Golden Lap is a New Minimalist Racing Strategy Game From Funselektor

After releasing the critically acclaimed Absolute Drift and Art of Rally, Funselektor is back with another minimalist racing game.

This time, Funselektor is tackling the world of F1 with Golden Lap, a new motorsport strategy game set in the golden era of open-wheel racing.

Golden Lap announced by Art of Rally creator

Developed in collaboration with Funselektor and Strelka Games, Golden Lap is a new racing strategy game that will complement F1 Manager. Like Art of Rally, Golden Lap boasts sleek and minimalist visuals combined with intuitive controls.

This is Funselektor’s third racing game following Absolute Drift and Art of Rally, but the indie developer’s first take on the motorsport management genre.

As you oversee the race, you’ll be making pivotal decisions in real-time to help take your team to victory. Each season begins with you allocating budgets for drivers, staff, cars, and sponsors before you can action your strategy in qualifying and races. From tuning your cars to timing your pit stops, every decision you make can affect the outcome of the race. 

From the trailer, the race cars are represented by 2D dots and it doesn’t look like you can control the cars directly like in Absolute Drift and Art of Rally. 

Although the teams are fictional, they're clearly inspired by real F1 teams. Ferrari, for example, is Ezzolini, while Lotus is Chapman in nods to the team's real-life founders.

“After two releases with Absolute Drift and Art of Rally, we wanted to try something different while staying true to our passion for racing,” said Funselektor’s founder Dune Caso.

“We’re taking that opportunity with Golden Lap, which serves as a throwback to one of the most iconic eras of motorsport when it was exciting and dangerous in equal measure, teams were experimenting with designs, and drivers were notorious both on and off the track.”

Coming to Steam later this year

It’s a surprising departure from Funselektor’s previous titles, although Funselektor has hinted at making an F1-style game in the past. Those who played Art of Rally will remember the ending where a giant Buddha emerges from the ground and teases how “you will master the perfect lap” in Funselektor’s next game.

That game turned out to be Golden Lap, which Funselektor also teased in 2022. We didn’t expect it to be a motorsport management game though.

Golden Lap launches on Steam later this year, but the release date has yet to be confirmed. Console ports also haven’t been confirmed. But considering that Absolute Drift and Art of Rally eventually came to consoles and even mobiles, we’ll likely see Golden Lap on PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch at some point.

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