F1 manager with no F1 experience

[wackywarrior07]

Hi I've just bought this game after playing F1 for a while, I dont really watch F1 but like the idea of managing my own team and seeing how my racers do. Can anyone offer any tips and advice on this game if its something I can pick up without knowing much about the F1 world? Thank you

[Andy]

3rd driver serves no purpose in game. Let your 3rd drivers contract run out then just get the cheapest driver you can. THe worst driver that qualifies for an F1 license.

Design priority = underfloor, rear wing, front wing - the rest.
Make sure you get plenty of research done (designs for the following season, unlocks about 3 months into the season)
Upgrade your buildings. CFD and wind tunnel giving the best direct improvements to the car
The hours for windtunnel and CFD are re-set every 3 months. Make sure you use them all. (don't be afraid to push more hours to the important aero parts.

Check the expected strategy for the race at the start of the weekend, make sure you have those tires unused for the race.
For practice sessions, you will give back 2 sets of dry tires after each session. That will be the 2 sets of dry tires you use, or if you don't use a set. a soft set will be taken.

[wackywarrior07]

Hi Andy thank you for the info, with regards to the design I have just watched a youtube video and the man stated I should put the hours and wind tunnel up to max to complete the design but would that mean I cant design anything else for the rest of the season? or is that the ring thing to do? I'm going to start my new season now and going to work on underfloor straight away so wondering if I should start of maxing the hours and wind tunnel hours?

[CoachMac]

Welcome to that great game.
I am a bit like you i never watch F1 but i really enjoyed a lot f1 manager.

I wrote this a while ago for Williams.


williams is the easiest team to start i think and i took them as well.

When you manage everything manually the game takes indeed a lot of time.
I am at 130h or so and I have just (literally today) moved to season II.
But you can manage things in automated mode or you can advance fast to make it quicker (which i dont).

Like you I am new to F1 manager and did not play MM.
I finished 7th season 1 with Albon/Latifi duo.
I was in points for a fair amount of races in 2nd half of the season and managed a couple of 5th finish (once with Albon and once with Latifi).


I made that long thread once when someone asked same thing as you so here you go :)




I really enjoy Williams as team for this game.
I made that post a couple of weeks ago so posting again.
Let me know your thoughts.



I have only get into that game recently and only experimented Williams. So I dont pretend to be an expert by any means or that everything is perfect in my approach but it gave me decent results i think so far. Moreover, unlike NFL or baseball, I have no specific knowledge of F1.

I have not finished my first season now I just got significantly better. I now often qualify for Q2 and i now totally outmatch Aston Martin and compete with Hass, Alpha and Mc Laren. I had my best results in

So how did i do (I will be short hopefully):

1) Car design approach
- I first analysed track requirements. Based on track description if you ignore Monaco most tracks from spring to October require high speed and medium speed.
- So priority first on is on medium and high speed enhancement.
- Then to be honest i made a mistake because initially game gives you a free suspension and me i initially went to improve chassis first.It was a mistake (i.e. i could have done better).
- You have 3 parts which give you most benefits: under-front and both wings (front wing more for low/med speed and rear wing for high/medium speed).
- So approach is to split engineers in 2 or 3 teams: 1 work on underfront the others on wings or something else. If you look on benefit the interface tells you how much you improve it is quite straight forward.
- Then i focus on doing projects of 60 days max using all my capacity (MAUh and forge) until next period. of course you need to make sure to use your whole capacity for each 2 months periods.
- Focus from Spring to Sept has been high speed and medium speed.
- Then now i am in September i prepare a couple of low speed projects to enhance low speed because 4/5 final races require low speed.
- From Spring to October I made the decision to dedicate all my capacity to conception and delay research which will be the focus from October. Simply because there is no future if you get killed.
- On front + wing i always pick intense approach because it gives bigger benefits on next project on same component.
- As i said, i am in late September, my first upgrade was on chassis now all components are minimum at lvl2 while under front and wings are in 3 and soon 4.

2) Drivers
- I initially decided to be realistic and top wait for off season. o I kept Latifi/Albon
- Albon is fairly good and very reliable (never have accident)
- Latrifi is not really fast but is pretty good defending a position. It is thanks to him honestly that Albon finished 5th in Belgium.
- Funny enough you say you fired Stroll i probably will hire Stroll next season because based on my scouting he is the best defender driver (reliable/defence/tyre use).
- I just signed (before Italy GP) Dohan as reserve driver to develop him (he will make all P1). Initially i did not plan to do so until off season BUT i saw AI signed a prospect mid season so i signed him.
- I saw from test i made that the reserve drive easily get 600/700xp per GP ius as much as my both main drivers so for me that makes the development of a prospect possible. Of course this gives less time to one of your two driver to get comfortable with the track but this can be mitigated by running long M/H runs with that driver during the two practice sessions he will attend.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2912737221


3) car setup
- I use the excellent guide and tool from below
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2855732906
- First setup in 90s% confidence wins
- Another very important matter is engine components
- I replace (for races and qualifs only) any component under 70%.
- For practice i use my worse components. Practice are not for performance they are only there for your drive experience, car setup, and tyre tests to help define best strategy. So performance per say does not matter.
- For Singapore race, because it requires low speed, I dont expect to be much competitive because my low speed enhancement projects wont be completed by then. So i will screw that race and basically take penalty on both cars to bring a enw set of components (ERS/box/engine) and keep a fresh and performing car for the end of the season.

