It seems that this year's game is more difficult for many players than the 2022 edition, so let's find out why!

The worst thing that can happen is to be fired at the end of the season, and that's catastrophic!
All these investments for the 2024 season will have been for nothing, so it's impossible to continue with the plan implemented for the team's future success, and we have to start all over again...
They can be financial:

• Debt (even temporary)
  
• Exceeding the budget cap (refer to Money section of this guide)

They can also be sporting:

• Not satisfying the board (race performance)
  
• Failure to reach season objective
  
• Failure to reach long-term objective in due year (should not concern 1st season)

The 5 Commandments for Managers listed above are your objectives.

• Failure to comply with more than one will probably result in dismissal
  
• Failure to comply with just one may result in dismissal, depending on its severity
  
• Complying with all of them ensures that you won't be dismissed

Money is an essential element in the difficulty of the game, which is why it is necessary to have some basic knowledge.
The game starts on February 20th, so there will only be 10 payments from the board.

• The initial balance
  
• The fixed amount paid by the board on the 1st of each month
  
• The base amount paid by the sponsors for each of the 23 races
  
• Sponsor bonuses and guarantees.

Sponsor bonuses and guarantees can be more or less easy to obtain, depending on the objectives set by the sponsors for the bonuses, and the guarantees you choose.
Be careful with guarantees: not reaching them will cost you a penalty on the base amount paid by the sponsors!
Recently introduced in F1, the budget cap limits the amount of spending authorized by teams, in order to reduce the gap between them, which used to be several hundred million.

It is set at 139 200 000$ and mainly covers running costs (cost of running the facilities, staff salaries - except for the drivers) as well as parts design and research for the following year's car.

Facilities upgrade and refurbish are not included in the budget cap.

---

---

As illustrated, the major differences concern the initial balance as well as the amount that can be allocated to facilities: all teams earn enough money, even without any sponsor bonuses, to cover the remaining budget cap.

The main value to consider is the car's performance ranking:

• The level of facilities can bring some advantages, but they are mostly minimal
  
• The level of staff can make a difference in very specific cases, but they are not the key to success in the first season
  
• Drivers come into play mainly if they destroy too many cars over the year, as this will have financial repercussions (budget cap!)

---

To get a basic idea of how difficult a first season can be, you need to compare the car's rank with its objective:

• If the car's rank is higher than the objective: rather easy
  
• If the car's rank is equal to the objective: easy to medium, the other ranks may have more impact
  
• If the car's rank is below the objective: medium to very difficult, depending on the difference and the competition for the same objective

• McLaren car is #8, objective is #7 - difference = 1
  
• Alphatauri car is #9, objective is #7 - difference = 2
  
• Alfa Romeo car is #10, objective is #7 - difference = 3
  
• Williams car is #7, objective is #8 - difference = -1

We can deduce that:

• Starting with McLaren, the main competitor should be Williams
  
• Starting with Alfa Romeo, there's a lot more competition: Williams, McLaren and Alphatauri, and beginning with the worst car!
  
• Starting with Williams, there should be no problem finishing 8th

Apply the above "formula", based on car position and team objective from the table above, with, if necessary, the competitors.

• Ferrari car #3 performs better than Aston Martin car #2 in most cases
  
• Alpine car #5 performs almost the same as Mercedes car #4 in most cases

Related to each team, it's obvious that if you already know what you're doing and why you're doing it, most of them should be more or less easy to manage.

1. Red Bull - very easy
   
2. Ferrari - easy
   
3. Mercedes - hard to very hard
   
4. Alpine - easy
   
5. McLaren - medium to hard
   
6. Alfa Romeo - very hard
   
7. Aston Martin - very easy
   
8. Haas - easy
   
9. Alphatauri - hard to very hard
   
10. Willams - very easy

Notes about above difficulty:

• Your 1st race should follow the above difficulty
  
• From the 2nd and 3rd race, you will have new parts designed, as will the AI teams, which means that at this point, your career will be totally unique
  
• This also means that the difficulty may vary more or less from this point on, depending on your design decision and the AI's design decisions

I carried out a more detailed difficulty analysis after half a season with Alfa Romeo, so if you're interested you can jump to the "Alfa Romeo - Difficulty analysis" section.

---

Let's take a moment to analyze the differences between cars #4 and #5:

• Top speed is very close, to the advantage of Mercedes
  
• The effectiveness of the DRS is better on the Alpine, which certainly goes faster than the Mercedes when it's used
  
• The Mercedes is better at low and medium speed cornering, i.e. on slow circuits
  
• The Alpine is better at high speed cornering, i.e. on fast circuits
  
• Dirty Air Tolerance is very close
  
• Cooling can be ignored

• kph - used only for max speed
  
• G - the result of an obfuscated calculation
  
• % - the current value from min value to max value

• Low speed - 3 to 5 kN - 4 is 50%
  
• Med speed - 5 to 7 kN - 6 is 50%
  
• High speed - 7 to 8 kN - 7.5 is 50%

It is also possible to show the detail of each part:

---

These are the values you'll see when you go to design (and research afterwards).

• The same stat on two different parts has its own value, which represents the staff's expertise on that stat on that part / the car's performance on that stat on that part
  
• Drag reduction is the max speed stat
  
• DRS delta is the DRS effectiveness stat
  
• The cornering values (in G) are the result of a calculation that includes the different cornering stat on the different parts, as well as the airflow front and airflow middle stats
  
• Airflow sensitivity represents the tolerance to dirty air, to which a car is subjected when it is less than half a second from another car
  
• Cooling stats are not directly related to performance

Each car is equipped with a powertrain (engine + ERS + gearbox), which may come from different manufacturers.

---

Each of the above powertrain has its own characteristics, and it is not possible to change them before the start of the 2024 season.

