Kevin C. Wong

iOS Game - F1 Manager (2020) [/]

F1 Manager is a Formula 1 race car team management game using real drivers on real courses. I like that it's about building your car, training your drivers, and real-time race management.

You don't drive the two cars in your team but you can tell them when to pit stop (which is only for changing tires not for refueling), what tires to use (three types) and how fast to drive (three speeds). So each 10-minute race is about managing your pit stops (tires wear out fast) and knowing when to go all out (you always have a bit more fuel than you need to finish the game on standard speed) since you don't get extra points for finishing with extra fuel or tires.

On the down side this is a free-to-play game. There are loot boxes which take time to open or you can spend resources to open them faster. There are boosts which you can buy which gives it a bit more pay-to-win than usual. You can watch ads for in game currency. Also since it uses real F1 drivers all the included ones are male drivers (I don't know if there are any female F1 drivers).

All the racing also seems to be PvP (in a field of 20 cars, 2 will be your team and 2 will be the opponent's team). I'm more of a play vs computer person because once you get to a certain level losing constantly to tryhards gets depressing.

Overall a nice concept but free-to-play format is not for me. Maybe on desktop it's a better game.