F1 Manager 2024 is Frontier Developments' third official Formula 1 management game, released on 23 July 2024 with the full 2024 grid of ten teams and a 24 round calendar. The headline addition is Create A Team, the first time the series lets you build an eleventh outfit from scratch with your own livery, logo, race suits, staff and sponsor deals. Mechanical Failures also arrived, so pushing a car hard for a whole stint now carries a real chance of losing it, and temperature management moved from a background number to something you watch. Underneath that sit the systems the series is actually built on: twelve car performance attributes fed by six part types, ten driver attributes, a five slider setup you dial in during practice, and a mentality system where unhappy staff design worse parts. Steam reviews are Very Positive at around 81 percent and Metacritic lands on 81, which is roughly where the game deserves to be: strong race day, occasionally shallow between weekends.
These tips go beyond the basics. They're the strategies experienced players use to play more efficiently, the hidden mechanics most people miss, and the optimizations that compound over a full playthrough. If you're just starting, check our beginner's guide first.
Essential Tips
1. Reaching 100 percent setup knowledge before qualifying is usually worth more lap time than a single part upgrade, so spend practice running the programmes that fill your knowledge rather than chasing headline lap times
Reaching 100 percent setup knowledge before qualifying is usually worth more lap time than a single part upgrade, so spend practice running the programmes that fill your knowledge rather than chasing headline lap times.
2. Driver setup feedback maps directly onto sliders: oversteer means Front Wing, braking complaints mean Rear Wing, cornering means Anti-Roll Bar distribution, traction means Tyre Camber and straight line pace means Toe-Out
Driver setup feedback maps directly onto sliders: oversteer means Front Wing, braking complaints mean Rear Wing, cornering means Anti-Roll Bar distribution, traction means Tyre Camber and straight line pace means Toe-Out.
3. Underfloor is the only part that raises low, medium and high speed downforce at the same time, which makes it the best single development target when your budget only covers one programme
Underfloor is the only part that raises low, medium and high speed downforce at the same time, which makes it the best single development target when your budget only covers one programme.
4. Airflow Front multiplies low and medium speed cornering while Airflow Middle multiplies medium and high speed, so a car with high raw downforce and poor airflow numbers will still feel slow through corners
Airflow Front multiplies low and medium speed cornering while Airflow Middle multiplies medium and high speed, so a car with high raw downforce and poor airflow numbers will still feel slow through corners.
5. Mechanical Failures build from sustained stress, so watching brake and engine temperatures during a stint and backing off a notch before a component enters the danger band saves races
Mechanical Failures build from sustained stress, so watching brake and engine temperatures during a stint and backing off a notch before a component enters the danger band saves races.
6. Every part has a Minimum Lifespan value, and running a component well past it in the name of saving money is how you lose a points finish on the last lap
Every part has a Minimum Lifespan value, and running a component well past it in the name of saving money is how you lose a points finish on the last lap.
7. ERS has four modes and Neutral is the one you should be in most of the race, because it keeps the battery stable; Harvest charges deliberately while stuck behind a car, and Deploy and Overtake spend that charge on a specific move
ERS has four modes and Neutral is the one you should be in most of the race, because it keeps the battery stable; Harvest charges deliberately while stuck behind a car, and Deploy and Overtake spend that charge on a specific move.
8. A drained ERS battery costs roughly double the time to recharge that you gained by spending it, so continuous deployment across a stint is a net loss
A drained ERS battery costs roughly double the time to recharge that you gained by spending it, so continuous deployment across a stint is a net loss.
9. Driver mentality moves on results, contract talks and team orders, and a technical department with poor morale misses design targets, so happiness is a performance stat rather than flavour
Driver mentality moves on results, contract talks and team orders, and a technical department with poor morale misses design targets, so happiness is a performance stat rather than flavour.
10. In Create A Team, sign staff on long contracts during your first season while your reputation is low, because their salary demands climb once your team starts scoring
In Create A Team, sign staff on long contracts during your first season while your reputation is low, because their salary demands climb once your team starts scoring.
Advanced Strategies
Build Optimization
The difference between an average build and an optimized one is massive. See our builds guide for full breakdowns.
For Red Bull Racing (A-Tier):
- Focus on Create A Team combinations for maximum output.
- Core gear: Front Wing
- Stat priority: Offensive stats first
For Ferrari (A-Tier):
- Versatile approach that handles any situation.
- Core gear: Rear Wing
- Stat priority: Balanced stats
Mechanic Interactions
Understanding how F1 Manager 2024's systems interact is where the real optimization lives. Our combat guide covers this in detail.
Create A Team + Mechanical Failures: New for 2024, this puts an eleventh team on the grid with your own name, livery, logo and race suits, then makes you fill it. Combined with Mechanical Failures, components now accumulate stress during a race weekend and can fail outright, ending a race that your strategy had won.
