F1 Manager 24 review: fully featured at a bargain price

We've long maintained that the entertainment value of Formula One is only 50 per cent about the incredible, state of the art racing machinery dicing at 200mph. We reckon the other 50 per cent is the human side: the fragile egos, the fallings out, the tantrums. If the ceaseless team radio arguing of the recent Hungarian Grand Prix has taught us anything, it's that that percentage could even be adjusted in favour of millionaire driver meltdowns.

F1 Manager 24, out now on PC, Xbox and PlayStation, appears to recognise this too. One of the big additions this year is a new Mentality system that applies both to drivers and key staff. If a highly strung driver feels like they aren't being treated well in comparison to their teammate, it will affect their performances on track.

Similarly, a staff member demoralised by a run of bad results might be slower to develop new parts for the car. Dig into it and you'll discover it's a pleasingly complex, interconnected system, though it's yet to filter through to expletive riddled in-race radio messages.

The other headline feature is the option to create an entirely new team to manage from scratch, so if you've ever dreamed of founding Dave-Mercedes Racing, now's your opportunity. Joining the grid as an 11th team, you can either choose from a selection of preset origins or tweak the team's resources to start the season as either a titan or a minnow. That's if you manage to drag yourself away from meticulously customising every aspect of the cars, race suits and helmets.

With newly enhanced visuals, including an upgrade in trackside detail, the game is gradually inching closer to the Sunday afternoon spectacle you see on television. A new 'strategic heli-cam' is a convenient way to focus on key battles, corner to corner, without sacrificing the carefully curated broadcast aesthetic.

As with previous games in the series, F1 Manager 24 commits far more to graphically recreating the sport than just about any other management sim out there, and a bit like the Geography teacher you used to have a crush on, it has the looks and the smarts.

These are all the sort of incremental additions that will appeal most to those already invested in the series, but the really good news for veterans and newcomers alike is that this year the game is on sale for a relatively affordable 30 quid. For that amount, it's almost certainly worth dipping your toe if you're a fan of the sport who has never tried F1's more cerebral strain of videogame.

And given that the base fee to enter a real F1 team into the championship is over half a million pounds, that looks like even more of a bargain...