---

• Power is max reachable max speed (higher is better)
  
  • Power is the main stat affecting a car's acceleration
• Power loss threshold is the point at which the engine begins to lose power (lower is better)
  
• Wear resistance determines the rate at which powertrain parts degrade (higher is better)
  
• Thermal resistance indicates the need for good powertrain cooling on other parts of the car (higher is better if your car has a low engine cooling value)
  
• Fuel efficiency determines how much excess fuel must be taken on board at the start of a race in order to finish it (higher is better)

This stat is very special in that it has an indirect impact on a car's pace over the duration of a race: it improves tyres cooling, and therefore potentially the rate of degradation of tyres even when driving at a more aggressive pace.
So it can help in certain cases, but it's clearly not the stat I would focus on first season, especially for bottom teams.

---

If you'd like to improve your understanding of car development, feel free to read the reference on the subject:
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3011054831

---

When the design center is upgraded, the number of engineers may increase. This can also happen with a random event that increases the efficiency of the design center by 50%, adds 2 more simultaneous projects, and increases the number of engineers available by 50%. It's in engineering team that you have to go to manually modify the number of engineers, as the game doesn't do it automatically! And it's the same for the scouting team.

Technical chief and head of aerodynamics can be considered as passive buffs during design and research, contributing more or less to expertise gain (and therefore car's stats improvement) depending on their skills.

• Technical chief has skills relating to different parts of the car
  
• Head of aerodynamics has skills relating to the various stats covering all parts of the car

The 2 race engineers are each linked to a driver, their skills:

• Communication: more or less rapid improvement of the affinity between the engineer and the driver, this affinity is one of the main (the only?) factors in determining the size of the driver's different confidence zones during a race weekend (smaller red area, larger teal area)
  
• Feedback: improves detection of ideal zones for car settings during practice
  
• Composure: helps to reduce the loss of confidence on negative events and improve the gain of confidence on positive events during race weekends

Smaller red and larger teal confidence areas for Albon:

---

Sporting director is the last member of the staff, and his skills are all related to the pit crew or pit stops.

• Training: each training session brings more gains, and the drop in pit crew performance is reduced when moving from one season to the next
  
• Aptitude: the maximum performance the pit crew can reach
  
• Leadership: in case of errors during pit stops, improves reactivity, resulting in less time wasted
  
• Processes: reduces fatigue from training sessions and race weekends

The first season is special, the pit crew doesn't perform very well from the start, so for this season in particular, higher training skills is of relative interest, but once it's reached 85-90, it's good, going higher doesn't bring anything: when maximum performance (aptitude) has been reached... the best training program is complete rest (it doesn't make sense, I know).

Leadership isn't a very interesting skill in my experience... when there's a mistake, most of the time you lose about 2 seconds, sometimes 4... I don't think I've seen much variation in that (or maybe it's that skill that makes it more likely that it's 2 seconds rather than 4, in which case it would be a little more interesting). In the long run, the risk of error will be less than 8%, even for the worst teams. Probably not the skill to favor, unless everything else is already high enough.

Processes... excellent skill, I'd put it on the same level as training, and it works in tandem with it. Having a minimum is good, 85-90 is also sufficient. If this skill is better, you can do more training sessions, and less rest is needed, but again, once maximum performance (aptitude) has been reached...

In short, you need to have enough training and processes to reach maximum performance before the end of the season. Once you've reached that point, it's time to focus on leadership.

Ability is the skill that should always be trained, as long as it's not at 100, since it defines the maximum achievable performance, and this maximum performance defines the minimum probability of errors and the speed of pit stops.
Total is exactly the same as cumulative when the last day of the month is selected:
The first capture also shows the pit crew's current performance in the various error cases, as well as in car balancing, the maximum being the sporting director's aptitude. However, it's impossible to know what the current value of the pit stop time is in relation to the sporting director's aptitude, or at least I haven't found out yet.

The "total" view summarizes the changes for the current whole month, and the pit crew's state of fatigue on the last day of the month. The "cumulative" view, on the other hand, shows the state of fatigue on a daily basis, and it's important to make use of it, because unfortunately, the presets available are far from optimal.
First case, fatigue is already at minimum, so why not do half a day of light training (errors)? In the second case, even with three days of rest before the Melbourne weekend, fatigue is already close to the first grey zone, which means it will be in the second grey zone on race day.

As soon as fatigue enters the second grey zone, i.e. exceeds 50%, the risk of error increases considerably, and must be avoided:
As you can see, the error chance increases from 14% to 35%!

I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about car building... I don't know what it's for exactly... apart from changing parts of the car more quickly. From my experience, changing the front wing in a race always takes 7.5 seconds... maybe it's useful in practice or qualifying when the car's settings are changed... It doesn't seem very useful to worry about it at first, as it doesn't seem to help during the race.

Let's start with an example, Alfa Romeo, and take a look around... It'll be easier and will allow us to go through most of the elements of the game!
Car performance is the main factor to consider when comparing teams, of all things, especially for the first season.
So let's clean up the last table and remove:

• Acceleration: over 95% dependent on the chosen engine - we didn't choose it, we just have to deal with it
  
• The engine part, which cannot be modified
  
• The cooling part, which is not to be favored (without reducing it, especially engine cooling!)

We can also sort from car #1 to car #10

---

What's the goal again? 7th?... who's 7th... Williams.
Okay, if I were playing Williams, I wouldn't even look back: the car is better in all the key aspects than McLaren, Alphatauri and Alfa Romeo... and it's not too far off Haas and Alpine in some areas, while still being able to try to make up for the aspects where it's behind...

I chose Alfa Romeo... which finished 6th in 2022.
Did I mention that Williams finished 10th in 2022? No? One more advantage for Williams on CFD and wind tunnel hours (more on that later).

After taking the time to carry out the part analysis as in the previous section, we can retain two main elements between Alfa Romeo and Williams:

1. Alpha Romeo is really close in med speed cornering
   
2. Williams is about 10% ahead in everything else

Bottas and Zhou.

Bottas has the potential to be in the points regularly, if the car gives him the chance.
Zhou doesn't have a very good pace, but he should be regular enough not to cause too much damage... I hope.

After taking the time to compare, most of the drivers who could be interesting to recruit have either:

• No interest in joining Alfa Romeo
  
• A contract buyout worth several million
  
• A slightly better pace than Zhou, but are less regular (more potential breakages...)

We'll have to make do with what we've got.
With an impressive overall rating of 78 / 79 / 79 / 83 / 80... it doesn't start well.

