The buzz around F1 Manager 2022 is growing. The new franchise is set to arrive in the summer and offer racing fans the chance to become Team Principal for a F1 team.
While this will be a new experience for Formula 1 fans, football fans have a very successful managerial game to dive into.
Football Manager 2022 got a stellar review over at our sister-site RealSport101. So what could the new F1 Manager game learn from the most successful sports management game out there?
Longevity is vital
In Football Manager you can go 100 years into the future and beyond if you want to. With a dynamic player development style that lets former players move into coaching and manger roles and a whole raft of CPU-generated new footballers that come in and develop, players can inhabit a living, breathing universe.
F1 Manager needs to offer the same kind of longevity.
With the current FIA Formula 2 & Formula 3 drivers in the game there is certainly the potential that we will be able to go deep into a career and watch established names like Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel retire while the likes of Liam Lawson, Dennis Hauger, and Arthur Leclerc blossom.
The hope is that as those F2 & F3 drivers gain promotion they are developing as drivers and newly generated drivers are filling the empty seats in F3.
Team dynamics & relationships must be impactful
Along with managing the running of a team and the hiring/firing of staff, Team Principals also have to make sure everyone is getting on and pulling in the same direction.
In Football Manager you need to keep players happy and keep your promises to them to sell them or give them game time. If you don't then team morale plummets and results suffer.
It would amazing to see something similar in F1 Manager. That could come from promising equal treatment to drivers but if start prioritising one over the other morale within the team suffers. Pitstops get longer, qualifying laps are less consistent. That sort of thing would be a great wrinkle to add and challenge to overcome for players.
It could also be done through staff management. Failing to provide pathways to promotion should frustrate staff members, while team financial struggles ought to lead to promising staff jumping ship to other teams.
Anything that makes you feel embedded at a team is going to be key to making F1 Manager a good game.
In-race decisions must count
Football Manager does a great job of making your tactical tweaks and words of encouragement impactful.
F1 Manager must do the same. Quite how race-day plays out we don't know. A Team Principal isn't that actively involved in races, with lead engineers talking to drivers and head strategists deciding when pitstops happen. Will those decisions fall to you in F1 Manager?
We hope so, as that would give plenty to do in races along with everything behind the scenes between race weekends.