With the new 2024 F1 season getting underway within the last fortnight or so it is no surprise that we have just got the announcement unveiling F1 Manager 2024 lining up on the race grid.
With F1 Manager 23 (and indeed the 22 iteration) underperforming and eventually leading to layoffs at development studio Frontier, nerves must be jangling a bit that they have finally nailed it with F1 Manager 24.
With Electronic Arts laying off staff at Codemasters after a similar disappointment with the racing version – F12023 after a similarly poor showing, somebody needs to get an F1 game right and get it right soon.
But for now, at least we should look on the bright side and we have a suitably glamorous announcement trailer that shows off some pretty nice-looking graphics. Of course, all of F1’s race graphics come as part of the standard package. You see the same stuff on the TV broadcasts of real-life races, so it all hangs on how the management side of things plays out rather than its prettiness ultimately.
The game will be released on PC, PS4/5 Xbox One, and Series X/S in “the summer” and for the first time will allow you the chance to create your own team to go up against the established F1 team names. From there on in you will be dealing with car design, sponsorships, and crying drivers, and hopefully, no Christian Horner-esque scandals like Red Bull has seen so far this year.
More importantly Frontier is promising improved race behaviours and the return of Race Replay, which allows you to see if you can get a better result for a team than happened in the corresponding real-life race.
We have our fingers crossed that this will be the race-management sim we have been waiting for from Frontier at the third time of asking. They still have another year on the F1 deal until next you so it would be good to see them get it right and then have one last hurrah in 2025.
