F1 Manager 2023 hands-on preview: cruising in the right direction

Playing out a what-if scenario in Monaco and plotting for Silverstone

When Aston Martin called a pit stop for Fernando Alonso during this year’s Formula 1 Grand Prix in Monaco, the rain was already falling. Despite a track that was getting wetter by the second, the team put the two-time world champion on tyres for dry weather. In hindsight, the Intermediates – a tyre for mixed conditions – would have been the better option, because Alonso had to come in for those anyway as the rain got worse, so in effect he made an unnecessary stop. A debate about what would have happened had Alonso gone for Intermediates in his first stop began immediately, because a different decision possibly could have secured him a sensational victory. Alas, we’ll never find out… unless…

That’s right, this is the exact what-if scenario we got to explore during a recent hands-on session with F1 Manager 2023, the second iteration of Frontier Developments’ racing management game. In Race Replay, a new game mode for the series, Frontier will challenge players with all sorts of race situations pulled directly from events on the real asphalt. It’s a great way to get into the action immediately and make crucial decisions on the fly, connecting the game to the sport.

Loading into this scenario, we are faced with rain on the iconic Monaco circuit. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the race leader, is flying past the pits on dry tyres without stopping. Jumping in as the team principal for Aston Martin, we can still react to the changing circumstances – and thanks to the benefit of hindsight, we know what the correct decision is. We just have to execute it: We pit Alonso for Intermediates, giving him the order to go all out in terms of speed and tyre usage on his way to the pits. We can do so without great danger, for his confidence is extremely high. Driver confidence is a new stat in the game, which depends on the driver’s happiness with the car setup to begin with, but then changes depending on what happens during the race – getting passed repeatedly will tank their morale, which in turn makes them more prone to errors.

Thankfully, El Padre could not be happier with his situation in the quick and well-tuned Aston Martin, so he speeds along the slippery streets without a mistake. Our pit crew is on top of it as well, giving us a solid stop time between two and three seconds. The crucial moment, then, would be our out-lap, i.e. the first lap on the new tyres. With Verstappen being slowed down by tyres getting more unsuitable for the weather by the second, a fast out-lap would be critical in getting an overtake while the Dutchman is in the pits. We stake it all on this, then: full attack.

One crucial decision was enough to secure win number 33 for Fernando Alonso, a great example for what Frontier plans on doing with Race Replay / Frontier Developments

Directly after the pit stop, the new tyres won’t be at the optimal temperature, so we order our driver to warm them up as much as possible – this optimizes our speed and reduces the odds of an accident. With all options set, we hit go and can only watch. Alonso speeds around the track, getting the tyres up and running (there is little danger of overheating in the wet), while Verstappen – as predicted – enters the pits to get his own set of Intermediates. It’s a close thing, but Alonso beats the Red Bull driver to the exit by half a second. Usually, this wouldn’t matter much: Red Bull has the faster car and could easily overtake, but this is Monaco – overtaking here is nigh impossible thanks to the narrowness of the street circuit. And so we watch, lap by lap, as Verstappen is practically glued to the back of our car. Alonso’s confidence remains high and we give the order to defend at any cost. He shall not pass. And he doesn’t. After the most nerve-wracking minutes of fast-forwarding interspersed with being entranced by the game’s version of the fascinating visor cam perspective, which shows the first-person viewpoint of the driver in the car, Fernando Alonso gets his 33rd victory in F1. Rejoice, armchair race strategists, you were right!

The additions of driver confidence, which influences their ability to carry out your orders, and tyre temperatures have added another great layer of decision-making to the game, which should also make the experience a lot more authentic. We only got to play for a limited time, so we couldn’t rigorously test out the mechanics, but at first glance Frontier seems to have fixed the glaring issues from the original game when it comes to tyre degradation. Different rubbers will now have different degradation speeds affecting the lap times. The new temperature management figures into this, with mismanaged tyres dropping in performance much quicker, and each type of tyre having its own optimal window, which is influenced by the weather as well – things like rain and track temperature.

There are noticeable differences with the drivers, too: Running a practice session and then a race on Silverstone with Mercedes, it was much easier to get the tyres into their optimal window and hold them there with Lewis Hamilton in comparison to his more inexperienced colleague, who required more active intervention. Again, these are just first impressions from limited playtime that really need to be tested rigorously whenever that’s possible, but we’re cautiously optimistic that racing fans will find a more mechanically satisfying experience this time around.

The Free Practice minigame from last year’s title is back and has you juggle different sliders to find the perfect setup. This is all the more important now, as initial driver confidence is based on this. You’re probably still going to be good with playing one session manually and then letting the automation do the rest to get a solid setup, if you’re short on time or don’t find this minigame enjoyable. Practice now also has the added benefit of allowing you to check the tyre temperature windows in conjunction with the weather conditions and drivers – feel free to take pen and paper in hand or open an Excel spreadsheet, because it’s on you to accumulate this data.

In terms of presentation, F1 Manager 2023 is a clear step up from its predecessor: The racing itself looks a lot smoother and real-life radio messages are back, though they’re still misplaced sometimes – Alonso was informed by his engineer of the rain clearing in a few minutes just as he went over the line to win. Having the option to just spectate everything from visor cam is really fun, it’s such a great perspective even in a game. Coupled with the improved wheel-to-wheel racing, it’ll make for some intense moments.

F1's visor cam is a fantastic addition to the game / Frontier Developments

The UI remains largely unchanged compared to the previous game, so issues in that area – which mostly were felt by players on PC – persist. It seems that the new 3D map of the race track has completely replaced the more readable 2D map, which isn’t optimal. During the Race Replay in Monaco it was very difficult to establish Alonso’s track position in relation to the pits, a crucial piece of information when rain or a safety car enter the fray and you need to decide about a potential pit stop.

Most of our limited session was focused on the action on track, so we can’t speak all too much about what has changed on the management side of things, though you can find out what Frontier promises on this front in our hands-off preview.

F1 Manager 2023 is certainly moving forward in a good direction and is shaping up to be a solid upgrade, improving in many areas – we can’t wait to see more of it and give it some proper testing in the windtunnel.

F1 Manager 2023 is set to be released on July 31, 2023, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.