F1 Manager 2024 review in progress - Striving towards perfection

It feels weird to think that we're now into our third iteration of F1 Manager. From that first strong release back in 2022, and following on from a polished second year, it’s now time to see what 2024 has in store.

I remember that 2022 was a great foundation to work upon, and while not feature-rich, 2023 took that skeleton and built a great car around it.

Now, Frontier has aimed to take its game several steps further, adding a brand new game mode. From our first few hours of gameplay, has F1 Manager 2024 delivered so far?

Do it your way

This year's headline feature is undoubtedly Create a Team, which was highly requested by fans and a welcome addition. As a die-hard Football Manager fan, it is interesting to see this as FM has recently removed its Create A Club feature (even if it’s just for one year).

That said, Frontier has done a great job on the mode, with deep customisation and adjustable difficulty from the off. While you’d expect to be able to create a logo and a livery, the extensive options it gives you are welcomed.

From being able to customise your level of budget, team facilities, drivers and staff ability, you get to choose to start from the back of the grid, compete for points, or challenge for race wins right from the off - it’s all up to you.

The ‘boring’ side of F1

Within F1 Manager 2024, a heavy focus is placed on what happens off the track and the harsh reality of running an F1 team. These ideas are well executed, with driver and staff morale depending on performance and workload all understandable.

If your drivers are at the back of the grid and attending sponsor events every other day, it’d only be right that they are fatigued and demotivated - the same goes for staff. It adds an extra layer of balance to think about.

One element feels quite draining and unavoidable though, and that’s dealing with sponsors. While it’s nice to have the level of customisation, it feels frustrating whenever the screen comes up, knowing you've got to do some tedious work that feels unimportant outside of buffing your bank account.

Nurturing talent

Something I was hoping for was the idea of having F2 and F3 drivers on the roster, ready to take on the next level of racing talent. Thankfully, that's all here and present in F1 Manager 2024.

There are plenty of drivers available from the off that could be great talent, such as Dennis Hauger and Paul Aron, so you’re not short of affiliates from the off. I'm excited to see how this develops (pun intended) as I play through more seasons.

It’s race day

It’s fair to say the majority of the work on F1 Manager 2024 has been put into the off track experience, but on Race Weekend, the experience feels ever so slightly more polished. A big new implementation here is potential powertrain issues, which I’ve already fallen victim to. They're annoying, often occurring when you least need them to, but they're certainly realistic.

It’s a case of ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ with a lot of F1 Manager 2024, as any more additions could be considered information overload.

The Verdict So Far

F1 Manager continues to offer more of what I'd hoped for when the franchise debuted, and it's just getting better and better each year. Additional drivers to nurture, subtle improvements to race day, and the long-awaited team creation option make this a much deeper simulator in major and minor ways.

I'm looking forward to putting more hours in this week and returning with a score, but for now, I already feel confident saying this is above and beyond the last two entries.

Reviewed on PlayStation 5. Review code provided by the publisher.