F1 Manager 2024 - Quick Guide to Pitstop

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Pitstop? Pitstop!

Training Crew

Avoid using preset training schedules in the game. They don’t work well because they ignore important game mechanics, especially crew fatigue. Fatigue is the main reason for pit stop mistakes, so we need to manage it carefully.

Important points to remember:

Car building training isn’t useful in this game. Don’t waste time on it.
Gym training is good because it makes pit stops faster.
Pit stop drills help a little by reducing the chance of mistakes.

When you’re planning the training schedule for the next month, pay close attention to how tired your crew will be on race day. You can check this by clicking the “Cumulative” button in the top right corner, then moving your mouse over the race day on the calendar. If the fatigue goes over 50%, the chance of making a mistake gets much higher – about three times higher. That’s a big problem.

Try to keep the fatigue under 50% for every race day, whether it’s on a Sunday or sometimes a Saturday. This will help you a lot, but it won’t completely prevent mistakes. Even with low fatigue, there’s still a 10% chance of errors, which is much better than the 30% or higher you might see with tired crews.

Keep in mind that you have two cars, and sometimes you need to do three pit stops in a race. This means you’ll probably have at least one pit stop mistake during most races, even if you manage fatigue well.

More key points:

The training presets in the game are not good. Don’t use them.
Always check the cumulative fatigue for race day when setting up training. If it’s too high, remove training sessions to give the crew more rest.
For your Sporting Director, focus on improving Aptitude and Processes skills. These are the most valuable.
Use “Industry Standards” as the development focus for your Sporting Director.
Never include “Car Building” in your training schedule. It doesn’t help at all.
During the off-season and pre-season, you can do a lot more training. Fill up the schedule as much as you want.

Remember, the pit crew in the game isn’t real. They don’t have families or need free time, so you can train them as much as the game allows without feeling bad about it.

Sporting Director

Sporting Director Skills:

Training: Helps crew improve faster and keep skills between seasons.
Aptitude: Sets the highest level your crew can reach. Higher is better.
Leadership: Reduces mistakes during pit stops.
Processes: Most important skill. Reduces crew fatigue from races and training.

Development Focus Options:

Balanced: Not very useful. Avoid this.
Communication Techniques: Improves Aptitude and Leadership. Good if these are low.
Drill Planning: Improves Training and Leadership. Least important option.
Industry Standards: Best choice. Improves Aptitude and Processes.
Innovation: Improves Training and Processes. Second-best option.

The best strategy is to use Industry Standards first to improve Aptitude and Processes. Then use Drill Planning to work on the other skills.

Processes is the most important skill because it helps manage crew fatigue, which is crucial for avoiding pit stop mistakes.

Training Schedule

This section explains how to improve your pit crew. There are 4 activities:

Rest: The crew does nothing and reduces tiredness. It’s good to do this for a few days before races. Keep an eye on fatigue levels.
Pit Stop Drill: This improves the team’s ability to do different parts of the pit stop. There are 7 sub-categories, like raising the car and changing tires. It’s useful to do this sometimes, especially if your sporting director isn’t very good at training.
Gym Training: This is the most important activity. It makes pit stops faster. With a good sporting director, you can get very quick pit stop times in one season.
Car Building: The purpose of this activity is unclear. It doesn’t seem to affect the game much.

The balanced style is recommended for pit stop drills because all skills are needed. Gym training is the best way to improve pit stop times. Rest is important to manage fatigue. Car building’s effects are not well understood.