• Technical Chief - Stats are balanced
  
• Head of Aerodynamics - Stats are balanced
  
• Both Race Engineers have, in my opinion, the worst higher stat: Feedback
  
• Sporting Director has, in my opinion, the best higher stat: Aptitude

The role of the Technical Chief and the Head of Aerodynamics is to improve parts design and research, so improving the car's performance more quickly.

I think the main stat of a good Race Engineer should be composure, which helps improve the driver's confidence during all phases of a race weekend.

The aptitude stat of a Sporting Director is the maximum improvement in the risk of errors and speed during pit stops.

It's no surprise, but there's nothing that stands out from the crowd on the staff side.

• Car development facilities: everything is level 1, except the design center, which is level 2
  
• Staff facilities: no team hub, race simulator level 2
  
• Operations facilities: weather center level 1, that's it

The main problem is the level 1 factory: it can only manufacture two parts at a time. A level 2 factory would add a 3rd simultaneous manufacture... for the modest sum of 7 000 000$.

Other important facilities are missing, but they're much more affordable, so they won't be a major problem.

• The 9th largest starting capital (out of 10): 16 976 502$
  
• The smallest budget - excluding sponsor bonuses - for the 1st year: 111 973 495$
  
• The smallest budget exceeding the budget cap to be allocated to facilities: 7 451 495$

• Car is garbage
  
• Drivers are correct
  
• Staff is trash
  
• Facilities... 404 not found
  
• Starting money is very low
  
• Board money is okay
  
• Sponsors money is very low
  
• Board's objective is a unicorn

It's Feb 20, so you'll have to spend some time in the various menus!
Bottas has a low development rate, Zhou a moderate one, and the race sim is level 2. The drivers won't gain many stats throughout the season, and as none of them have a high rate, improving the race sim would be wasted money.

For Bottas, focus isn't hugely important, so leaving him in balanced isn't necessarily a bad idea, or perhaps in pace (short runs)... in the hope of slightly improving his lap times.

As for Zhou, I have a preference for pace (short runs), which will help him improve his rhythm and could perhaps help him get some points in the second half of the season.
There's no team hub, which will be rectified soon. The staff has a fixed progression rate which is enhanced by the team hub, so moving it up two levels doesn't cost much for small bonuses which will be good to take.

There are mainly two development focuses to modify:

• Race Engineer: the chosen focus must improve composure
  
• Sporting Director: the chosen focus must improve aptitude

Never forget to give them job, all the year!
Detailed only for staff/driver who have stats you're interested in.
Morale applies to both drivers and staff members, and raising it to a high level won't be easy, especially at the start of the season, when results won't be there.

Morale affects the confidence of drivers, and probably also their rate of development, and has an impact on the staff's rate of development... and it's possible to get bonuses via facilities, so just do it!

If you'd like to find out more about everything related to pilots and staff, the following jtarj's guide may be of interest:
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3011869421
I'd choose to leave the development facilities as they are: everything is expensive and takes a long time to upgrade... although I'd love to improve the factory.

I'd choose not to: if we're unlucky, we might have to order a few parts in emergency during the season, but with good management of the manufacturing lines and a bit of luck, that won't happen, or it will cost less than 7 million.

Staff facilities: I'd start building the team hub immediately, and increase it to at least level 2, maybe even 3, depending on the money available. This will have an impact on staff development speed and morale.

Operations facilities: quite a lot to do here...

Board room: I'd build it immediately, aiming for level 2 or 3 as soon as possible for the bonuses it will bring to job security.
Helipad: I'd aim for level 5 as soon as possible, so that when results improve, we can earn more money with bonuses and guarantees during races.
Memorabilia Room: again, level 2-3, for the morale bonus.
Tour Centre: as quickly as possible to level 5, for a tiny money bonus over the season... it's welcome!
Depending on the (positive) evolution of the season, the money available, and your desires for the 2024 season, it may be worth considering a few additional improvements.

For example, if you're planning to recruit a driver or staff for 2024 to replace personnel who have reached the end of their contract (Zhou, Head of Aerodynamics and Sporting Director), it might be worthwhile to increase the team attractiveness. And why not upgrade the team hub and race simulator by one or two extra levels.

The factory also needs to be upgraded to level 2 by 2024 (for early-mid february), the 3rd line will be a much-appreciated improvement.

I don't want to do a "Car development basics" section, as that would be extremely long, and Mike Takumi already has an excellent guide on the subject, so I'd recommend it again if you're interested.

His guide is very long, so a "short" variant is to read only the "Notes" sections, and read this or that section completely as you go on if you're willing to.

You are also totally free to continue reading this guide and try to figure out the things you don't know or don't understand by playing and enjoying the game!
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3011054831
Some race strategies involve increasing the pace on tyres or fuel consumption, but these are difficult to apply to our car: the drivers don't have very good smoothness, and brake and engine cooling are rather bad.

What's more, our car is fitted with a Ferrari engine, which doesn't have the thermal resistance of a Mercedes engine, for example, which means that being too aggressive on the pace of fuel consumption will have a direct, and very strong, negative impact on the wear of the engine.

The regulations regarding powertrain parts mean that we have at our disposal, for the entire season:

• 3 engines
  
• 2 ERS
  
• 4 gearboxes

It is possible to buy additional powertrain parts, but this costs money (and there are 2 cars!) as well as a starting penalty on the grid each time an additional powertrain part is used for the first time.

• 5 000 000$ - Engine
  
• 2 500 000$ - ERS
  
• 1 000 000$ - Gearbox

Assuming that we'll need to buy 2 engines and 2 ERS is fairly realistic, meaning that we'll have to spend 15 000 000$, which will have to be deducted from the budget cap and the car's development!
We're already sure to have the worst car on the grid, and the first parts won't arrive for another 3 or 4 races, knowing that we'll need to do a lot more than change 2-3 parts to have any chance of being ahead of the Williams.

With this in mind, we could imagine carrying out the practice for the first few races by hand, doing a single 15 lap run during FP1, and another in either FP2 or FP3 to avoid unnecessary wear on the powertrain parts.

