A compelling motorsport sim for F1 lovers and newcomers alike - F1 Manager 2023 Quick Review
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PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?
Play it if you’re an F1 diehard, but also if you’re only starting to develop in the sport, like I am. F1 Manager 2023 has all the fussy details for hardcore fans to pore over, but it also provides plain-language tutorials and explanations for newcomers to the sport, as well as thrilling race visuals that ensure every Grand Prix is a nail-biting experience even from the principal’s perch.
TIME PLAYED
So far I’ve played six hours of F1 Manager 2023. That’s been enough time for me to get acquainted with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team and lead them to a somewhat disappointing finish at the first seasonal Grand Prix in Bahrain, followed by a more mixed result in Jeddah. Prior to the race weekends, I flipped through menus that showed me the team goals and expectations set by the board, provided a breakdown of our pit crew training schedule, and a rundown of the team’s facilities.
WHAT’S AWESOME
• Rewarding simulation. F1 Manager 2023 is all about preparation, and there are countless ways to dig into this between race days. From researching new car parts to improve performance and the aerodynamic profiles of my team’s cars to improving a gloomy engineer’s morale with a trip to the trophy room, I had plenty to do as I waited for the next grand prix of the season. Once a race weekend arrived, there were practice sessions and qualifying rounds to carefully watch, giving me the chance to tweak both cars to try to squeeze just a little more performance out of each one.
• Race day thrills. Each race event in F1 Manager 2023 is presented in highly realistic 3D graphics, with exquisitely detailed cars and tracks. I could flip through a broadcast camera view of the race to various cameras mounted on my drivers’ helmets and cars, all of which brought the action to roaring life. At the touch of a button I could also look at a map view that showed every racer’s position, or shift to a strategy view that broke down my planned pit stops and tire changes.
There’s still a lot for me to learn about the finer points of race management, but I enjoyed giving updates to my drivers, telling them to ease off on fuel consumption or to be more aggressive about overtaking maneuvers. Drivers reacted to events on the track too, sometimes cursing when they lost a position or letting the crew know that they needed more power from the energy recovery system (ERS).
• Practice sessions are actually fun. The big races are obviously the stars of the show, but as a team manager, a lot of the most interesting work happens in the days before the Grand Prix events. Practice and qualifying rounds were opportunities for me to gather feedback from my drivers, make adjustments to each car, and get my reserve driver some track time.
One of my favorite elements of this was the minigame that let me fiddle with sliders that controlled various aerodynamic systems that impacted a car’s grip, performance in turns and straightaways, and braking. After one of my drivers had taken the car around the track for a few laps, I’d get a chance to play this tuning game and try to get each system adjusted to a sweet spot customized for that driver. When I did it well, the driver would let me know when he headed back out on the track by saying something like “Oh yeah, this feels great.” That made me feel great.
• There’s help if you need it. I’m not well-versed in F1, and it’s a complex sport, so I was pleased that F1 Manager 2023 has an extensive tutorial system built in for those of us who need it. When I picked out my team, a staff engineer popped up on my screen to walk me through each menu, explaining what I needed to consider, in mostly plain language. That helped me feel less at sea when I started wading through training schedules and parts manufacturing options. I wouldn’t say F1 Manager 2023 is exactly beginner-friendly, but it’s much more approachable than other sim management games I’ve played.
WHAT SUCKS
• Qualifying has some issues. With drivers heading into and out of the box at all times, it can be difficult or impossible to find a time to get a clean, traffic-free qualifying lap done in the lead-up to big races.
• Poor graphics options. F1 Manager 2023 has a strange set of graphics options, and some of the key selections, like screen resolution, are implemented poorly. To select my monitor’s 3440x1440 resolution, I first had to select fullscreen mode to make the resolution option appear at all, and then cycle through each screen resolution with my monitor refreshing every time, before finally landing on my native resolution. A drop-down menu would have been much easier to use.
• Crashes. No, not the kind involving cars colliding with each other. I didn’t run into any stability issues on my machine, but quite a few PC players have reported frequent crashing in the Steam version of F1 Manager 2023. If you’re concerned about performance and stability, it may be wise to wait a few weeks to see if Frontier releases any patches.
💬 Will you be suiting up for this year’s F1 season as manager, or does this seem too much like an engineering degree program to be fun? Let us know in the comments!
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