Car part design and research + Practice programmes and the five slider setup: Six part types each drive specific slices of the car's twelve attributes. When paired with Practice programmes and the five slider setup, every session you run practice programmes to fill your setup knowledge, then adjust five sliders: front wing angle, rear wing angle, anti-roll bar distribution, tyre camber and toe-out.
Mentality and team morale scaling: Drivers and staff carry mentality states that shift with results, contract talks, team orders and how you treat their team mate. A happy technical department produces better parts and hits design targets more often, while a driver whose mentality has collapsed loses pace and starts making mistakes in traffic. Team orders that hand a place to the other car are the fastest way to wreck a mentality you spent a season building.
Equipment Efficiency
| Equipment | Best Use Case | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Front Wing | Street circuits and slow corner tracks like Monaco, Singapore and the Hungaroring. | Drives low speed downforce and Airflow Front, and Airflow Front acts as a multiplier on low and medium speed cornering rather than adding pace by itself. |
| Rear Wing | Low downforce circuits and any save where your drivers keep sitting behind slower cars without passing. | Handles drag reduction, DRS Delta and medium speed downforce. |
| Underfloor | Any team early in a rebuild, since it improves the widest range of circuits per design slot spent. | The only part that contributes to low, medium and high speed downforce at once, which makes it the highest value single development target in the game. |
| Sidepods | Hot races such as Bahrain and Qatar, and any team suffering repeated component failures. | Provide engine cooling and Airflow Middle. |
| Suspension | High degradation circuits and strategies built around stopping one fewer time than the field. | Covers drag reduction and tyre preservation. |
Location Efficiency
Bahrain International Circuit (Round 1 of 24): Round 1 of the 2024 calendar and a heavy braking, rear limited circuit run at night on an abrasive surface. Track temperatures and tyre degradation are both high, which makes it the first real test of your suspension and cooling development.
Circuit de Monaco (Round 8 of 24): Round 8, the slowest and narrowest circuit on the calendar, where qualifying position decides the race because overtaking barely exists. Maximum downforce and a front wing biased setup matter far more than engine power.
Silverstone Circuit (Round 12 of 24): Round 12 and a high speed flowing circuit where Copse, Maggotts and Becketts reward high speed downforce and Airflow Middle. British weather in the game engine also makes it one of the most likely races to turn wet mid session.
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (Round 14 of 24): Round 14 and the longest lap of the year, mixing a long uphill run through Eau Rouge and Raidillon with a technical final sector. It punishes a wing setup chosen for one sector and rewards a compromise, and rain in one part of the circuit while another stays dry is a regular event.
Autodromo Nazionale Monza (Round 16 of 24): Round 16 and the lowest downforce weekend of the season, where drag reduction and DRS Delta outweigh cornering grip. Slipstream effects are strong enough that qualifying order can be decided by who follows whom, and brake temperatures spike into the first chicane.
Mistakes Even Veterans Make
- Skipping practice programmes to save time, then qualifying on a setup that is only 60 percent complete and losing several tenths every lap.
- Reacting to an oversteer complaint by changing Anti-Roll Bar distribution instead of Front Wing Angle, which pushes the setup further away from the target.
- Running an aggressive pace setting for a full stint in 2024, where Mechanical Failures now turn sustained stress into a retirement.
- Spreading design slots across all six part types instead of finishing an Underfloor programme, so no single area of the car improves enough to matter.
- Issuing team orders to swap drivers for a single position, which damages the mentality of the driver who gave up the place for the rest of the season.
Pro Quick Tips
- Reaching 100 percent setup knowledge before qualifying is usually worth more lap time than a single part upgrade, so spend practice running the programmes that fill your knowledge rather than chasing headline lap times.
- Driver setup feedback maps directly onto sliders: oversteer means Front Wing, braking complaints mean Rear Wing, cornering means Anti-Roll Bar distribution, traction means Tyre Camber and straight line pace means Toe-Out.
- Underfloor is the only part that raises low, medium and high speed downforce at the same time, which makes it the best single development target when your budget only covers one programme.
- Start with Ferrari, switch to Red Bull Racing when ready
- Invest in Front Wing above everything else
- Clear areas in order: Bahrain International Circuit → Circuit de Monaco → Silverstone Circuit → Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps → Autodromo Nazionale Monza. See our maps guide
- Create A Team + Mechanical Failures together are stronger than either alone
More F1 Manager 2024 Guides
- F1 Manager 2024 F1 Manager 2024 Overview
- F1 Manager 2024 Best Builds
- F1 Manager 2024 Tier List
- F1 Manager 2024 Walkthrough
- F1 Manager 2024 Beginner's Guide
- F1 Manager 2024 Weapons Guide
- F1 Manager 2024 Combat Guide
- F1 Manager 2024 Boss Guide
- F1 Manager 2024 Maps & Locations
- F1 Manager 2024 Crafting Guide
- F1 Manager 2024 Classes & Characters
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