what a hard life at Binotto

Things are not going too well in Aston Martin. We take over the leadership of the Silverstone team just before the start of the season in F1 Manager 2022 and we find a disastrous situation: our car is a tractor and, unlike the real Formula 1, the team does not already have an alternative in production. In the first race, we are stuck in the rear. The Williams are significantly slower, but the rest of the grid is much faster. So we stay in the middle ground and pretty much drive on our own, which isn’t exactly hilarious.

Back at headquarters, there is at least some glimmer of hope. Our situation at the level of budget is decent and our facilities for personnel, business and vehicle construction are a solid foundation for the future. To make the leap to mid-table, we commission a new body design and a new bottom. Our chief engineers have below average ratings, so we look at the alternatives and assign a scout to follow our favorite. This gives us an idea of ​​what the candidate has in mind in terms of salaries and bonuses. In this case, we meet halfway, as the team is under pressure to see progress and the engineer in question does not currently have a job. We are also commissioning upgrades to the design center and wind tunnel, which should bring results by mid-season.

In the next Grand Prix there is not much to gain, again, but at least we manage to provide Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll, whose desperate radio messages (recorded in the real races) perfectly underline the disarming condition of the team, of the assets they give a little bit of trust in them this time. To do this, F1 Manager 2022 made use of a minigame that already existed in Motorsport Manager – you send the drivers to free practice, collect their feedback and, on that basis, try to tune the car through five sliders until it does. please the pilots. During FP, they also have to get used to the track and any new piece we have given them. The better these three things go, the more bonus points the drivers will receive on their qualifying and race attributes – a maximum of 15 for each race. In our case, unfortunately, this has little influence on the result, but good free practice and some duels on the track, at least, guarantee the drivers some good experience points.

Who does not dare … –

Lance Stroll, who is a young man with still high growth potential, receives a development point as a result. This allows us to increase one of his attributes. A report from our analysts tells us that we are behind the other teams especially on braking, so we invest the point in that skill. It should rain in the race in Australia. The drops that come from the sky are a great leveler in motorsport and this could be our chance to finish in the points. We decide to start on medium tires as the rain is expected to begin to drop around the end of their expected life cycle. Our weather station is only level 1, so the forecasts aren’t super accurate, but what do we have to lose?

After the start, our drivers are at the bottom of the standings and we hope the averages hold until it rains – which they do! As soon as we start worrying about the outcome of our bet, the drops of water start to go down. They go down quickly and with excellent timing because we are just before the entrance to the pit lane. So we go in, put on the intermediate tires and push. Since most of the cars ahead of us had to take a slower lap in the rain before they could stop, we made up positions. We’re not in the spots yet, but as the asphalt should dry again during the run, we have a chance to repeat this trick by switching back to slicks at the right time. Unfortunately, we are not yet experienced team principals and we give the order a lap too soon – we lose about 20 seconds in the out lap after the stop compared to the cars on intermediates. The advantage we had previously gained is gone. Everyone else enters one lap later and immediately scores normal lap times. At least, some experience on future wet races. We did the binottataeh?

How do you suffer in Aston Martin –

Back at the headquarters, our new designs are finally ready and we commission their production. However, the comparison of the data with the rest of the grid shows that we are still enormously behind – and you can clearly hear that in the races, some of which are just quite boring back there because there are no major decisions to be made. The negotiations for the renewal of our drivers are not going well either. Vettel and Stroll really want a rich bonus to finish 19th every time.

Time for us to go to greener meadows in a second career, this time with Alfa Romeo. Ironic, considering the colors of the two stables. Compared to the Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo has put together a rocket, but the team has less budget and its structures are not as solid. But, with a better car, we can finally give some performance guarantees to our sponsors to get some good rewards. We aim to reach the final stage of qualifying in the opening race, which Valtteri Bottas really does. Taking home those optional bonuses in as many races as possible will help us retain key staff members, not lag behind with upgrades, and invest in the future.

