UPDATE: THE DEVS ARE STOPPING SUPPORT OF THE GAME LESS THAN 2 MONTHS AFTER RELEASE WHILE NOT HAVING FIXED MANY GAME BREAKING BUGS.

Take this not recommended with a grain of salt, but in the state that it is, I would only recommend buying it at half price. TLDR at the bottom.

F1 Manager is something that caught my eye very quickly - I only recently got into the sport and I didn't feel like buying an entire car to be able to play F1, and I love the managing aspect of it, so I got it. If you're someone who likes the sport and would like to manage drivers, teams, bring them to glory, get into the technical aspect of it - this is for you.

The game's base works great - as a team principal, you develop, research and manufacture car parts, hire and fire staff, drivers, as well as develop them. You can also upgrade your facilities with various bonuses. When Free Practice rolls around, you have to tune your car so your drivers are confident in it, catch perfect times in qualifying and then strategize and manage your race.

But, after you see all that and actually try it out, the game falls flat on it's face. The AI barely competes with you - from my experience, they strictly conform to suggested strategies, never touch fuel or ERS management. You will also realize that the AI barely develops or researches their car, so you can have the best car in a season or two, making the game a cakewalk even without looking into the meta.

To their credit, after a lot of criticism, Frontier patched tire wear and performance in the latest patch to improve it, but the core of the problem is still there - sure, each circuit has different degradation and speed for tires, but driver ability for tire management is abysmal - the smoothness stat means nothing. One of the strongest attributes of real life F1 drivers is their ability to manage the tires - Hamilton can say, "Bono, my tires are dead" and then make them last 20 more laps, but in F1 Manager, this is not represented. Smoothness maybe gives you a lap or two more and makes your fuel last a bit longer. That's it. And oh, Ocon is apparently the best tire whisperer to grace F1. Not to mention, tires rarely overheat and even then it doesn't matter, you don't need to warm up the tires. The game needs more unpredictability when it comes to tires and drivers should be able to influence it more.

Now, you might be thinking - that's something that could be patched very easily and I hope you're right. But there are many things in this game that need a complete overhaul. Namely, Driver Feedback.

In FP, you might expect your drivers to tell you that the brakes are off, or the car doesn't have enough traction, or the car feels slow in DRS zones, or the front wing feels off, but no. All you get is your driver saying "Set up is bad/good/great/optimal" after 15 laps or so. The drivers will never comment on whether the tires feel good, if the grip is good. In F1, drivers often make pit or strategy calls, ask about tires, communicate with you. In the game, you get three comments - tires are overheating, set up is whatever, and once your tires reach 30%, "my tires are gone". For something that's so important IRL, it's completely absent from the game.

Another big thing for me - crashes, going wide or locking up seem... pointless? I understand that developing a good animation system for crashes is hard, but if a driver goes into the gravel irl and stops, that's it. They're out. Meanwhile in F1 Manager, you'll see Latifi go into the barrier at 300kmh and just keep racing. Getting the pop-up for driver's going wide when it's barely a highlight every 2 seconds can also get annoying.

For more minor issues, the commentary is very monotone and stops being fun after the first few races. I wish there were options for choosing sponsors or changing liveries but I understand that's either an expensive or difficult thing to implement. You can't change your teams after you get fired or get bored with your team, you can't create or own team or drivers. The driver development is a bit off too.

The good part is that the devs seem to be paying attention and patching things. The reason why this game gives me a lot of hope and this review could change to recommended very easily is that the base of the game is great, but it needs many, many adjustments. A patch for improving and expanding driver feedback, AI actually using the game's mechanics, tires being something more dynamic and challenging, a patch for making crashes feel more impactful, and the game becomes something great.

TLDR: Core of the game is good, but needs many, many adjustments so it doesn't get boring in one season.

UPDATE: THE DEVS ARE STOPPING SUPPORT OF THE GAME LESS THAN 2 MONTHS AFTER RELEASE WHILE NOT HAVING FIXED MANY GAME BREAKING BUGS. Take this not recommended with a grain of salt, but in the state that it is, I would only recommend buying it at half price. TLDR at the bottom. F1 Manager is something that caught my eye very quickly - I only recently got into the sport and I didn't feel like buying an entire car to be able to play F1, and I love the managing aspect of it, so I got it. If you're someone who likes the sport and would like to manage drivers, teams, bring them to glory, get into the technical aspect of it - this is for you. The game's base works great - as a team principal, you develop, research and manufacture car parts, hire and fire staff, drivers, as well as develop them. You can also upgrade your facilities with various bonuses. When Free Practice rolls around, you have to tune your car so your drivers are confident in it, catch perfect times in qualifying and then strategize and manage your race. But, after you see all that and actually try it out, the game falls flat on it's face. The AI barely competes with you - from my experience, they strictly conform to suggested strategies, never touch fuel or ERS management. You will also realize that the AI barely develops or researches their car, so you can have the best car in a season or two, making the game a cakewalk even without looking into the meta. To their credit, after a lot of criticism, Frontier patched tire wear and performance in the latest patch to improve it, but the core of the problem is still there - sure, each circuit has different degradation and speed for tires, but driver ability for tire management is abysmal - the smoothness stat means nothing. One of the strongest attributes of real life F1 drivers is their ability to manage the tires - Hamilton can say, "Bono, my tires are dead" and then make them last 20 more laps, but in F1 Manager, this is not represented. Smoothness maybe gives you a lap or two more and makes your fuel last a bit longer. That's it. And oh, Ocon is apparently the best tire whisperer to grace F1. Not to mention, tires rarely overheat and even then it doesn't matter, you don't need to warm up the tires. The game needs more unpredictability when it comes to tires and drivers should be able to influence it more. Now, you might be thinking - that's something that could be patched very easily and I hope you're right. But there are many things in this game that need a complete overhaul. Namely, Driver Feedback. In FP, you might expect your drivers to tell you that the brakes are off, or the car doesn't have enough traction, or the car feels slow in DRS zones, or the front wing feels off, but no. All you get is your driver saying "Set up is bad/good/great/optimal" after 15 laps or so. The drivers will never comment on whether the tires feel good, if the grip is good. In F1, drivers often make pit or strategy calls, ask about tires, communicate with you. In the game, you get three comments - tires are overheating, set up is whatever, and once your tires reach 30%, "my tires are gone". For something that's so important IRL, it's completely absent from the game. Another big thing for me - crashes, going wide or locking up seem... pointless? I understand that developing a good animation system for crashes is hard, but if a driver goes into the gravel irl and stops, that's it. They're out. Meanwhile in F1 Manager, you'll see Latifi go into the barrier at 300kmh and just keep racing. Getting the pop-up for driver's going wide when it's barely a highlight every 2 seconds can also get annoying. For more minor issues, the commentary is very monotone and stops being fun after the first few races. I wish there were options for choosing sponsors or changing liveries but I understand that's either an expensive or difficult thing to implement. You can't change your teams after you get fired or get bored with your team, you can't create or own team or drivers. The driver development is a bit off too. The good part is that the devs seem to be paying attention and patching things. The reason why this game gives me a lot of hope and this review could change to recommended very easily is that the base of the game is great, but it needs many, many adjustments. A patch for improving and expanding driver feedback, AI actually using the game's mechanics, tires being something more dynamic and challenging, a patch for making crashes feel more impactful, and the game becomes something great. TLDR: Core of the game is good, but needs many, many adjustments so it doesn't get boring in one season.