What if the crazy in-depth simulation of Football Manager is applied to other other sports? Sports Interactive, the developers of FM, have dabbled with this with Eastside Hockey Manager, and Out Of The Park Baseball is based on a similar engine to FM, but this is the first time we see it applied to Formula 1. A fictional, non-licensed one, at least.
Motorsport Manager puts you in the role of a team principal of a fictional F1 team, or even feeder series up to two tiers below it, all governed by a fictional FIA, racing on fictional tracks around the world with fictional drivers. Yes, it’s not as a faithful recreation of the sport compared to FM, but developers Playsport Games started this game in a different manner: it was first a mobile game on Apple and Android devices.
What does that mean? You are in charge of hiring and firing staff- drivers, designers and chief mechanics, call the shots on spending money either to develop infrastructure of your headquarters for long-term investments or building new, better car parts to keep you competitive throughout the season. You’ll need to decide which sponsors to bring as well. On a race weekend, you have to figure out the right setup for the track, help your drivers qualify and manage pit strategies on raceday. Interestingly, there’s some politicking involved as well, as team principals of the league will vote on new rules to be implemented next season. Using each and every decision you can make to your advantage is the key to get your team on the podium each race, along with the very important constructors points.
Sega, the Japanese-based company with a Europe branch specialising in niche PC games, especially of the strategy and simulation genres, landed a deal to get the mobile game a PC release, with a lot of added enhancements. Fully rendered cars and tracks on race day, a bigger interface with layouts akin to FM, and more. Check out the trailer below for the full low-down:
Motorsport Manager is out now on Steam for RM65. If you prefer it cheaper and don’t care much of the new bells and whistles, the mobile version is also available for a cheaper asking price.