Taking this to the extreme, it's even possible to retire both cars on the 1st lap of these races! That wouldn't be realistic at all, but from a strategic point of view... it would be very wise. After all, if it saves the purchase of 2 engines later in the season for races in which no points will be scored - unless 10 cars DNF...

Beware of the board's confidence, however, as such a strategy would put us in an extremely precarious position very quickly.

Perhaps it's better to race to the end, doing everything possible to limit the degradation of the powertrain parts, i.e. reducing fuel consumption and leaving the ERS in recharge mode.

It's also possible to use used powertrain parts (50% engine, 40% ERS and gearbox) in the race, to the detriment of performance... which is perfectly feasible on Zhou's car in order to save money. It's also interesting to use worn parts (yellow and orange) in practice, and to use the right parts only in qualifying and racing.
The new part durability feature will be a great help, but we have to bear in mind that our factory is only level 1, so it will be difficult to keep up with the pace on the manufacturing side, for two cars.

Sorry, Zhou, you'll probably never get the best parts for your car! They will be reserved for Bottas, because in this idea, when the first set of parts leaves the factory, Bottas will use them, and when the 2nd set of parts is ready, depending on available stocks, it will then be possible to improve Zhou's car with the 1st set, and so on. And when Zhou runs out of 1st set parts, he can always use the 4 basic parts as a last resort!

Depending on the evolution of the stock, at some point it may be possible to have the 3rd set of parts on both cars. Yes, I think we should plan for at least 3 sets (a set being 1x each part, i.e. 6 parts) in design for this first season, and depending on the evolution of our car, and respectively of the competitors for 7th place, maybe even a 4th set, perhaps partial.

Because yes, AI is not predictable, so we'll have to follow the evolution of our competitors for 7th place throughout the season, and it's possible that at some point Williams will no longer be our main competitor!

Starting from this idea, creating the first two sets of parts with 0 durability (slider on the far left) seems feasible, and this is where the biggest gains will come from, especially for the 1st set, the 2nd set will benefit additionally from the expertise acquired by the 1st, and, depending on the gap with competitors, durability could be less reduced for the 3rd set if this simplifies inventory management (and lowers costs!).
We should have enough money at our disposal to do the first 6 designs in intense mode, to improve the expertise gain. I'd use the CFD/WT hours equitably between parts, and as we start immediately with 4 parts, each will have 1/4 of CFD/WT hours.

When these parts are ready, the new ATR period will have begun, and the following parts will each benefit from 1/2 of the CFD/WT hours.

The 3rd ATR period will be used to improve the parts that are too far behind, relatively to our main competitor early in May if necessary.

Melbourne is in 39 days, Baku in 67 days and Miami in 74 days. It's possible to have 2 parts for Melbourne, but not more, and ideally I'd prefer to be able to manufacture parts at a normal rate to save money.

From here, we'll have 4 new parts for Baku, the first 3 races will be done in "preservation" mode.
The two remaining parts of the 1st set will be ready for Miami.

1st design line:

• Chassis - 3 engineers - 26 days + 10 factory days = 38 days - 2.1M + 0.55M
  
• Underfloor - 3 engineers - 36 days + 8 factory days = 70 days - 4.35M + 0.4M

2nd design line:

• Sidepods - 3 engineers - 30 days + 8 factory days = 38 days - 3M + 0.45M
  
• Suspension - 3 engineers - 34 days + 8 factory days = 72 days - 3.9M + 0.3M

3rd design line:

• Front Wing - 2 engineers - 41 days + 3 factory days = 44 days - 4.8M + 0.225M

4th design line:

• Rear Wing - 2 engineers - 39 days + 3 factory days = 42 days - 4.35M + 0.275M

Make sure you have enough money left over to launch all the intense designs and manufacture the first parts! If necessary, delay facilities upgrades by a few weeks.
For the curious, this may not be the best choice, but it's going to be okay.

Let's start with the fun part! This email arrived after the 2nd race. :)

---

For this guide, I will follow these rules:

• The optimal settings from https://f1setup.it/ will be set at the beginning of the weekend, and never changed - Settings will be somewhere between 85% and 95% most of the time
  
• Simulation of all practice at once (to qualifying)
  
• Simulation of all qualifying at once (to race)
  
• For sprint weekends, this will always be the farthest simulation available
  
• A backup save at the start of the race, used only in case of a crash
  
• Never load a previous backup to change the outcome of a race

Now for the less fun stuff. As expected, a few half-practice sessions managed manually (a single send off for 15 laps), qualifying in simulated mode, the race in "preservation" mode.

Not a very interesting thing to do, but there were no problems with either of my cars, no accidents, nothing at all, which means that we end up with a first set of powertrain parts in pretty good condition after 3 races.

---

During this short break, I chose to launch two additional designs, waiting for the next ATR period to begin (May 1, both designs ends May 3).
These two designs will most likely not be used, they were here mostly for the expertise gain.
Some weekends have a sprint format, which differs from a classic race weekend:

• Practice 1
  
• Qualifying 1/2/3
  
• Practice 2
  
• Sprint race
  
• Race

The special features are that there is only one practice session before qualifying, and that the finish order of the drivers in the sprint race defines the start order of the race.

This is the 2022 format, and it remains to be seen whether an update will bring the 2023 format later, but it's by no means certain.

Sprint weekends are:

• Baku - Yes, our next race, surprisingly!
  
• Spielberg
  
• Spa
  
• Lusail (new Qatar circuit)
  
• Austin
  
• Sao Paulo

Dry start, then the last 2/3 of the race in light rain - intermediate tires were brought out for the first time this season.

There were several Safety Cars and Virtual Safety Cars. Norris and Verstappen DNF, as well as a few other race incidents that allowed Bottas to finish 12th, to the satisfaction of the board!

An unexpected result, but one that we're happy to accept - a step in the direction of job security!

---

That's it, the last two parts are ready, an ideal time to compare the car's evolution with Williams!
Left: Feb 20 - Right: May 3
We can see a rapprochement, but it's far from enough. Especially as we're at durability 0, i.e. -20 kilos, whereas so far Williams has only lost 2 kilos.

