Do you find yourself constantly criticizing every decision your favorite Formula 1 team makes? Do you often run hypothetical but nonetheless absurdly detailed tire strategies in your head during race week? I do both of these things, which is probably why I'd happily give up the option to drive an F1 car if I could be the one telling the driver what to do instead. Based on the trailer in this year's PC Gaming Show, F1 Manager 22 looks like it'll let me live out my ultimate car boss fantasy.
In F1 Manager 22 you're the team principal of one of the 10 Formula 1 racing teams. I's your job to bring home a Constructor's Championship by managing the team. You'll handle every decision, big and small, that comes up during the course of a season. F1 Manager 22 pulls from real drivers and teams, along with giving you most of the F2 and F3 rosters to recruit from.
F1 Manager 22 has plenty of front-office level decisions to keep you busy, like dealing with driver contracts or researching ways to make your car go faster. But you'll also need to go through an overwhelming amount of car and course data week-to-week, which can be used to guide all your race day decisions. All this while making sure your staff, the board, and drivers are happy.
Oh, and staying under budget, too. Man, being the boss kind of sounds like a pain in the ass.
Those off-track hijinks are only part of the experience, though: the real fun comes during the races themselves. You'll have to react to on-the-fly emergency situations like accidents or nasty weather. You can issue driver callouts during the race, guiding them to defend, overtake another racer, or let a teammate pass.
What really stands out to me is the production value of F1 Manager 2022. Usually, in management sims like these, the action is shown essentially in very elaborate spreadsheets or icons on a minimap. Here the races are covered from every angle in striking photorealistic detail, down to the drivers' likenesses and on-board cameras in each car.
F1 Manager 22 opts for a TV broadcast-style presentation for each race, including live commentary from Sky Sports' David Croft and Karun Chandhok. Here's hoping they didn't include those obnoxious drone shots we saw at the Spanish Grand Prix this year, though.
Behind the development of F1 Manager 22 is Frontier, the same folks responsible for Elite: Dangerous and the Jurassic World Evolution games. Surprisingly, the last F1 Manager was released nearly 20 years ago by EA. Since EA has its own F1 2022 racing game coming out soon, F1 fans will be eating well this year.
F1 Manager 22 races onto PC at a manager-approved speed on August 25. Pre-ordering the digital version of the game will give you 10% off and early access. Vroom, Vroom.
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