Is This Significantly Better Than '22?

[Roust McGoust]

Are the races or management any better in this than in last year's game?

For context, I played Motorsport Manager (the full PC release) quite a bit and enjoyed it, found it very challenging (I purposefully didn't look up strategies to min/max stuff) yet mostly logical and fun in its mechanics and matched up with my expectations going in as a motorsport/F1 fan.

I got last year's game and was severely disappointed. The only aspects that were any better than MM were the fancy F1 licensing and real audio on the radio messages. Cool stuff. Except the races were boring DRS trains and my in-race options seemed to have little effect on pace or tire wear. Maybe last year's game improved after launch, but I was so appalled by how much worse it was than Motorsport Manager as an actual GAME that I gave up on it.

Am I going to be disappointed again? The F1 branding and licensing isn't enough to do it on its own, so is the sim itself any better or more fun?

[AoD_lexandro]

Short answer; No

Long Answer = Its last years game + a handful of of improvements. Not worth it imo.

[Team Triss]

I'm having a lot more fun with this one than I ever did with 22.

Looks like at this point, 23 is dead, though, might as well wait until 24.

[Umbar777]

Its far better, but it is the game they promised us last year plus Race Moments.

It has many improvements and worked well on many no gos of last years game so its fun now. To be a great game it is a long way to go, but if they keep up the development pace they can do it.

[Roust McGoust]

Thanks for the responses folks. I'm glad to hear it is at least an improvement, I will probably follow Team Triss' suggested strategy of waiting for '24.

[Sekhmet]

I have played both Motorsport Manager and F1 manager 22.
F1 manager 23 is, in my opinion, significantly better than 22 and worth the purchase (at full price probably not, I paid 30 euros with black friday discounts).
I will preface this by saying that I love the racing part more than the off track.
Most of the things I hated in 22 are gone!
- Finally no more DRS trains
- Tire wear is much more realistic even by the AI
- You can decide the attack and defense strategy separately.
- They implemented errors at pit stops and you have to decide the training of the mechanics so maintain them efficient but not tired
- The crashes, while still woody, are much more believable and varied
- There are investigations resulting in penalties or not
- You can change teams
- Then the replay challenges are fun, although I prefer the career
If you have any questions ask me, I am very satisfied with the purchase and the 22 now seems really old stuff ;)

[Team Triss]

Sekhmet points out a lot of good changes, and after writing what I did above, I've been playing a bunch of the game and realized it's not entirely fair for me to be telling people to hold off here while happily playing it, myself.

I wish Frontier would put more dev effort into it, but they're having some massive internal problems by the looks of it. They did give us ~9 updates and fixed some things and added some community requests (changing teams, for instance).

Is there more they can do? Absolutely. There's the outstanding issue with avoiding kerbs just tanking your tire temperature without really affecting lap times; people can and do use that as an exploit, and it should be fixed, especially since I did a bunch of testing and reporting on it here on the forums back when it was first discovered. There's a lot of QoL stuff they can and should be adding.

But like I said, I've been playing it again recently and I'm having a blast guiding Stroll and Alonso up the ranks, and the races have been real cheek clenchers. It's not the crash-fest (car crash) that 22 was. It plays pretty good and feels pretty good.

Maybe not as a full price buy (though that was how I did it and with the time I have and will put in I don't regret it) with the fact that they're cutting and running again, but on a good sale? Yeah, I think it's worth it after some more reflection.

If you're an F1 superfan, you should know that the sprint format is incorrect, though. They coded it based on what it was planned to be, and never updated it when F1 changed the format at the beginning of the season. I forget how it should be different, exactly, but others more in-the-know have pointed it out.

[Sekhmet]

Team Triss, right clarification, I did not know about the curb issue. Hopefully they will release more updates....
Another thing I hate is the time it takes them to get back in after an off-track, they seem to be standing at the traffic light.

P.S. I also drive Nando and Lando LOL

[Roust McGoust]

Thanks a lot folks, I really appreciate the help. These are probably the most useful and thoughtful responses I've ever received on steam discussions lol. I may give it a go then, because it seems like some of my major pain points have been fixed. I'll look for it on sale, or at the very least keep a close eye on '24

[Sekhmet]

It's a pleasure to be able to help you, moreover, a nice update came out today that seems to fix the curb problem highlighted by TeamTriss and it looks like support for the game continues.

[Team Triss]

I won't commit to eating my hat at this point, however I will start tenderizing it, just in case.

[kingarthur772]

When F1 Manager 2023 were only the reworked / overworked Parts from the Predecessor, then I would agree with most of you.

But the Devs have done a lot more than that. They integrated a lot of new Content / Features, which get missing in the Predecessor in the Ground-Base-Refit / Rework from the Predecessor [an first Simulation of F2 and F3-Races, better Training-Settings for the complete Team, Sprint-Races, the new Quali-Testing-format, Replay from all real Races etc.].

And the 2 big Community-Whishes as missing Contents / Features later on with Patches [Difficulty-Settings / Team Principle Option to accept or reject an offer from an better or lesser good Team].

It´s not perfect about Compromises between the used Platforms, there I agree fully. The Console-Gamers can´t get everything the PC could give and the PC-Gamers have to screw down their impossible whishes.

But it shows to us, that the Devs have learned from the F1 Manager 2022-Mistake and do the best Compromise between the doable and impossible. As well as that no Master fall from the Sky.

On that very solid F1 Manager 2023 Compromise between Console-Gamers and PC-Gamers the Devs can build up for the F1 Manager 2024.

The only Limiters are the useable Game-Engines (here Unreal 5) and the minimum Console- / PC-Hardware incl. Operating-System without overheating the CPU (Processor-Components), GPU (Graphics Card-Components) and the Mainboard with all other Parts.

[Garuda One]

Just as aside along with everything everyone has previously mentioned- waiting for 24 is a roll of the dice because as I understand it there is no assurances that Frontier will actually continue to do a yearly release. I believe I read somewhere that there's talk of doing a few years between releases, but I'm not sure. Though Frontier's financial woes and internal issues are pretty well publicized.

[Cöunt Eastwood]

Yes, I'm a bit (not entirely) surprised Braben didn't include F1 Manager 2022 in the current Steam Sale or I would've bought it right now. As it is, with no discount whatsoever they just lost a purchase and I suspect I'm not the only one. Of course, it's not the only reason they are in financial woes but it's yet another strange monetary mistake for no apparent reason.

[nh2008]

Is This Significantly Better Than '22?
Yes, it is. However there is room for improvement, that is for sure.

[Team Triss]

Originally posted by C L A I V Y❥:

Yes, I'm a bit (not entirely) surprised Braben didn't include F1 Manager 2022 in the current Steam Sale or I would've bought it right now. As it is, with no discount whatsoever they just lost a purchase and I suspect I'm not the only one. Of course, it's not the only reason they are in financial woes but it's yet another strange monetary mistake for no apparent reason.

23 is on sale; I'm not sure why you'd want 22 over 23 if you didn't have either, but if you really want 22, its forums are that way -->