control to your F1® story, with barriers and opportunities a plenty on your journey to build a F1® legacy.

Deliver for Sponsors

The refreshed sponsorship system in F1® Manager 2024 gives you more choice over the type of packages you can accept from potential sponsorship partners. Whether in Create A Team, or with one of the 10 official F1® constructors, selecting the right sponsor package will be key to the financial success of your team.

Throughout the season you’ll be presented with sponsorship opportunities where you can select your title sponsor and secondary sponsors, and then decide on upcoming sponsorship activities for the coming weeks. Each sponsor plan lasts six weeks, giving you a total of eight planning opportunities over a season.

The available sponsorship packages will differ depending on your drivers and team facilities, as well as your team's overall rating. Different sponsorship packages offer a variety of different types of sponsorship funding, including a mix of guaranteed and potential funding.

There are three main types of sponsorship funding:

• Upfront funding – paid out as soon as you have signed a sponsorship negotiation.
• Engagement funding – your sponsors will set a target for what level of engagement they want for the year, which is achieved by completing engagement activities through the sponsor plan. Engagement funding is paid at the end of each period. 
• Race day funding – paid based on your team's performance each race weekend.

You can also add a number of optional packages for additional funds and bonuses. However, these packages may include mandatory activities that can have a positive or negative effect on your team, so you’ll need to weigh up the financial benefits versus the risks of taking too much on.

Tracking the engagement target of your sponsor is critical if you want to make the best of your agreement and gain the biggest financial rewards. With engagement targets it’s important that your drivers are also able to perform off of the track and take part in sponsorship opportunities throughout the season.

While sponsorship opportunities are a fantastic source of funds for your development, contract negotiations and facilities, they can also have a detrimental impact on various aspects of your team. Juggling the needs of your sponsors while also doing their best in their primary role is no mean feat, so it’s always important to balance sacrificing your team’s performance and fulfilling your sponsor obligations. 

Do you select a sponsor with a high initial payout but lower rewards for long-term success, or do you back yourself to perform on race day and earn higher, riskier payments? Do you take on as many packages as possible to bring the highest financial gain, or do you shun the money in favour of keeping your team happy and performing well?

It's in your hands to control the flow of money into your team and where to strike the balance in order to reach the pinnacle of the championship.

Attract the Best Talent

Sponsors are attracted to your team based on your overall marketability value. This is determined by several factors:

• The overall rating of your team
• The status and upgrade level of certain facilities
• The marketability of your drivers

Your marketability value will determine the quality of engagement activities sponsors will offer and the amount of money your team will receive for completing them.

Driver marketability is a new attribute this year and will fluctuate depending on a variety of elements: 

• Recent race performance
• The amount of sponsor activities they are involved in
• Their overall worldwide fanbase
• Their popularity in their home country
• Their home country’s interest in Formula 1®

A string of great performances, engaging in sponsor activities, or moving to a stronger team will all see a boost to a driver’s marketability rating.

The market appetite in their home country is dynamic and will fluctuate throughout your playthrough depending on which nations are represented on the grid and finding success across F1®, F2 and F3. This means that a highly marketable driver in one playthrough, may not be such a safe bet in another. 

This dynamic system means that a driver’s marketability is not static and is fully reactive to events on the track. Achieve enough on race days and you’ll receive more and more attractive offers from sponsors.

Discover Rising Stars

New to F1® Manager 2024 is the Affiliate Drivers system which allows you to recruit up to 10 up and coming drivers from the world of F2 and F3 to your team. 

Using the refreshed contract negotiation system, you can now offer drivers a role as an ‘affiliate’ within your team, instead of taking the 1st,2nd, or reserve driver slot. This allows them to continue to race or pursue a seat in F2 and F3 to gain experience.

You can also choose to replace a race driver in the first practice session of a race weekend if the affiliate is old enough and has competed in at least 2 seasons of F2 or F3, allowing them to develop their skills and increase their development rate.

The development of your affiliate drivers can be shaped by assigning them a development plan. This enables you to focus on the weakest areas of a driver’s skillset as they develop. Affiliate drivers will also use your facilities to boost their growth, gaining from any upgrades you might have purchased.

Your opponents will also make full use of the Affiliate system, scouting, signing and developing drivers just as you do. With affiliate drivers affected by the new mentality system, you’ll need to do what you can to keep them happy or they might look for their future elsewhere.

The new Affiliate system allows Team Principals to hire, develop and mentor the stars of tomorrow. Will you scout a rising star and give them the tools for success, or will you scout an unknown and shape them into a future champion?

F1® Manager 2024 is Coming This Summer

The world of F1® is always evolving, setting ever changing challenges and opportunities for Team Principals to wrestle. With the new tools at your disposal in F1® Manager 2024, there are even more avenues for you to overcome these challenges and lead your team to F1® glory, whether as one of the 10 official constructors or as your own custom team.

Join us again soon for the next of our feature deep dives where we take a look at improvements to race day simulation and authenticity.

F1® Manager 24 launches 23 July 2024. Pre-order now!