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.
Your choice of equipment defines your damage output and playstyle. This guide ranks every major option, explains what makes each one strong, and tells you which builds they pair best with.
Equipment Rankings
| Equipment | Tier | Best For | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front Wing | S | 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 | A | 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 | A | 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 | B | Hot races such as Bahrain and Qatar, and any team suffering repeated component failures. | Provide engine cooling and Airflow Middle. |
| Suspension | B | High degradation circuits and strategies built around stopping one fewer time than the field. | Covers drag reduction and tyre preservation. |
S-Tier: Front Wing
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. That makes the front wing the part that turns a car with good raw downforce into one that actually rotates through slow corners.
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Tier | S |
| Best For | Street circuits and slow corner tracks like Monaco, Singapore and the Hungaroring. |
| Key Mechanic | Create A Team |
| Recommended Build | Red Bull Racing |
How to get it: Available from mid-game onward. See our walkthrough for the exact progression point.
Best builds using Front Wing: Pairs naturally with Red Bull Racing thanks to how their stat scaling lines up.
A-Tier: Rear Wing
Handles drag reduction, DRS Delta and medium speed downforce. DRS Delta specifically controls how much time you gain when the flap opens, so a strong rear wing is what turns a car that follows closely into one that actually completes the overtake.
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Tier | A |
| Best For | Low downforce circuits and any save where your drivers keep sitting behind slower cars without passing. |
| Key Mechanic | Mechanical Failures |
| Recommended Build | Ferrari |
How to get it: Accessible in the early-to-mid game. Check our maps guide for the location.
Best builds using Rear Wing: Pairs naturally with Ferrari thanks to how their stat scaling lines up.
A-Tier: Underfloor
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. A strong underfloor lifts the car everywhere rather than at one type of corner.
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Tier | A |
| Best For | Any team early in a rebuild, since it improves the widest range of circuits per design slot spent. |
| Key Mechanic | Car part design and research |
| Recommended Build | McLaren |
How to get it: Accessible in the early-to-mid game. Check our maps guide for the location.
Best builds using Underfloor: Pairs naturally with McLaren thanks to how their stat scaling lines up.
B-Tier: Sidepods
Provide engine cooling and Airflow Middle. Cooling matters far more in 2024 than in previous entries because Mechanical Failures punish sustained high temperatures, and Airflow Middle multiplies medium and high speed cornering.
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Tier | B |
| Best For | Hot races such as Bahrain and Qatar, and any team suffering repeated component failures. |
| Key Mechanic | Practice programmes and the five slider setup |
| Recommended Build | Mercedes |
How to get it: Found in later areas. Our walkthrough covers when you can access this.
Best builds using Sidepods: Pairs naturally with Mercedes thanks to how their stat scaling lines up.
B-Tier: Suspension
Covers drag reduction and tyre preservation. Tyre preservation is the quietest performance stat in the game because it does not show on a single lap, but it decides whether you can run a one stop strategy where rivals need two.
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Tier | B |
| Best For | High degradation circuits and strategies built around stopping one fewer time than the field. |
| Key Mechanic | Mentality and team morale |
| Recommended Build | Williams |
How to get it: Found in later areas. Our walkthrough covers when you can access this.
Best builds using Suspension: Pairs naturally with Williams thanks to how their stat scaling lines up.
Equipment Progression Path
The order you should acquire equipment as you progress:
- Starting gear → Enough to clear Bahrain International Circuit
- Rear Wing → Your first real upgrade, available early
- Underfloor → Mid-game upgrade with good scaling
- Front Wing → Best-in-slot, aim for this by late game
- Upgrade to max → The power spike from max upgrades is enormous
Equipment Tips
- Always upgrade your primary equipment before diversifying. One strong option beats three mediocre ones.
- Match your equipment to your build's stat priorities for maximum scaling.
- 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.
- Check our tier list for how equipment rankings affect overall build effectiveness.
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 Tips & Tricks
- 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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