Alfa Romeo, a whole different story … –

In the race, the difference between those in the back and a team in the first half of the grid is like that between day and night: we assign aggressive strategies to Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, which quickly gains us some positions. The Finn overtakes Perez and Leclerc, and chases the leading pair Sainz and Verstappen, while Zhou makes his way into the top 10. We can’t stop ourselves from frantically switching between the cockpit views of the two drivers as we keep an eye on the times on the lap, tire temperatures and battery charge. Comparing all the data, for which we pause the race (what wouldn’t the strategists of the real teams give to be able to do it?), We find that the wear of our tires is quite high compared to the competitors. But, as long as we stay in the DRS window, we should be able to save a little on the tire and still keep a good pace. So we order to moderate the pace to save the life of the tires. Bottas has to let Leclerc go but, in his DRS window, he creates a gap with Perez. Zhou, now in a great seventh position, is stuck behind Alonso in a huge DRS train. Just like in real races, right?

Babysitting and managing the tires, engine settings and battery consumption on both cars, the race, lap after lap, flies in the blink of an eye. We are in the pit window for our strategy and, since Bottas’ tires are… gone, Bono, we take him in a little earlier and allow him to hammer again. Zhou was a bit kinder on the tires despite numerous overtaking attempts, and he manages to reach the time calculated for his stop in an optimal way. We let them push and accelerate the race pace briefly until the other teams stop. Our strategy worked! Bottas recovered the top three thanks to the undercut and Zhou moved up to sixth position. The Scandinavian battled with Sainz for a while, but this put a strain on fuel reserves and tires. A spin, unfortunately, closes the dreams of the podium prematurely and without DRS we end up further and further behind Ferrari. This is the sad fate of team bosses: in the end, like the spectators, we are doomed to watch the race with limited control over it. All we can do is manage the resources that drivers have at their disposal and give them orders such as letting a teammate pass, keeping other drivers behind them, avoiding curbs or cleaning in clean air. The rest is in the hands of those behind the wheel.

Watch out for the tires … –

Perez is still behind us and we are managing tire wear and fuel consumption with great care, so we can keep fourth place. Zhou, meanwhile, is in an exchange of blows with Lewis Hamilton. After the second stop we hold our positions, but Perez has recovered on Bottas because we have had to conserve resources in the meantime.

But all of this pays off on the last lap: we have enough fuel to push hard, the tires are not completely gone and we have an almost full battery to repel Perez’s attacks. Zhou has the same resources but loses the duel with Hamilton, certainly not a shame for a rookie. Fourth and seventh place in the opening Grand Prix! We almost ran the entire race in real time, pausing at times to study data and make decisions, yet time flew. Who would have thought: it’s all a lot more intense and exciting when you’re driving in the heart of the action and your decisions really impact the tarmac situation. Climbing the ranks and earning those first points with Aston or Williams will be a satisfying experience, but we would recommend anyone looking for a little more action to pick a higher tier team.

F1 Manager 2022, the verdict –

So what’s the verdict then? There are certainly managerials that are deeper than F1 Manager 2022, but the presentation and use of the official FIA license they are second to none. It’s really nice to hear real exchanges over the radio between the drivers and race engineers, although it would have been better with a little more variety.

We’d love to see some changes and customization options here and there in the interface, but the console version is probably a limitation for the PC version as well. Above all, the customization of the windows in which to study the data would be at least desirable: looking at the lap times, for example, it would be nice to be able to see the tires used to get those times or comparisons with the other riders on the same screen, rather than having to go ahead and backwards. The game offers a lot of data: F1 nerds will have everything they need to make informed decisions. On the other hand, i casual gamer they won’t be overwhelmed by this bulk at the same time. Those who want to simulate, or basically skip, free practice and qualifying to try their hand directly in the race will be able to do it with ease.

The basic package of F1 Manager 2022 is good: the promise was to let you manage the fortunes of a team as a team principal, and it has been kept. In the long run, however, we wonder if the game will be a little too dry: random problems do not occur too frequently and even for those that there are the consequences are limited, pilots and staff are authentic but have no features other than the attributes, and not much happens in vehicle parts development other than boosting some metrics. These are all subsystems that could be extended without compromising the high-level accessibility of the title. Because there are no paying drivers, for example, to earn some extra cash? This would also help the desolation we felt in Aston Martin: if you are on a rear team with nothing to do on the track (no matter how careful you are on the tires, you won’t win with that car for a while anyway), it would be nice if there it was at least something more to do outside the circuit.

The world of F1 is vibrant and dramatic both on and off the tarmac – F1 Manager 2022 does a great job in replicating the action on the track, giving all kinds of fans and gamers a way to enjoy it in their own way. As with a Formula 1 car, however, there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Written by Marco Wutz for GLHF