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One of the most fun parts of many racing games is customizing one's vehicle until it delivers the precise performance the player desires. Sliding through corners, edging other racers out in narrow gaps, and leaving the competition behind in a gout of exhaust fumes are just a few of the satisfying things that players can achieve with the perfect car setup.
F1 Manager 2022 is a deep management sim, and though the player doesn't take the wheel themselves, they're responsible for virtually everything about their team. Leading up to a race, one of the manager's most important responsibilities is to adjust their car's setup until the driver has complete confidence in it. Doing this right can be tricky, however. Here's everything the player needs to know about tweaking setups in F1 Manager 2022.
Setup Basics
While F1 Manager 2022 might have a flaw or two, it still puts plenty of control in players' hands. There are five individual setup aspects that the player can change in F1 Manager 2022: Front Wing Angle, Rear Wing Angle, Anti-Roll Distribution, Tire Camber, and Toe-Out. Changes to these aspects directly affect the driver's confidence, which in turn directly affects their performance during the race. No matter how impressive a racing team one has built, it can all come crashing down on the track if the driver has no confidence in their setup.
The driver's confidence, in turn, comprises five areas: Oversteer, Braking Stability, Cornering, Traction, and Straights. To increase the driver's confidence, the player needs to keep the white adjustment bar within the blue range. What makes this process tricky, especially for new players, is that adjustments to the setup aspects can affect multiple areas of the driver's confidence, making tweaking setups a bit of a balancing act. Prior to the first practice, the white bar will be in the center of the adjustment area. The player can either send their drivers out without making any adjustments in order to gather initial feedback or make some small adjustments to try to get the individual white sliders better centered on their individual bars.
The Perfect Setup
After sending the driver out on a medium-length practice run, the player needs to wait until the Comment Box turns blue and reads 5/5, as this indicates the driver is ready to share their thoughts so that setup tweaks can be made. The blue optimization bars will now shrink, showing that the player is closer to understanding the ideal setup positioning. F1 Manager 2022 is not an arcade racer, so the player will have to mind the details.
To make the most of one's chances in this excellent racing title, it's best to focus on correcting areas that the driver considers Bad while trying to minimize disruptions to areas that received positive comments. To reach 100% Driver Confidence (or close to that number), the player will likely need to repeat this practice and adjustment process several times. The player has three practice sessions in which to complete their setup, so it's okay if things aren't perfect after the first session.
If the player accidentally decreases Driver Confidence, they can fix their mistake by clicking the Revert button, which will revert Driver Confidence to the highest level achieved so far. Only the Front Wing and Rear Wing affect the Straights category, so optimizing the Straights tells the player that their Wing placement is correct and that they can now focus on other setup areas. It's because of details like this that F1 Manager 2022 is arguably one of the best racing games of its kind.
F1 Manager 2022 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.