For a first set of parts, it's already very good: everything has been improved.
We're ready to use our 3rd ATR period on the parts that will have the biggest impact on top speed, DRS efficiency and high-speed cornering, and I think we won't be able to improve dirty air tolerance, let alone cooling.

No particular incident, no (virtual) safety car, a race under the sun. Bottas finished 11th, which is rather encouraging! Second race in a row that the board is happy...
Albon finished 10th, though.

It's the first time I've really looked at the state of the WCC, and I was surprised, I should have been more attentive during the first three races in "preservation" mode. Haas 7th with 5 points, Williams 6th with 7 points.

I went back for a more thorough check of the car analysis, and no, the Haas is still better than the Williams. No mistake about our direct rival, it's still Williams.
On our return from Miami, we received an unwanted email...

---

There's always a need for upgrades, and Zhou's car will have to be improved faster than expected if we want to take advantage of racing incidents... I've started manufacturing the chassis and the sidepods "1.5": they'll give Bottas a little upgrade while he waits 9 more days for new parts.

This will equip Zhou's car with the "1.0" chassis and sidepods. He'll also soon have the two "1.0" wings, which only take 3 days to make, and 4 new parts out of 6 is better than nothing. It should arrive for Barcelona.

The first engine entered the yellow zone for both cars after Imola. We'll be using it again, perhaps at Spielberg, if by then Williams is still better than us at max speed and high-speed cornering.
Some weekends are used to test a new regulation concerning the number of sets of tires available.

Special features:

• There are only 11 sets of tyres instead of 13
  
• Qualifying 1 is always with hard tyres
  
• Qualifying 2 is always with medium tyres
  
• Qualifying 3 is always with soft tyres
  
• The above doesn't apply if it rains, of course

ATA qualifying weekends are:

• Imola - \o/
  
• Budapest

The entire race took place in the rain, alternating between light and heavy conditions. A rather interesting Inter - Wet - Inter - Wet strategy, with several (virtual) safety cars.

Tsunoda completely missed a corner at the very beginning of the race, destroying Zhou's rear wing and chassis - fortunately, he's still using the basic parts! First DNF of the season for the team, and there was nothing we could do about it.

Later, during the first run on tyres wet, which turned out to be a little too daring... the rain eased off too quickly, and most of the cars remained on tyres inter. I can thank Leclerc for screwing up (DNF) and allowing me to avoid wasting too much time in the pits to switch back to tyres inter under virtual safety car. Later, Stroll and Russel collided, DNF for both and a new safety car.

Approaching the 3rd pit stop to put on wet tyres for the last 10 laps, with the three top DNFs, Albon is P7, Bottas P8. Third race in a row with a pit problem for us... an almost 5-second stop for Bottas, who finds himself P10, Albon is P6... then he spins. Albon finishes 11th, out of the points, Bottas scores the first 2 points of the season with his P9! The board is delighted!
It's May 22, so after 3 months - 6 races already done, with our 6 intense designs, we have used ~36M from our initial remaining budget cap and we still have 68.5M available.

Facilities upgrades so far:

• Team hub is upgrading to level 2
  
• Board room level 2 - It will stay at this level for now with our current results
  
• Helipad level 5 - Time to check some guarantees, maybe?
  
• Memorabilia room level 3
  
• Tour centre level 5

And we are now WCC 8, with those 2 little points!

---

I checked the Q2 and finish position (14th, default value) guarantees for this race. No Q2 for Bottas, who had a really disappointing Q1, after some very good times in practice.

There was a safety car due to an accident involving Piastri (DNF), and this was the only noteworthy fact to be reported throughout the race. Bottas managed to finish P14, and the board is satisfied.
I checked the same guarantees, and still no Q2 with very good times in practice, I might wait for ne parts to play again with that one.

Interesting race, lots of both minor and major collisions. Tsunoda caused a collision with Sargeant and both DNF'd, mid-race collision between Zhou and Piastri... major chassis damage, I have retired the car, Piastri DNF.

The rest of the race went off without a hitch, Bottas finished P8, ahead of the two Haas cars, which obviously delighted the board. Only 1 point behind Williams for P7!

There were problems with all three pit stops, taking 5.5sec, 5.5sec and 6.6sec... Sounds crazy, the risk of error is around 12% with a pit crew that's not too tired.
The "2.0" chassis and sidepod designs are complete, 2 rushed chassis have been launched, i.e. new chassis in Montreal for Bottas, Zhou takes over the "1.5" chassis. The two missing designs of the "2.0" set have been started:

1st fact of this weekend... the 1st ERS has already gone into the yellow zone. I was clearly expecting to have to buy two more, but still.

2nd fact of the weekend... Bottas managed to get through to Q2, obviously, I didn't take the guarantee.

The second half of the race in light rain... the 8.6-second pit stop didn't help Bottas, he still finished P13, ahead of Albon.
2 more "2.0" designs completed! On the warehouse side, however, the stock of the best parts is frightening to look at, as was to be expected with a level 1 factory. It will be necessary to use the rushed mode more regularly to manufacture parts.

Obviously, without any particular upgrade, the car is far behind the Williams on the Spielberg circuit, which favours max speed and high-speed cornering, a good opportunity to use old parts and switch to a yellow powertrain parts configuration.

Looking at the calendar... we don't have much time left until summer break, which will be an ideal time to rebuild our stock of parts. What's more, July is approaching and will coincide with the start of the 4th ATR period, which we want to use for research.

Here are the first two "3.0" designs. Quite happy with the results of these two pieces, since we're slightly above 50% on the important stats, and even managed to pass 40% in dirty air tolerance.
The white values "Car 1" are the car's stats on Feb 20.
It started well for Albon, who was 6th (a really good circuit for Williams), until he crashed. Zhou was hit by a car taking a lap off him and DNF'd. So P18 for Bottas.

