Motorsport Manager is a racing simulation game where you take control of your own racing team. You make all the calls - where to invest, who to hire, who to fire, what strategy to use during the race, what pitting and tire strategy, etc. It's all in the game. Motorsport Manager is available for iOS and Android.
Motorsport Manager starts you off with modest amount of money and a low tech car and facilities. You choose between two low racing leagues to compete in with your two cars. You take on sponsors to help your team earn money from each race in order to reinvest in either facilities and staff or your young driver program. At the end of each race season you will earn prize money based on your position in the Constructor's Championship.
The game is split into 3 main areas, the management of your team, qualifying and each race. Prior to the race, you can make all of the team decisions - do you invest in manufacturing, aerodynamics or design. Each one will help improve your team's performance by either improving reliability or speed or acceleration or handling. Everything is a balance though as you have limited money and each time you improve an area it can increase the monthly cost of running your team.
During qualifying, you have to make choices between how you will setup your car - do you focus on cornering or straights, do you focus on top speed or acceleration or go neutral in your settings? Each may be better depending on the track that you happen to be racing on. Then what weather conditions will you experience, is it better to put your drivers out with soft, hard or wet tires? All these choices are yours and, along with the driver's skills and your car's capabilities, will determine if you get pole position for the race or languish back mid-pack.
Once the race starts, you are locked into the strategy you chose right before the green light drops. From there, your tactical choices include when to pit, the tires you put on the car and whether or not to push for faster lap times (at the expense of more tire wear). The difference between a podium place for one of your drivers and a mid-pack finish may be determined by your tire/pitting strategy. Soft tires are great on dry, cool days but wear much faster while hard tires are slower (except on hot, hot days) but will last up to 8 laps or more. It's all up to you.
On my iPad mini with Safari and iBooks open in the background, the game does slow down and stutter during the races at times. You will also find yourself fast-forwarding the speed during the race and qualifying - which will make a race last less than 5 minutes. Take your time when you first start out, upgrade as much as you can and stay in the lower leagues until you have bought everything you can afford. Even when you are dominating the lowest racing leagues, you will be a middle of the road team in the next level. However, the next level will bring significantly better staff and drivers along with the toiling to try to improve (there is a lot more sponsor money at higher leagues, too, but the expectations are much higher). Don't worry that you can only improve your car through investment in your facilities as you will periodically be given a dilemma that may allow investment into immediate improvements to one aspect of your car or another (at a cost). If you aren't patient, the game also offers in-app purchases for more in-game dollars to invest, but it isn't necessary at all.
Motorsport Manager is a worthy racing simulation that feels like you are managing a racing team with the right level of granularity that it doesn't feel like you have to micro-manage. The races are bite-sized enough that you can play one in 2 - 5 minutes…which fits the mobile space well. Overall, it fits in the same sporting simulation space as Football Manager and Out of the Park Baseball. Motorsport Manager gets 4.5 Mick Happies. Well worth your time.
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