As the light turns green, Fernando Alonso puts the pedal to the metal and aggressively jostles to try and get out from his middling starting position. Esteban Ocon stays back to defend and tries to stop others from overtaking, giving Alonso the space he needs to pull ahead of the chasing pack. How long do I tell them to push for before their tires give out? How much fuel should I conserve? When should I give the signal to overtake? Everything in F1 Manager 2022 leads to these split-second decisions on race day, and they’re more thrilling than I ever imagined.

In F1 Manager 2022 you take on the role of a team principal - the person who, you guessed it, manages the drivers, cars, and is in charge of the race strategy for an entire team. For the preview, I was put in charge of Alpine, but in the full release you’ll be able to pick from any of the ten 2022 season teams.

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If you’re a fan of management sims with spreadsheets, graphs, and numbers, then you’re in for a treat. F1 Manager 2022 has a lot of that. Between races you’ll receive emails notifying you of key updates such as driver scouting, research and development progress, board approval, all the day-to-day that needs to be handled to keep the team well-funded and ahead of the competition. I didn’t have enough time to dig into this side of things thoroughly, but even skimming the surface I can tell there’s a depth to it all that is sure to satisfy F1 fans and number crunchers. Before journalism, I was an engineering student, and let me tell you, those numbers are legit.

f1 manager 2022 race screen showing the interval and commands you can give to drivers

Unfortunately, some of the menus and user interface elements feel a bit bloated. An R&D email suggesting I add a new rear wing to my cars took me to the general car customisation screen, rather than the part in question. It’s a minor gripe, but it disrupts the flow and makes getting around these screens more of a chore than it needs to be in a game that’s all about navigating menus and digging into some serious virtual admin.

If you don’t care too much for the nitty gritty, the game is very approachable for management sim and F1 newcomers. Simply investing in R&D will produce parts that make the cars go faster. Green numbers are good, red numbers are bad. Pop on parts that make the numbers green. Easy. Only the aerodynamic parts of the cars can be modified, however, not the engine. So those looking to build a brand new racing machine from the ground up won’t find what they’re after here.

I also got the chance to check the scouting reports for some F2 drivers with growth potential to replace my reserve driver. F1 Manager’s producer looked on in quiet horror as I accidentally offered a rookie the chance to replace Ocon, but he quickly stepped in and showed me how to back out of the contract. The prospective driver wasn’t too pleased, however, and refused to negotiate with me further.

f1 manager 2022 driver screen showing hamilton and russel

Once some new parts were added to my cars and my drivers were all selected, it was time to plan for the race. I got sent all the information I could possibly want about the track to formulate my strategy. An overview of the track itself, speed data, crash statistics, weather forecasts, even the mechanical data from all the cars that had raced it before. Again, you can opt for a quick glance to decide whether or not you need to bring some wet tires, or you could bust out the notepad and plan an in-depth strategy.

I had neither the time nor the skill for the latter, so I just did what the producer recommended and got into the practice sessions. These are used to acclimate your drivers to the track and cars - essential if you’ve added new parts as I had. This boosts their confidence, something that will greatly affect how they drive come race day. These laps are also a good chance to get your reserve driver some practice. It’ll come at the cost of your main drivers’ confidence, but it’s necessary if you want to improve their skills before one of your main drivers retires.

The practice sessions and qualifiers can all be simulated to save time, but this put me at the mercy of the game’s AI. It got my drivers into a serviceable state, but my reserve driver didn’t get any time on the track, so I’d highly recommend taking charge of the practice laps yourself. I also noticed my drivers did around half the laps the others did, so the AI doesn’t favour the player here at all. It’s all in the name of balance, but the real-world time save isn’t worth the in-game performance loss.

f1 manager 2022 car part customisation screen showing lots of numbers

Finally, after all the preparation, it was time for the main event: race day. I simulated the qualifiers because the clock on the preview was ticking, and I started with Alonso in 7th and Ocon in 11th. Not ideal, but I could work with it. Alonso is an aggressive driver, meaning he’ll seize the gap and try to overtake more often, something my strategy had accounted for and would use to my advantage. I gave him the command to burn fuel and rubber and get out in front as best he could. Driving more aggressively will decrease lap times but degrade tires faster, meaning earlier pit stops, and make drivers more likely to crash. It’s a risk I had to take to win.

You can play out the races in real-time or speed up to various degrees. I kept things slow to get a feel for it all. There are multiple cameras on the cars that I used to get stuck in to the action. Even though I couldn’t drive the car, the race was riveting to spectate, with sparks flying at every bump and tires smoking around the corners. The sound of the engines was electrifying and the constant radio chatter used real samples from F1 engineers and drivers. It felt real.

The moment-to-moment decisions are thrilling in a way I didn’t anticipate. F1 cars have a battery that gives them a little boost, but it needs to be charged with the brakes. Once Alonso got closer to Hamilton’s rear, I told him to unleash hell and go for the overtake. I mistimed it and the battery ran dry. After waiting for it to recharge I told him to try again. The second attempt was a success! The lack of direct control over the car gave the battle a tension that just wouldn’t be possible with it.

f1 manager 2022 race screen with wet weather showing the interval and commands you can give to drivers

I got a notification on the top of the screen that Ocon had overtaken someone. I quickly snapped to his view and saw he was closing in on another competitor. I gave him the all-clear to be more aggressive and at the next corner he took the line and came out ahead. My strategy was out the window now. I was reacting to what was happening and felt like a real principal, responsible for two cars and the future of our team.

I ran out of time at the preview before I could finish my race, but all of us there had completely different experiences. I and one other journalist had complete race stoppages due to a driver crashing - this meant we could fix damaged parts and change tires without a time penalty. One participant just had a couple of safety cars, and one climbed up to pole position. Races are simulated using data provided by F1 and none of it is predetermined, and it showed. Weather, tire conditions, driver accuracy, and if two cars are battling or not all factor into how likely cars are to crash and spin out. Each race, even with four people using the same team on the same track, will play out completely differently.

I’m a very casual Formula One fan. I’ll watch the first few laps of a race my housemate puts on, but otherwise, I don’t follow the sport. Despite that, after a few laps and some tips from the developers - who assured me the full build of the game has a tutorial to ease people like myself into the world of F1 - I became much more confident in my decision-making skills. Not only did I love playing the game, it made me want to watch F1 just to get better at it. All I’ve wanted to do since the preview is to sit down and play it for hours.

F1 Manager 2022 is out on PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles August 30, 2022.

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