Good thing there were no pit stop errors! ..... and obviously, the board was disappointed, but that was to be expected! Another good thing... both cars used basic parts and powertrain parts in poor condition (apart from the gearbox, but that's okay).
Not a very good circuit for us... rather to Williams' advantage. P11 for Bottas, no points scored by Williams, a good weekend during which nothing special happened. Oh yes, no pit stop errors!
Still manufacturing rushed parts... and two new "3.0" designs started, I forgot to change the parts on car 1 this time though, but the gain is similar.
This circuit should be very much to our advantage... which won't be the case at Spa: it will be like Spielberg. We need to score points this weekend!

First pit stop for Bottas and Zhou on lap 23, no mistakes. Leclerc crashes on lap 24, safety car. Worst timing! The safety car comes out on lap 28, collision between Russel and Stroll! Safety car again! Several cars take the opportunity to pit, Bottas finds himself in P4. Lap 66 (of 70), Alonso who was 2nd destroyed his car, virtual safety car, Bottas is now P5, with two Alpines chasing him. Albon is P8, Zhou P9... And the last two laps won't change anything!

Excellent weekend with these 12 points!
Alfa is now P7 in the WCC with 18 points, Williams P8 with 11 points!
Our first two "3.0" designs are ready, the rear wing will be on Bottas' car in Belgium.

It's already Jul 25... It's time to use this ATR period on two 50/50 parts in research. I haven't said it yet, but the technical regulations that will affect us at the end of the year will be 10% low-speed, 20% med-speed and 30% high-speed cornering. We're going to have to make a special effort on high-speed cornering, which has been our weakness so far against Williams.
Surprisingly, Bottas had a better Q2 (yes, Q2) than the Williams, so maybe this weekend will be more interesting than expected! Let's see if this is confirmed in the sprint... P9, so close from points!

With a few powertrain parts penalties here and there... Bottas starts the race P5! No particular incident, Bottas finishes P10, no points for Williams... very satisfied with the result.

Time for a well-deserved break! Or not... these three weeks are going to go by fast, and be very busy.

---

Unsurprisingly, things are going swimmingly on this front.

---

---

Two more design projects, and 5 more engineers, just in time!
After a few "3.0" front wing tests, I've decided to promote the "2.0" to "3.0", not much to gain, and especially on what will be impacted by the technical regulation... so I've launched 2 research projects, quite simply. When the suspension is available, I'll see what I decide for this part.
I've started detailed scouting to replace the aero and the pit crew chief at the end of their contract in a few months.

Bottas's contract doesn't expire this year... And with the points he's picked up, I can't see myself thanking him, and I certainly can't afford to.

I'm still thinking about Zhou, we'll see if he can pick up a few more points in the second half of the season... maybe Gasly, or Stroll... or even Ocon, these are the drivers I think are within reach given the budget.
Summer break is now done, it's Aug 25, three months since the last update. We've got 39.4M left in the budget cap, which means we've spent 29.1M... without the intense design, that's better! There's still 11M in available cash.

There's nothing to celebrate either, as there are still 4 months to go until the end of the year. If the research goes well, there won't be much money left on the budget cap. And we'll probably have to buy two ERS... 5M.

And let's not forget the factory, whose upgrade is due to be launched in early November... 7M. At least it's not in the budget cap. We also need to make the team more attractive, to ease the hiring process.

For the time being, Bottas will use the best parts available, Zhou, what's one level down... we're not going to lose that precious money turned into parts.

Time to compare the car's evolution with Williams!
Left: May 3 - Right: Aug 25 - Next comparison when all design will be done and built

At this stage, 2 parts are still missing, and even with them, the differences between the two cars, Alfa Romeo and Williams, should remain similar.

• Max speed will remain in Williams' favor
  
• Acceleration will be to my advantage, but it's difficult to estimate the value of this statistic... bearing in mind that it's mainly down to the engine - Ferrari versus Mercedes - as well as 0 durability on my side
  
• I've put a lot of effort into DRS effectiveness, this stat being more or less useful if its value is too low, to the point of overtaking Williams, which, when it's time to overtake and the DRS is usable, gives me a real advantage
  
• As for cornering, Williams has chosen to focus on high-speed, whereas I've tried to keep all three values fairly close, whether via downforce or front/middle airflow, and I end up with the advantage in low-speed and med-speed
  
• Dirty air tolerance... was to Williams' advantage, and is even more so now. On the other hand, I'm not exactly sure of its effect... I suppose it allows you to lose less speed in cornering, and it must also have an influence on tyre temperature. Clearly, research will have to improve this for 2024
  
• Cooling is always to Williams' advantage, but again, it doesn't necessarily give a decisive advantage in the race (on the other hand, if I have to buy engines... but that's a financial management issue, it indirectly impacts performance, and the impact will mainly take place in 2024 - less research, less money available at the start of the 2024 season, etc.)

Alfa Romeo will have the advantage, car-wise, on some circuits, Williams on others, and that advantage should be more or less as follows:

• Zandvoort: fairly even, advantages on both sides
  
• Monza: completely to Williams' advantage
  
• Singapore: completely to Alfa Romeo's advantage
  
• Suzuka: fairly even, advantages on both sides
  
• Lusail: completely to Alfa Romeo's advantage
  
• Austin: fairly even, advantages on both sides
  
• Mexico City: fairly even, perhaps a slight advantage for Alfa Romeo
  
• Sau Paulo: completely to Alfa Romeo's advantage
  
• Las Vegas: fairly even, advantages on both sides
  
• Yas Marina: more to Alfa Romeo's advantage

So it's safe to say that, barring any surprises, Williams has a very big challenge ahead of it in taking over P7, and everything is lined up very nicely for Alfa Romeo to stay ahead.

