Grand Prix Manager - Strategy Tips

Behind the scenes

Team selection and contracts 
Although it can be quite rewarding nurturing a small team over many seasons, its 
initially worth selecting one of the four big guns (Williams, Tyrrell, Benetton or 
McLaren) as youll start with better technology, attract more money and stand a 
greater chance of success. Overall Williams is probably the pick of
the bunch, as it just shades the others in terms of drivers (hooray for Damon) and 
design technology.
When it comes to negotiating your opening contracts, sign early and pick the best 
engine available. Providing youre successful, you should impress the makers 
sufficiently to keep them supplying you with free engines in subsequent seasons. 
Spare parts and tyre contracts should always be of the highest quality available, 
but when it comes to fuel, sign with the manufacturer whose juice is most 
compatible with your engine.

Design
Your team should always strive to stay as close to the cutting edge of car design 
as is humanly and financially possible, but youll need to maintain a strict balance 
between overall design allocation and developing a new chassis for next season. 
Last years model really wont cut any ice out on the circuit.

Manufacturing and facilities
When you do begin developing facilities, plan well in advance and make sure that 
the cost wont bankrupt the team. The relatively cheap technologies such as CAD 
and CAM will improve design and engineering capabilities at comparatively little 
cost, while the testing rig will provide good overall performance enhancement.
All of the great teams build their cars components in-house and you should aim 
to do the same. In-house parts always out perform their commercially available 
rivals, but for the first season or two, the cost is prohibitive, so youll have to 
make do with mainly off-the-shelf components. When you do bite the financial 
bullet and build carbon fibre and manufacturing units youll see a radical 
improvement, and these facilities will actually save you money by cutting 
manufacturing costs while improving component quality. Remember, in-house 
technology is superseded by off-the-shelf parts at the end of a season, so youll 
have to start all over again to maintain your competitive edge.

R&D
Investing some time in developing driver aids can pay remarkable dividends, but 
you must balance this with FIA rule changes. Frankly, its a gamble building 
expensive, time-consuming systems which you may not be able to use, so instead 
concentrate on legal driver aids, but be prepared to respond when the FIA does 
change its mind.
Each driving aid is a collaboration between the Design, Mechanics and 
Engineering divisions and you should co-ordinate their efforts to ensure projects 
come in on time. Some departments work at faster rates than others, so check your 
mail regularly to monitor project status, and the moment a department finishes 
work on one project, concentrate their efforts elsewhere.

Commercial considerations
Money is the bottom line to success in Formula One and youll need lots of it. A 
good commercial manager and his team will make all the difference, so dont be 
afraid to splash out and poach successful rivals if the opportunity arises. 
Merchandising is a nice sideline but sponsorship is where the big bucks are, and 
you should invest large amounts of time and effort into wooing potential sponsors. 
Remember success on the track breeds success elsewhere, and its always easier 
to market a winning team. 
How well you do with sponsors is determined by both the time you spend with 
them and the quality of your commercial staff; considerations like team 
nationality, profile raising merchandise and location of the next race can be used 
to your advantage. Finally, protect your investment with adequate security and 
dont be afraid of using espionage to see what the other teams are up to. You 
might get the occasional slapped wrist from the FIA, but the benefits far outweigh 
the risk. 


Out on the circuit

Testing
The key to success in Formula One is experiment, experiment and experiment 
again, and youll need to perform exhaustive testing to wring every last ounce of 
performance from your drivers and cars. The wind tunnel is a must for assessing 
aerodynamic profiles and essentially what youre trying to find is a good 
compromise between speed and handling. Its definitely worth noting down the 
results of using different wing profiles, then bringing that knowledge to bear on 
race day. Hockenheim, for example, is all about power on the straight, while 
winding courses like Monte Carlo require extra downforce and cornering.
Try to schedule a test day before every single race and use it to develop areas 
where your team is under achieving. At first its probably not worth venturing too 
far from home base, as this increases costs significantly. However, track 
familiarisation routines on nearby circuits can sometimes prove worthwhile. 
Again, this is a chance to test your car in race conditions and you should pay 
particular attention to the internal and external set-ups. Its vital to try out new 
components and driver aids during test days, otherwise they wont perform 
efficiently in the actual Grand Prix. The test drivers can be particularly useful in 
this area, allowing you to tinker with more exotic and experimental design set-ups 
- this is a good role for grooming younger drivers. 
	

