In Formula First Manager, you don’t take on the role of a team.
You take on the role of a Team Principal.
Your current team is just one stage in your career. Succeed, fail, build your reputation, seize new opportunities and leave your mark on a paddock that continues to evolve with or without you.
Every career tells a different story.
YOUR CAREER, NOT YOUR TEAM
You don’t choose a team to stick with until the end of the game.
You choose the starting point of your career.
Your performances, your decisions and your reputation shape your future. You may be approached by other teams, change roles, enjoy success or find your position becoming precarious.
Teams change.
Your career goes on.
MANAGE YOUR TEAM ON A DAY-TO-DAY BASIS
A Team Principal’s job isn’t limited to race weekends.
Between Grand Prix events, you must manage your team’s various departments and decide where to focus your resources.
Recruit your drivers and staff. Keep an eye on the market and prepare your future contracts. Manage your sponsors, finances and facilities. Develop your car, produce new parts and arrange for them to be transported to the circuits.
Every area is interconnected.
An investment in the factory can improve your future capabilities. A new recruit can transform the car’s development. A costly decision today may limit your options several months down the line.
You cannot do everything at once.
DEVELOP YOUR FORMULA CAR
Identify your car’s weaknesses and choose which areas to improve.
Launch development projects, balance different technical objectives, manufacture new parts, then decide when and on which car to fit them.
Your stock is physical: a part must be produced, made available and transported before it can be used on a circuit.
Development is therefore not just a question of raw performance.
You must also consider time, production, reliability, spare parts and the upcoming Grand Prix races.
BUILD YOUR ORGANISATION
A team isn’t just about its two drivers.
Build your team and monitor its progress. Recruit the talent your organisation needs and manage the contracts that lay the groundwork for future seasons.
Develop your facilities too.
Your facilities are ageing; they can be renovated or modernised, and they directly influence your team’s research, development and production capabilities.
Building a competitive team takes time.
Keeping it at the top does too.
MANAGE YOUR DRIVERS AND PLAN FOR THE FUTURE
Keep track of your current drivers, negotiate their contracts and keep an eye on the market when new opportunities arise.
Also keep an eye out for young talent.
The junior ranks continue to evolve throughout your career: drivers progress, move up through the ranks and may become the future faces of the championship.
Recruiting the star of the moment is one option.
Discovering the star of tomorrow is another.
FUND YOUR PROJECT
Managing a team also means managing what it can actually afford.
Keep track of your finances, expenditure and commitments. Develop your business relationships and negotiate with sponsors interested in your team.
Performance can open up new opportunities.
But every new contract, every piece of infrastructure and every technical project contributes to the same financial balance.
Your ambitions must remain in line with your resources.
PREPARE FOR EVERY RACE WEEKEND
Grand Prix events are when the results of several weeks’ worth of decisions become apparent.
Free practice sessions allow you to work on your car and gather feedback from your drivers. Qualifying determines your starting position. Sprint weekends bring their own sessions and challenges.
You can play through or simulate the various sessions depending on how you wish to experience your career.
During practice, fine-tune your cars’ set-up and analyse your drivers’ feedback.
During the race, keep an eye on the standings, gaps, tyres, the weather and the condition of your cars. Adapt your strategies, choose the timing of your pit stops and react to events that disrupt the flow of the Grand Prix.
Incidents, breakdowns, safety car periods, red flags and changing conditions can turn a race on its head.
SUNDAY DOESN’T CREATE THE RESULT. IT REVEALS IT.
A good strategy can help you gain positions.
It won’t turn a poor car into a title contender.
Sunday’s performance depends on what you’ve built up beforehand: your car, your drivers, your team, your facilities, your finances and the decisions taken in the weeks leading up to the race.
Formula First Manager is a game of decisions before it is a game of results.
A WORLD OF IMPERFECT INFORMATION
You never know exactly what the consequences of a decision will be until you’ve made it.
Technical estimates have their limits. Drivers have their own strengths. Market opportunities change. Some decisions require you to choose between the short term and several seasons of preparation.
You must work with the information at your disposal.
Then live with the consequences.
A PADDOCK THAT FUNCTIONS INDEPENDENTLY OF YOU
The other teams aren’t waiting for you.
They develop their cars, recruit staff, negotiate, invest and plan for the future according to their own needs.
Drivers and staff members continue their careers. New generations are coming through. Sponsors change. Contracts come to an end and new partnerships emerge.
The championship also has its own rules and its own future.
Keep up with regulatory changes and have a say in decisions that could shape future seasons.
You are not the centre of the world.
You are one of the players.
PLAY A CAREER SPANNING SEVERAL SEASONS
Formula First Manager is not designed around a single season.
The calendar continues to move forward after the final Grand Prix. Future contracts come into effect, characters evolve, teams prepare for the following season and a new year begins.
Important decisions can have consequences several months or even several seasons later.
An infrastructure built today can remain in place long after you’ve left.
A young driver you discovered at the start of your career may become one of your rivals several years later.
A team you’ve left behind continues to exist without you.
BUILD YOUR OWN STORY
You can go straight for victory.
You can rebuild a struggling team.
You can invest in young drivers, develop an organisation for the long term, or take on a new opportunity when it arises.
You’ll experience successes, bad decisions, technical gambles, missed contracts and weekends where nothing goes to plan.
Seasons come and go.
Generations change.
And your career creates stories rather than just a list of achievements.
Your career. Your decisions. Your story.