It's also important to look back at previous results. First, the races before the 6 new "1.0" parts:

• Sakhir
  
  • 15 Albon
    
  • 17 Sargeant
    
  • 19 Bottas
    
  • 20 Zhou
• Jeddah
  
  • 10 Sargeant
    
  • 11 Albon
    
  • 19 Bottas
    
  • 20 Zhou
• Melbourne
  
  • 07 Albon
    
  • 11 Sargeant
    
  • 16 Bottas
    
  • 17 Zhou
• Baku
  
  • 12 Bottas
    
  • 13 Sargeant
    
  • 15 Albon
    
  • 18 Zhou

Then, the races from the 6 "1.0" parts onward up to summer break:

• Miami
  
  • 10 Albon
    
  • 11 Bottas
    
  • 17 Sargeant
    
  • 20 Zhou
• Imola
  
  • 09 Bottas
    
  • 11 Albon
    
  • 12 Sargeant
    
  • DNF Zhou
• Monaco
  
  • 14 Bottas
    
  • 17 Sargeant
    
  • 18 Zhou
    
  • 19 Albon
• Barcelona
  
  • 08 Bottas
    
  • 15 Albon
    
  • DNF Zhou
    
  • DNF Sargeant
• Montréal
  
  • 13 Bottas
    
  • 14 Albon
    
  • 17 Zhou
    
  • 19 Sargeant
• Spielberg
  
  • 14 Sargeant
    
  • 18 Bottas
    
  • DNF Zhou
    
  • DNF Albon
• Silverstone
  
  • 11 Bottas
    
  • 14 Albon
    
  • 17 Sargeant
    
  • 18 Zhou
• Budapest
  
  • 05 Bottas
    
  • 08 Albon
    
  • 09 Zhou
    
  • 14 Sargeant
• Spa
  
  • 09 Bottas
    
  • 11 Albon
    
  • 15 Sargeant
    
  • 19 Zhou

We can see that:

• Since Imola, Bottas has always finished ahead of Albon
  
• Zhou and Sargeant are ahead of each other in a more predictable way, depending on which car has the advantage on which circuit

The "driver difference" takes on its full meaning, as Bottas has a much higher overall rating than Albon (87 versus 82 in my career before Zandvoort). I already had the feeling during my McLaren 2024 season that Norris was "pushing the car" and regularly achieving better-than-expected results, and this seems to be confirmed on this Alfa Romeo career. The drivers really are Alfa Romeo's strong point - in the battle of the bottom teams.

But it's surprising, because so far, Norris only has 1 point in the WDC, even though he's better than Bottas. Yes and no, to be able to "push the car", the car in question has to be a minimum competitive, and from what I've seen by regularly comparing the Alfa Romeo car with those of Williams, obviously, but also Haas, McLaren and Alphatauri, the new parts at McLaren systematically went on Piastri's car first, so Norris has never really had a competitive car so far. Perhaps a problem with the AI...

Also, from what I've seen so far, and it's not likely to get any better by the end of the season, money is very tight at Alfa Romeo. It is possible, and in fact has been done, to make a complete set of parts in intense design, while still being able to improve the facilities necessary for the smooth running of the season, and I'm planning to spend another 12 million or so on this (team attractiveness, morale, team hub, and, of course, factory level 2).

If we avoid intense designs, it's possible to upgrade the factory to level 2 straight away, which greatly simplifies parts stock management, especially as, as we can see, we're able to compete with Williams, mainly because all parts have been made with minimum durability. Without the factory at level 2, which is our case, it's going to be almost impossible to have both cars benefiting from the best parts, except perhaps in 2 or 3 selected races, such as those where the characteristics of the Alfa Romeo car are perfectly suited to the circuit to see if Zhou is capable of picking up a few more points.

And don't forget that we need to have a minimum amount of money available at the end of the season, otherwise we won't be able to launch designs in January 2024... It's going to be very tight, so we'll have to see how the rest of the season pans out, but I expect to be able to meet all our targets without too much trouble at this stage, and the tough choices will all be money-related... a bit less research for a bit more money next season, will we have to buy one or two engines, or will we take the risk of using yellow or orange powertrain parts in races, etc.

Zhou's car started the race with engine just below 50%.

Bottas made it through to Q3 and started P8 - what a surprise!

He finishes P9, the two Williams are P11 and P12.
Research into the suspension is complete, and here too, the "2.0" is promoted to "3.0", making way for research rather than a new design.

The last two "3.0" parts are also ready for Monza... so here's the final comparison with the Williams, since from now on there will be no new design for the Alfa Romeo.

---

Bottas's car started the race with engine just below 50%.

Bottas made it through to Q3 and started P9 - what a surprise, again! And even P7 due to grid penalities.

The result was quite unexpected: a Mercedes, the Alpines and the Haas behind Bottas... I must admit, however, that the improvements in max speed and DRS effectiveness played a part, as Bottas managed to take advantage of Hamilton to stay ahead right up to the pit stop.

---

No Q3 this time, Bottas started P10 due to grid penalities.

Lap 13, virtual safety car, that transformed into safety car at lap 14, up to lap 17. Light rain just started, Bottas is P6, Zhou P11. Decided to delay pit to inters for one more lap and after every car's pit stop, Bottas is P4, Zhou P7.

Finally, P5 for Bottas, none of our direct rivals scored any points, nor Haas for that matter... Alfa Romeo is now 1 point behind Haas, which is WCC P6.
New Q3 for Bottas! P9. Starting P7 (grid penalities).

I tried a one-stop strategy as a VSC gave me the opportunity, I think I should have stuck to the initial strategy... but P10 for Bottas... WCC 6! Same number of points than Haas though.
Another design center incident... closed for another 10 days.

---

I've decided to spend more money than initially planned on facilities, in order to gain in team attractiveness: I've spotted a few interesting candidates who are reaching the end of their contract this year... but Alfa Romeo doesn't seem to interest them. I'm hoping that the expenses will allow them to change their minds, otherwise it'll be 3-4 million terribly spent.

I also bought an additional ERS for Zhou.
Zhou got a penalty because of the ERS. I've also given him the full "3.0" set, like Bottas, for this race. I'm curious to see how far he'll be able to climb!

Sprint started with a red flag at first turn. Then a SC at the middle. Bottas will start the race P4 (3 grid penalities), Zhou P17.

Double multiple collision on first turn, but no (V)SC nor red flag this time. Nothing else happened... almost?
A podium! Now that's a surprise! And where are the competitors?

Concerning Zhou, he had a problem during the 2nd pit stop... 6.4 seconds. Maybe he could have finished in the points... or maybe a one-stop strategy for him could have produced a better result. I don't know whether I'm satisfied with his result or not.
New ERS for Bottas for this race, and the penalty that goes with it.

