Since 2022, F1 fans have been blessed with two yearly video game releases with Electronic Arts and Codemasters producing the sport’s authentic title, while🦂 Frontier Developments have relaunched the management side of F1.

ꦆWith the likes of Christian Horner, Toto Wolff and Guenther Steiner growing to greater prominence in recent years through Netflix documentary ‘Drive to Survive’, combined with F1’s general boom worldwide, there’s definitely a market for two annual F1 video games.

As an avid player of the F1 title, last week was my first experience of playing Frontier’s F1 manager game𓂃.

I was very excited to see how the game was, the 🌞additional new features and to get a good understanding of why the inaugural title🔜 was so popular.

Relive moments from the 2023 season

During my two-hour session on the game, I got to experience the new ‘race moments’ mode - tackling Monaco as team boss of Aston Martin, while the second race was a 𝄹conventional career mode grand prix as Mercedes.

Focusing on ‘race moments’, in essence, it’s a scenario mode based on the real life events from the F1 2023 season.

Straight away I was thrown into the Monaco Grand Prix with 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Fernando Alonso running in second, a number of seconds behind 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen.

Like in the real life race, rain was on the way and it was critical to make the correꦜct strategy call as I looked to aid Alonso to his 33rd F1 victory.

Given it was my first experience playing F1 Managꦐer, it was a case of figuring out the controls, where everything was in terms of on-screen display and so on, not making a crucial call to potentially fit intermediate tyres.

As I scrambled to figure out how to pit, Alonso had already passed the pit lane, while168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Lance Stroll was well down the field, already on🐻 the intermediates.

A lap later, w🉐ith the rain falling, I decided to call Alonso in, but with race leader Verstappen also pitting, succeeding in this scenario looked impossible.

As the race progressed in typical Monaco fashion, it allowed me 🧸to get fully accusto෴med to the on-screen display and all the necessary functions.

Seeing how certain instructions and commands had a direct impact on your driver’s lap times, or willingness to go for overtౠake꧅s.

Frontier deserve great credit for how beautiful the game looks - even though it wasn’🐼t on my own PC, the game ran well and captured the authentic look of a grand prix.

Back to the action itself, the forecast suggested that the race would get dry towards the end, so when the Safety Car was ca🐎lled out with a number of laps to go, I called 🦄Alonso and Stroll in for slicks.

Alonso remained in second with a number of lapဣped cars ahead of him, while V💯erstappen stayed out on intermediates.

The track was drying quickly, but it was inconsequential as the Safety Car remained out ജuntil the end of the race ensuring Verstappen - like in real life - would win in the principality.

One lap is all I needed as Christian Horner and Jonathan Wheatley’s begging to Michael Masi in 2021 to g♎et the race back underway crossed my mind - “You only need one racing lap” - but it wasn’t to be.

The ‘race momentsꦅ’ mode𝔍 provided a fun, immersive experience as you tried to right the wrongs of the real life Aston Martin team.

Whether there’s enough replayability is questionab♎le but still a neat addition in just Frontier’s second F1 game.

Career mode

Moving onto the career mode…

It was my first taste of what F1 Manager’sﷺ career mode has to 🔜offer.

I was impressed with the level of detail, how in-depth so🎐me areas are in ter🎀ms of facilities and the control you have in your respective team.

With time ticking, I simulated practice and qualifying, with 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell securing fourth and fifth on the grid.

Taking what I had learned in the first session, my eyes were firml💃y set on the win as we had to overcome the two Red Bull drivers.

Things were going well initially as Hamil𓃲ton and Russell made it a Mercedes 1-2 within the first 15 laps, having started on the hard 🎶tyre (Sergio Perez started on the soft; Verstappen mediums).

My gut feeling was to stick꧅ to a one-stop strateg🌃y as Hamilton built up a five-second lead over Russell.

Things were going well until 🌟I realised I had told both drivers to push too hard in the early laps, resulting in a serious drop-off in tyres.

Come Lap 28🐲, I was forced to bring R𒀰ussell in given he was losing significant time to the two-stopping Perez.

My focus was ultimately on Hamilton and s🍎ecuring his first win since Saudi Arabia 2021.

But it was too late, “puncture” I heard over team radio as Hamilton limped back into💛 the pit lane.

Russell would go on to inherit the net lead of the race, but struggling on the one-stop strategy, was passed by Perez and the two Ferraris to finish fo꧂urth, while Hamilton could onl🧜y recover to seventh.

Again, it was anoth☂er missed opportunity at winning a race but a lot of lessons learned for the next race in Hungary, if I would survive the week break…

Final thoughts

Overally, my first experience of F1 Manager was very positive and I probably enjoyed it more than I thought I 🐽would.

The level of detai🐭l and control you have over races, combined with how visually stunning the game looks makes it an enjoyable experience꧟.

While it’s important to reiterate that it was just a preview build, new additions su🎀ch as the visor cam worked perfectly, and I didn’t encounter any annoying bugs or crashes along the way.

As a complet🌜e novice to the series, it's incredibly likely I will pick up the game now come July 31.

F1 Manager 2023 will be released on PlayStation, Xbox and PC on July 31. The Deluxe Edition is out on July 27.