4) Qualifs
- Of course all manual
- I leave the hotlap in automatic mode i did not see any benefit managing it in micro.
- In qualif it is all about 3 things: (a) avoid traffic (b) maximise track grip (c) manage tryres (only relevant in Q2/Q3)
- For timing interafce helps you quite a lot see below screenshot to fgure out the right moment to go run your hotlaps.
- In Q1 i try to get a early run for both cars asap. This gives me an idea of the performance of my cars. What is important is to note how long does my car requires to get out and in position to start its hotlap.
- Then I manage to get both cars out for a second run with fresh S tyres before the traffic peak of final minutes. On this timing is critical and defined for each track. This usually give the best run maximising benefits of no traffic and high grip.
- In Q2 i try to go for a single run with fresh tyres just before the final minutes peak (easier since there are less cars).
- In Q3 i may not use fresh tyres depending on my expected race strategy which may require (eventually) to save an extra set of S tyres. This is as well due to the fact that so far i dont compete for top 5-6 positions anyway so might be revised if at some stage i do.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2914125234


5a) Races approach
- I manage everything manually and i truly try to define my strategies
- Of course pit stops and tyres management are the key from my experience. They drive if you can attack or not or which car you cna compete with.
- I define my strategies before practice sessions based on tyres.
- I made an excel spreadsheet which helps me defining my strategy (i.e. how many pits stops and which tyres look like best suited). Here below an example.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4LyRovQcN0&list=PLucrn8zFtuswZdbx7I5R0D78n93HWXMgo

- It is honestly a good tool to define strategy possible and what do you need to test during practice: i.e. which tyres for how many laps.
- Based on tyres usage and results during practice I adjut my strategy: i.e. adjust number of laps for each tyre set.
- Of course you make sure to never have a stratgey with both drivers pitting at same time.
- I really had fairly decent results using that approach with Albon as runner and Latifi as blocker/defender protecting Albon position from competitors. And that is an aspect of the game i really love.

5b) Races management
During the race i am quite active:
- That means that i run most of the races in real time (no quick advance)
- I check track times on a regular basis to benchmark my cars vs opponents (Aston/McLaren/Hass/Alpha) based on that i take action. I may push fuel, i may deploy ERS, i may delay or jump earlier for pit stop, i may define a way to defend a position... You need to know what you can expect and this is a great way to do so.
- i jump (when needed) to micro-manage one of the car on specific situations like critical defence or when i want to overtake a car. Then I use most of the tools offered by the game. Starting of course by ERS but as well fuel and how aggressive the driver should drive. Honestly it gives good results and is really enjoyable.
- I may change strategy live based on events (security cars, weather, opportunities) for the better or the worse :)
- You always start the race with "Overtake" ERS, "Push" on fuel and "Attack" driving options. Then based on event you slowly move back to "Normal" fuel, "Neutral" ERS and "Standard" driving.

5c) Specific action for overtakes and ERS
- I never saw any issue in overtake whenevr i had success or failure there was always in my experience a rationale.
- Obviously if you play Codemaster F1 knowing the track is a big plus.
- To overtake you need to put your driver in best conditions. First you need to favour DRS zones. So knowing/identify them is a must.
- Second you may consider pushing on fuel at key moments and looking to overtake might be one.
- Third you may ask the driver to "attack" or adopt an "aggressive" drive.
- Last but not least, at the key moment, which usually require to micor manage the car you push the ERS to "Overtake" option.
- On defence, you do exactly the same but opposite. You know your competiotor behind might be more dangerous in DRS zones. So you will likely activate ERS in "defense" mode in these part if the competitor is subject to a potential DRS boost.
- Switching ERS from "neutral" to either "overtake"/"defense" mode is critical when done on time and of course for a very short moment because you need to manage ERS.
- ERS on "Deploy" mode is used when you have no one close in front of you and you need to speed up to take benefit from pit stop from opponent to get a position or to put more distance between you and your suitors.


6) Other
- I initially focused on two things: hub personnel and design centre.
- I kept all my staff so hub personnel and they have 3/4 years contracts. So hub personnel has been a constant focus i am now one level beneath max.
- Then i improved driver simulation and MAUh/Forge capacity
- My pitt team training has been set to balanced (because more than 1 skill impact piutt stops) and they got fairly better.
- I have (sincerely) avoided any spoil on driver skills to keep my scouting mattering. Maybe because of my madden/FM long experience i love scouting. So i constantly scout drivers going with detailed scouting only for the one i consider hiring next year.


This game rocks long may he reign :)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2914548019

[Andy]

Originally posted by wackywarrior07:

Hi Andy thank you for the info, with regards to the design I have just watched a youtube video and the man stated I should put the hours and wind tunnel up to max to complete the design but would that mean I cant design anything else for the rest of the season? or is that the ring thing to do? I'm going to start my new season now and going to work on underfloor straight away so wondering if I should start of maxing the hours and wind tunnel hours?

You can design other parts. But, you won't get improvements from the other aero parts.
I'd push the hours predominantly to the 3 main aero parts. What you put on will depend on parts you're designing in that 3 month period. If you're going to do underfloor, the suspension and chassis. then you can push more than half the hours to underfloor.
For the first period entering a new game. I'd try and get the 3 main aero parts done, i've tended to give each one a third of the time. You can change that, if you do loose some hours from the front wing for the other 2 parts.
You will still get improvements from Chassis and suspension without those hours.
Not as much, but easy to argue they better used on the aero parts.

[CoachMac]

I must say that tracking during my second season car performance data for my competitors opened my eyes. In fact during the last ATR period McLaren and Alpha Tauri made significant improvements and i could feel a big difference in race (visible in a very recent mediocre Belgium race outcome for me).

I have done a video here where i present my method to manage car improvements.
It is in french but gives a view on the spreadsheet i use to capture data and decide improvements to make. So may give some ideas...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkQVvrUoTdA&t=15s