F1 fans can look forward to a summer of gaming with Frontier’s latest manager title ‘F1 Manager 2024’ releasing on July 23.💃 

F1 Manager 2024 continues to build on the success of its predecessor with the addition of a couple of neat new g💟ame modes.

Last week, mahbx.com F1 journalist Connor McDonagh🌱 had the chance to play a preview build of F1 Manager 2024, venturing into two of their biggest new features for this year. 

Create A Team

There’s no doubt that the biggest selling point of this yea𝓡r’s title is the ‘Create A Team’ mode, giving players the option to create their own constructor to join th🏅e 2024 F1 grid. 

Unlike Andretti, your team will become F1's 11th entry, allowing players to go up against the likes of Red Bull, Ferrari a🌠nd Mercedes.

Players will have complete a﷽utonomy on what the team will look like, from team name, car livery, the logo, race suits and race helmets. 

The level of creativity was more🀅 than adequate, particularly around the team logo side of things which wasꦚ described as having a “photoshop-like” system.

In te💝rms of the livery, players are given plenty of freedom to choose specifically where they want to place their sponsor logos - with sponsor management a significant part of r𝐆unning your own F1 team. 

Aside from the usual bells and whistles you’d expect with creating your own team, players are given the option of dec𒈔iding the “origins” of their new constructor.

Effectively, this decides how easy you want to make your journey. Whether you arrive in Bahrain with a world class outfit capable of immediately takin♍g it to Red Bull or a more conventional road to glory with a long term view of going from the back of the grid to the front, there's an option for everyone.

There are at least six options for the players to choose from, which in turn, impacts the d♉rivers, engineers and team 💮personnel you can sign. 

For the preview event, we were given reasꦛonabl♛e freedom to do as we pleased when building up our own outfit.

It w🌃as the perfect chance to reunite L🗹ewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas at CMG Racing, with Peter Bonnington and Gianpiero Lambiase as race engineers. 

After the ꩲteam customisation was done and dusted, it was straiꦜght into Bahrain.

F1 Manager veterans will be familiar with the rest of the weekend, so there were not too many surprises. Given the lack of play time, it was difficult to gauge the impact of the new penalty system or the dynamic team AI, but everythiౠng else ra🐷n relatively smoothly. 

The ‘Create A Team’ mode delivered as expected and should keep playersꦗ engaged for🐬 even longer than before.

Mechanical Failures

The secဣond part of the preview event was based around a fictional ‘Race Replay’ scenario. 

While managing the Red Bull team at the Australian Grand Prix, players are tested on their ability🎐 to manage mechanical failures.

Mechanical failures have been a key addition to this year’s title, giving players an added challenge in terms of managing🍰 components during the seasons or during sessions t🐼hemselves. 

In m𝓀y case, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez encountered ERS-related iss꧟ues.

While Verstappen was able to take the lead, he soon lost the ability to recharge his battery and thus dropped down 𓃲the order having lost that crucial electrical power. 

S😼imilarly with Perez, his issue was more severe, losing ERS power entirely.

Frustrating? Perhaps, but an inter🅠esting challenge nonetheless. More importantly, it seems that the specific iss🦄ue and when it occurs is unique to each player, thus, making it difficult to counteract if you wanted to replay the scenario. 

One criticism of the ‘Race Replay’ mode last year, at least in the case with Fe▨rnando Alonso in Monaco, it appeared that making a decision to pit for the intermediates was identical each time you played it making the replayability factor non-existent.

Final thoughts

Overall, my experience of F1 Manager 2024 was overwhelmingly positive. The game ran ꦓincredibly smootไhly without any issues, allowing me to enjoy the stunning visuals and overall immersive experience.

The ‘Create A Team’🅺 mode is a big win for players, particularly with the diverse options available from a creativity standpoint.

The level of detail and control you have over races, com✤bined with how visually ﷽stunning the game looks makes it an enjoyable experience.

Frontier also deserve praise for putting the retail price at just £29.99 in a world where buying a video game costs an exto🌟rtionate amount ꦉof money, usually closer to £69.99.

F1 Manager 2024 will launch on July 23 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for a suggested retail price of £29.99/$34.99/€34.99, with the Deluxe Edition available for a suggested retail price of £39.99/$44.99/€44.99.