Since My Team was introduced in F1 2020, players have been able to live out their F1 fantasies and create their own teams in Codemasters’ F1 games. Now, custom teams are finally coming to F1 Manager 2024 in the new Create a Team mode.
During the latest Unlocked livestream event, Frontier showed off F1 Manager 2024’s Create a Team mode, showcasing the car livery editor, fictional sponsorship logos, and race suit customisation for the first time.
First look at F1 Manager 2024’s livery editor
Following the game's initial announcement earlier this month, work-in-progress footage gives us a first look at F1 Manager 2024’s livery editor in Create a Team. Frontier gives a full cycle of the colour choices you can apply to areas of two different livery designs. From here, players can finetune their colours, apply gradients, and choose different wheel masks.
Like My Team, the video suggests the unofficial liveries will be preset designs, with the ability to paint different sections of the car from the rear wing to the side pods.
In a nice touch, players can also create one-off liveries for specific races, mirroring one-off liveries used by the real F1 teams like Williams’ Bolder than Bold Gulf design. If you want to use a bespoke livery for every race, you can.
Cunningly, Frontier has tactically cropped the video, so we can’t see any of the editor tools. For now, Frontier is keeping specific details about the editor tools under wraps. More will be revealed about the livery editor at a later date.
Create a Team will give players “more creative freedom and new ways to build a lasting legacy”
Since the series started in 2022, custom teams have been one of the most requested community features for F1 Manager. “It’s always been towards the top of wish lists and something the community has passionately advocated for and asked for,” executive producer Stuart Warren told RacingGames.
“We keep a close eye on what our fans are after. There’s also a lot of passion and desire to do this right in the team. Those converging factors led to us bringing Create a Team into F1 Manager this year.”
“It's the right time to offer our players an entirely new way to play the game,” he added. “Our goal with Create a Team is to give our players more creative freedom and new ways to build a lasting legacy. It gives players a lot of creative freedom to create bespoke designs for their cars and branding for their team.”
Like Codemasters’ My Team, Create a Team mode sees you trying to take an eleventh team on the grid to victory. “We’re not swapping one of the existing teams to put your team in there. It’s an entirely new team,” Warren clarified.
Beyond customising your livery, racing as an eleventh team will bring new gameplay possibilities. “You can set the starting level of your team’s facilities, car performance, and budget. This will impact where you start in the competition,” Warren explained.
“You could take two existing F1 drivers and start at the top, set everything much lower using generated drivers or picking from F2 and F3 and challenge yourself to go up the competition. There’s a lot of freedom and flexibility to create your own narrative and stories.”
Sponsorship logos and custom race suits shown
Complementing the livery editor is a sponsor logo editor. F1 Manager 2024 introduces a new sponsorship mechanic where you negotiate sponsorship deals to earn extra money for your team.
“This can potentially give greater financial rewards but with trade-offs. You might need to involve your key staff in more activities to satisfy those sponsors,” Warren explained.
After negotiating sponsorship details, players can add branding to their livery designs with over 50 fictional in-game sponsors. Using fictional sponsors helped Frontier avoid any potential licensing issues with F1 and the FIA.
As shown in the video, these sponsorship logos can be resized, recoloured and placed anywhere on the car. The video ends by showing customisation options for driver race suits, from choosing colours and gradients to adding sponsor branding to match your team livery.
Driver helmets can also be customised, but this isn’t shown in the video. “You’ll see your branding across the race weekend in your garages and pit gantry,” Warren added. “We’re giving players a lot of freedom to bring their creative vision to life.”
A deeper management experience
Beyond Create a Team, other new features requested by the community will provide a deeper management experience for returning players.
“On the management side, we’ve got the new staff and driver mentality system. It’s going to be important to keep your drivers happy as unhappy drivers will be at a greater risk of being poached from other teams,” said Warren.
“The community has also been very keen to see mechanical failures, which will add an element of jeopardy to races.”
“We’ve also got a new in-race strategic camera, which we’ll share more info on soon. The visor camera we added in F1 Manager 2023 went down really well. We’re excited for players to get their hands on these new features.”
Future Frontier Unlocked livestreams will provide deeper dives into these new features, with a new livestream airing at the end of every month. April’s Unlocked livestream will focus on new management elements, including a first look at the Driver & Staff Mentality system and new Create a Team details.
Launching this summer (a release date has yet to be confirmed), F1 Manager 2024 will go on sale for a lower retail price of £29.99 / $34.99 / €34.99. Frontier hopes this will entice more players to take on the role of a team principal after F1 Manager 2023 reportedly undersold.
“We want F1 to be a more affordable offering for an annual sports game. We don’t want the price to be a barrier to entry,” said Warren. “Looking at the whole package, the lower price point, the new create a team mode, and deeper management elements, there’s no better way to get started as a team principal.”
What do you think about what you've seen so far in F1 Manager 2024's Create a Team mode? Let us know in the comments below.
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