F1 Manager 22 is the official racing management simulation game that allows one to manage the drivers and rosters of their constructor team and lead them to victory. Every decision or strategy you choose will directly impact the performance of your team out on the track
This guide will tell you how to manage a full race efficiently in the game.
How To Manage A Race In F1 Manager 22 – Tips & Tricks
Fuel Management
The first thing that matters most during a race is Fuel Management and new F1 rules say that you cannot refuel your car during a race. This means that you just need to maintain and preserve your fuel levels from the start of the race itself.
You need to ensure that your fuel number indicated by the red tab stays above zero which sounds pretty easy but if you don’t pay attention to it during the race, you can run out of fuel. The game allows you to instruct your driver to use more fuel or try to conserve fuel and these commands will affect their overall lap times as well as increase or decrease their fuel usage.
The Push mode will increase your lap time but also increase the amount of fuel consumption per lap whereas Balanced will give you consistent lap times with average fuel usage and the
Conserve mode will result in slower lap times but save the most amount of fuel per lap.
If you find yourself staring at a fuel crisis indicated by a red minus number then you will need to consider conserving fuel at some point during the race. The best time to do it is if you are in the DRS zone and find it hard to overtake or if you have a big gap between the car behind you. In case you decide to conserve fuel with a smaller gap between the car behind you then you are at risk of being overtaken. Make sure to use the Conserve fuel mode strategically so that it least impacts your race.
In the Race Strategy screen at the beginning of the race, you can choose the amount of starting fuel your drivers will have. You can either under-fuel them or over-fuel your drivers and under-fueling will provide them with less fuel at the beginning of the race whereas over-fuel will ensure that they have extra fuel at their disposal.
If you choose to under-fuel your drivers then they will need to conserve fuel at some point however they will have less weight giving you a lighter car with faster lap times. This is a really good advantage especially at the start of the race if you want to gain a few positions and want your drivers to be aggressive at the start by making overtakes.
In case you want your driver to push their position across the entirety of the race then you choose to over-fuel and this will allow them to stay on the Push mode for longer.It can be really useful if you want to push your drivers late in the race or if you are being aggressive with your tire strategy.
You will need to ensure that your driver has a positive fuel number throughout the race that stays above zero. If your driver has a negative fuel number then chances are that they will run out of fuel before the end of the race
Tyre Management
The next part is Tyre Management and it is very important since it has the biggest impact on the outcome of the race. This will determine the race strategy that you use and the number of times that you wish to pit.
If you open the Tyre Strategy window during the race then you will notice that there are a few things going on, you will notice some downward-sloping segments shown in different colours and it indicates the predicted wear of the tyres. It starts at 100% and reduces further after each lap.
There is also a light horizontal bar at the bottom of the screen which indicates when your tyres will be in a dangerous state of wear. and generally, there will be 30% of the tyre life remaining. You should try not to let your tyres get into this section otherwise your pace will be dramatically affected.
If you push your tyres right down to the bottom of this bar then chances are that they can fail and your car could get a puncture. You will also notice a white line that follows the coloured blocks and this is your actual tire wear. This can actually dip below or stay above the coloured blocks depending on how well your driver is maintaining those tires.
You can determine how hard your driver pushes on their using different pace commands. Aggressive Pace modes will reduce your tire life but increase your overall pace whereas lighter modes will conserve to reduce tire wear. The Attack mode is the fastest but gives you the largest increase in tire temperature and tire wear while the Conserve mode will make you run the slowest on track but give you a large reduction in tire wear.
If you notice the white bar is running below the colour segment then it means that you are running the tires faster than predicted. This means that you need to reduce your driver’s pace to conserve the life of your tires.
But if your driver is conservatively using those tires and the white line is above those coloured blocks then it means that you have extra tyre life. In this case, you can either push your driver’s pace to utilize the extra tyre life or continue to conserve the tyres so you can pit your drivers later. This can help you use additional race strategies such as using one pit stop instead of two.
If you are using the Aggressive pace mode or chasing another car then you should monitor your tyre temperatures as higher tyre temperatures will affect the rate of your tyre wire. Hotter tyre temperatures will result in more tire wear and you can check this using the tyre temperature monitor.
The temperature of your tyres will change to Yellow, Orange or Red if they are being pushed too hard. Try to stay out of the red temperature category as it can result in a lot of tyre wear. If your tyres are becoming too hot, you can either reduce your pace mode or ask your drivers to drive in cleaner air.
ERS Management
This is one of the more complex elements that you need to understand to master F1 Manager 22.ERS Management is different from Tyre and Fuel management as there are five different commands that will help you manage them.
The top three modes: Overtake, Defend and Deploy use the same amount of ERS each lap but they allow your driver to deploy ERS strategically around the lap in different ways. For example, Overtake will instruct your driver to burn a lot of ERS all at once to overtake your opponents whereas Defend will do the same but your driver will be more focused on protecting his position from the car behind.
It is recommended that you manually enable and disable these modes throughout the lap depending on the requirements. If you wish to overtake then enable the overtake mode and then switch to neutral once the overtake is complete. This will prevent your driver from using a lot of excess ERS in places where overtaking is difficult.
The Deploy mode will use the same amount of ERS as overtake and defend but your driver will use it more evenly across the lap. This will result in a faster lap time as compared to overtake or defend. You can use this to set the fastest laps, qualifying laps and get out or inside pit stops.
Next is the Neutral mode which keeps your battery stable by using and harvesting the same amount of ERS each lap. However, if you are running low on ERS then you should use the Harvest mode as it will slow your driver down and allow them to conserve the battery.It takes around four laps to fully replenish the battery from zero per cent to hundred per cent with Harvest mode enabled. During this time, you will be vulnerable to being overtaken by other drivers behind you and you can use this mode strategically to your advantage. You can use it when you are in a DRS zone where there is little chance of an overtake or if the gap between the car behind you is huge.
Race Strategies
Last but not least is choosing the pit strategy and making a race strategy to get past the chequered lap. There are a few indicators to look out for since this is the most important element of the race weekend.
The first thing that you need to keep an eye on is the tyre life chart at the top of the screen. This indicates the predicted tyre life of each tyre and whether you will run out of tyres or underutilize them. The key here is to ensure whichever strategy that you use, each tyre is getting fully utilized.
There is a light bar across the bottom of the screen which indicates the 30% of tyre life remaining and you need to stay away from getting into this bar when choosing a strategy. If you have a tyre that dips into this window then you either change your driver’s pace on that lap or use tires with harder compounds or add another pit stop.
The second thing that you need to pay attention to is the Estimated Race Time on the right side of the screen. This indicates whether the strategy will be faster or slower overall as you hover over different options. It is the most important part of choosing a strategy because you want the fastest race time possible but there are some exceptions to this. If you are starting at the back of the grid, you will need to run a one-time strategy even if it doesn’t provide the fastest race time.
You should always check the predicted weather as it can start raining during a race and you will need to time your pit stops accordingly. This can result in you making fewer stops than your opponents to get an advantage.
During the race, you will be notified by your engineers about the pit window and this means that you should pit your drivers in the next few laps. However, you don’t always need to pit during the exact lap that you have selected in your race strategy as different factors during the race will mean that you will be either pitting late or earlier than planned.
Keep an eye on the pit timing of your opponents because if they pit before you as their newer and faster tyres will allow them to gain better lap times to close the gap between you. Use this strategy to your advantage by pitting before your opponents to undercut them.
That’s it, now go ahead and follow these tips to get your chance of standing on the podium at the end of the race!