An incident-free sprint. Bottas managed to climb back up to mid-grid before having an incident with Tsunoda which caused a puncture and terminal damage to the suspension... DNF. Zhou P9!
We have to close the design center for 9 more days, 25 so far this year. It's absurd.

A quick review before the last 4 races:

Let's start with the good news... the board is delighted with the last 9 races (the 10th being Spielberg), so whatever happens, the race performance objective is met.

As for the unicorn, it looks like we've found it too! I can't see Williams coming back now.

---

As for the budget cap, with just over 18M available, I think we should stay relatively far from the limit, barring a disaster. No debt so far either, and unless we have the same kind of disaster as the budget cap, we should be fine.

At this stage, you, the reader, are thinking that P6 is almost a given too, that these last few races won't really make any difference... and that it'll be a quiet little stroll... But no!

There's a real problem to deal with, and I don't know how I'm going to get out of it, I've got a few ideas... but none of them really appeal to me.
The disaster I'm talking about is obviously if the only engine still in good condition in either of the two cars is destroyed prematurely in a crash...
And if that happens, it's likely that the ERS and gearbox will also be destroyed, in which case we'd have to spend 11.5M, for just one car.

Because yes, I'm thinking of next season, and this kind of expenditure would be extremely unwelcome, especially as the last ATR period hasn't started yet, and we'll need to launch 2 searches to use CFD/WT hours.

So... In terms of debt and budget cap, we'll be fine... unless...
Zhou will be using his 17% engine throughout the weekend, which should enable him to drive the remaining three races with peace of mind, provided he doesn't overwork the engine.
Bottas will try to limit his red fuel pace as much as possible (only until DRS enabled), and will probably try to switch to purple pace from time to time.

8 grid penalties... that could help. Bottas starts P8, Zhou P14, but a DNF won't be a surprise.
We'll start with 2-3 laps less fuel for Bottas, and 7-8 for Zhou, who will be in conservation mode from start to finish.

Bottas drove more than expected in fuel conservation, finishing P13, Albon scored a point for Williams with his P10. No points for Haas... and Zhou's engine isn't dead yet, perfect!
Same strategy as last race, with the drivers reversed. Once again, there are a lot of grid penalties... Zhou starts 12th, and it would be good if he finished P14 or better to avoid breaking the sponsor streak guarantee.

There's going to be light rain in the middle of the race, which promises to be interesting... First VSC caused by Tsunoda at the start of the race, then, on lap 46, Sargeant crashes... SC this time, and the rain will stop in 1 or 2 laps, and the track will quickly become dry... Everyone makes a pit stop. Nouvelle VSC au tour 64...

Magnussen P6, Zhou P8, Albon P9, Hülkenberg P10... Bottas P13, in fuel conservation mode from start to finish... He started with -10kg of fuel, finished with +14kg with the (V)SC. Still 8 points ahead of Haas in the WCC.
We're not going to push and preserve our engines, if possible, while still racing a bit... Ideally, we don't want Haas to come back up, but it's preferable to be able to race as normally as possible, while being able to push on fuel, at Yas Marina, a circuit that suits our car extremely well.

P10 and P11 in qualifying, we're still going to try to do something good here.
Bottas will be the only one among the drivers we're interested in to score 4 points with his P8!

Excellent news, no car has been destroyed, and if it happens in the last race, it's no big deal! What's more, the engines can be pushed without any problem at Yas Marina. An excellent opportunity to start upgrading our factory.
Bottas started P9, finished P8, 2 or 3 (V)SC but nothing fancy to say about that lace race...
Let's jump to the fun part!

Fast forward to Dec 31, where there are still a few things to do... a driver is missing, the reserve driver is missing, as well as two members of staff... I've been waiting for facility upgrades.

So about facilities... In relation to the last point on May 22.

• Factory upgrading to level 2
  
• Team Hub level 3
  
• Board Room level 4
  
• Hospitality Area level 3
  
• Memorabilia Room level 5

There are a number of facilities that will have to be reburbished... in the near future.

Has all this spending on team attractiveness paid off? Unfortunately not... even for staff who still don't have a contract for next year and who will become free agents. This isn't necessarily a bad thing... it allows us to improve for one more season and recruit more expensive, and much better, staff the following season (and even more so if, by chance, they are without a contract).

So I've decided to extend everyone's contract by one year, and to review the situation during the 2024 season... except that everyone only wanted a minimum of two years, so there will probably be some additional costs if any changes need to be made for 2025.

Board is obviously happy, and confidence is high.

---

Didn't reach budget cap either.

---

We end the year with 19M, which is pretty good... Let's launch the next season to see if we can add some merchandising on the sponsors' side (there isn't any at all, hence the low basic sponsor amounts!) and find out where the new car fits on the grid!

It has been possible to increase sponsor revenues by 1M per race (23M more than the previous year)... but there's only 9M left in starting capital... That's still enough to launch the first designs, so all is going well!

As for the monthly board payment, it has increased by 200k, still good to take, with an objective that remains 7th.

As for performance... 1st table 2023, 2nd table 2024, and the 3rd table shows the difference (2024 - 2023), to see who has progressed the most.

---

It's fair to say that if the 1st season was indeed rather difficult, especially in comparison with the other teams... the following seasons are not at all of the same level, with AI progressing so little.

It's also possible that the strategy adopted of minimum durability is performing better than expected. The gain in direct statistics on parts is substantial, and I think that's pretty good. On the other hand, I think this strategy also benefits from a second bonus in the race... after all, if the car is 20kg lighter than another, it inevitably has an impact on lap times, which can easily be seen by putting more or less fuel in before the start of a race. I don't know if this double bonus is the intended behavior or not, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a little nerf in future updates.

That concludes this Alfa Romeo season! I've had a lot of fun with this whole part of the guide on the complete follow-up of a season, problems, ideas, solutions, as you go along, and I hope some readers will make it this far!

I'll certainly be adding more information here and there in the days to come, but it's safe to say that this guide already covers a lot of the game. If you have any questions, the comments are open and I'll try to take a look from time to time!