The race

Pre-race strategy
Although you can choose to take part in every single phase of the race, you should 
always compete in the testing and qualification stages. Pre-qualifying testing gives 
you the chance to gauge the general speed and conditions of the track and fine-
tune your cars performance to match. Dont worry too much about times, but use 
this phase to check how the other teams are doing and to set realistic targets for 
qualifying. Pay special attention to the weather and track conditions and try out 
the actual tyre sets youre likely to use in the race to gauge their wear factor. 
Dont forget, you can use these tyres again if wear isnt too excessive. 

Qualifying
The two qualifying stages are vital and you should concentrate your efforts on 
getting the best qualifying time you can attain. Its important for your overall race 
strategy to get as near to pole as possible and any lap records you set in the 
process will bring financial rewards from the FIA, a useful bonus in the quest for 
solvency. A commanding position on the grid (ideally first row) means you can 
dominate the race and dictate strategy to the other teams, rather than following 
their lead.

Use qualifying tyres and put in a light fuel load so that you can concentrate on raw 
speed. Aim to record your hot lap (i.e. best qualifying time) on the first or 
second circuit after youve gone out, when your qualifiers are warmed up and in 
their best condition.
Dont be afraid to use step on it and do or die orders to improve 
your times.
Keep an eye on the other teams qualifying times, so that youre not tempted to 
take unnecessary risks and write off a very expensive chassis in the process.
Dont forget youre allowed only seven sets of tyres for the whole Grand Prix, so 
dont blow the lot trying to qualify. Youll need an absolute bare minimum of 
three tyre sets for the actual race.

Pit and fuel strategy
Pit and fuel strategy is critical to winning a Grand Prix and your first 
consideration should be the size of your fuel tank. A bigger tank is going to make 
the car heavier, but as you progress the fuel load will lighten and allow you to stay 
out much longer. How many stops? Well, thats an eternal dilemma even for the 
real Formula One teams, but as Murray Walker maintains, the longer you can stay 
out there, the better your chances. You might try a one-stop strategy on some of 
the shorter circuits, but on the whole, a two-stop race is probably preferable.
Tyre sets are graded A, B, C, D, which is hard to soft, but also slow to fast. As 
and Bs are durable but provide least traction and therefore less speed, while the 
C and D compounds are certainly quick, but tyre wear becomes a real problem. 
Respond to the race situation and make sure the tyres youve chosen will last the 
distance. Even in slightly rainy conditions, always use wet sets.

Driving strategies
You should be aware that choosing higher risk driving strategies causes more tyre 
wear and pushes up fuel consumption considerably. Allow three to five laps extra 
per refuelling so that you can challenge for places. And on your final pit stop, 
consider the merits of a splash and dash. Fill the car with as light a fuel load as 
you can risk and use softer tyres to make your final laps your fastest. You should 
make use of all the reports and telemetry to monitor the progress of both your own 
cars and those of the other teams. The TV coverage is extremely handy for 
keeping track of your nearest rivals.
Above all, be flexible in your strategy and tailor your tactics to the race situation. 
Weigh the risks and dont sacrifice certain championship points by trying to chase 
a place which is beyond you. On the other hand, when you are in a strong position 
be ruthless and press home any advantage youve created. Finally, although 
therere bucketfuls of glory if one of your drivers wins a race or even the 
championship, youre the GP manager and the constructors title is of the utmost 
importance. Every race should be run with this in mind; its the overall team 
performance thats counts, not the individual drivers.

Top money-making tips
Expand your commercial department ASAP. Excellent grade assistants can do 
twice the work of very good ones, and the money a successful commercial 
department can earn you will more than offset any additional wage costs.
You land sponsors by earning liaison points based on the time youve spent with 
them, how well your team is doing and the result of any promo material. Once 
youve gained a sponsors confidence, always keep your people working on them, 
even if its only a 5% allocation
Top wealth sponsors may take over ten races to come up with big money, so keep 
working on them. In the meantime, sign shorter deals with smaller companies to 
tide you over.
Sponsors will offer up to 45% of their wealth for high cost locations, 25% for 
second rate areas and 15%, 10% and 5% for the remaining three. Use this to 
gauge how much money theyre holding and if its worth investing more time with 
them.
When you view sponsors offers, try to hold out for a four- to six-race deal. If you 
build up enough liaison points with a company, theyll eventually offer you more 
money for less time! Always deal with sponsors direct, rather than by e-mail, as 
theyll always stump up
more cash that way.
Bigger sponsors demand success. Brilliant wealth companies wont deal with 
anyone who finished lower than 6th last year, Superb companies draw the line at 
8th, Excellent companies at 10th, and High and Average 12th and 14th 
respectively. Dont waste time with a sponsor you cant land. 
