5 Ways That F1 Manager 22 Could Be Improved

A few suggested improvements for F1 Manager 22

Formula 1 fanatics couldn’t have been happier when F1 Manager 22- the sport’s first manager game since 2000- was announced.

Curated by Frontier Developers, F1’s answer to Football Manager allows you to take the reins of an active F1 team as Team Principal, with fully licensed teams, staff and drivers.

Released at the end of August 2022, F1 Manager has received mixed reviews.

If there’s to be an F1 Manager 23, there’s plenty of ways that Frontier could improve on a solid enough start to give users a more authentic overall experience.

Fix the Safety Car Glitches 

As in many other sports, F1 races can be boring. That’s why F1 Manager 22 gives players the option to speed races up to 16x.

The race can remain realistic without the player getting bored.

If a safety car gets deployed, though, a race that was destined to be a processional finish and simply a number of statistics can suddenly spark into life.

With this in mind, it’s absolutely critical that F1 Manager gets this bit spot on- and sadly, they’ve not quite managed that yet.

Too many times there’s a glitch that prevents cars from catching up to the safety car properly- especially if you’ve made a pit stop.

This is hopefully a minor glitch that could even be fixed with updates to F1 Manager 22.

However, in the meantime it can be incredibly frustrating to find yourself over a minute behind the drivers you were expecting to be just behind when you’ve made an inspired call to box for new tyres.

Add in Spicy Driver Dynamics

Let’s give the game some credit (it really isn’t all bad); you can instruct your driver to let their team-mate overtake, or to hold station (‘Multi 21, Seb’, anyone?).

What would really enhance this is if the drivers had some control of their own destiny, rather than acting as mere minions to you, the mighty Team Principal.

Say your driver was asked to let their team-mate through and forfeit a podium position. Many a time in real life a driver has ignored a team order, or at least protested first.

This element would add another realistic and highly spicy element to team management.

Maybe further down the line, drivers could even overrule strategy and ask for different tyres or refuse to come on for pit stops.

Remodel the Tyre Degradation System 

It is impossible to comprehensively align the levels of tyre degradation with real life.

Even though F1 Manager 22 takes into account the rubber, grip and temperature on any track, every real life race is different and there are too many variables to get this spot on every time. 

However, what Frontier haven’t got right is the relative level of degradation on each tyre compound.

Sure, if your tyre health is below 20% you’ll get overtaken quickly, but if your tyres are much healthier than that, you can still push and deliver healthy lap times- whether your tyres are soft, medium or hard.

Pockets of cars are bunched together as a result, making it exceedingly tricky to pull off an exciting strategy that involves plenty of overtakes on what should be a faster tyre.

Tyre strategy is arguably the most critical element to real life race management, and so this really needs addressing by F1 Manager 22 next time round.

Develop the Crashes and Errors Model

To its credit, Frontier have managed to create racing where driver errors are based on a number of realistic factors, such as driver confidence and pushing hard on worn tyres.

Car parts are also damaged or destroyed completely in incidents, meaning that you’re forced into buying replacement parts- an authentic element that adds further realism to the game and the implications of the real life cost cap that all teams must adhere to.

Despite this, the crashes system falls wide of the mark in two ways.

Firstly, when a car runs a little wide, it often stops on the side of the track for a good 10 seconds without reason, losing the driver far more players than such an error would justify in real life.

You can see on the in-game replays that the entire car twists sideways, which instantly ruins the authentic feel that has been curated.

Secondly, the commentary around the errors is a one-size fits all that just doesn’t work.

If a driver runs wide, the commentator goes wild as if this is a race-changing moment, no matter whether you’re first or last, no matter if you’ve lost a place or not.

As a combination, these are the most amateurish flaws, reminding the player that this is a first attempt at a game.

Is it Worth Buying?

F1 Manager 22 has some serious flaws, and it’s evident that Frontier could have done with another few months to fine-tune glitches and develop some of the racing models.

For any F1 fan and gamer, though, this game is still absolutely worth it.

For a game in its infancy, the attention to detail on the management side between races is remarkable.

Developing and researching your car, scouting staff and negotiating contracts is sophisticated yet accessible to fans of all levels.

With the F1 consumer market still growing rapidly, it’s very likely that there will be an F1 Manager 23.

The vast majority of issues could be easily addressed, and with all the infrastructure in place, expect F1 Manager to become a popular mainstay in the world of sporting management games.