F1 Manager 2022 – Alpha Tauri Experience / Quick Full Guide

My Alpha Tauri Experience

Note: Credit goes to Marck11

I am in my 5th season with AlphaTauri, have won 2 constructor’s championships and 2 driver’s titles and on course to the 3rd one for Pierre Gasly with Yuki Tsunoda the 2nd in the championship 2 times. So, basically 1,2 for 3 successive years.

Here are my quick tips that enabled my success, especially to the beginners to this game:

1. Facilities – focus on Race simulator and Design center upgrades before touching anything else, especially if you have less money. Design center upgrades gives you faster and more parts to be designed. Race simulator Improves the drivers’ experience gain by even 100%. Tour center gives some money every week. Everything else in Facilities is a luxury. Upgrade Wind Tunnel & CFD once you have some money to spare.
2. Drivers – Most Important attributes for the drivers are the first and the second sections – Braking, Cornering, Reactions, Control, Accuracy. Others are not that Important. Don’t spend the development points on anything other than these 5. Also, stop at 97 because if you do the practice sessions correctly, you will gain 15 development points and the 97 will become 100 for the qualifying and the race. When you compare drivers, always compare with these 5 categories, not the overall rating. Overtaking, Smoothness etc. are not that Important. Reserve drivers gain the development points at double the speed of the main drivers. So, hire a good young driver and always use them in P1. My reserve driver gains 1 development point every 2 races!!
3. Staff – Decent staff is good enough. Having great stats for the staff is not that Important. One tip: Have race engineers with good feedback stats. That will help a lot with the practice sessions and faster feedback in the 1 hour slot.
4. Car parts development – Most Important thing in the game. Underfloor is the one that gives the most gains in the car performance. Then the Front & Rear wings. No need to spend the CFD & Wind Tunnel hours on anything else. Always go for the “Intense” option when you have money. It increases your expertise a lot. Brake cooling and Engine cooling doesn’t seem to have that big an impact. I always reduced these to the bare minimum and I have not seen any Impact due to these. There have been few crashes here and there due to poor brakes but nothing more than 1 or 2 in a season including practice sessions. Research is also Important. So, always spend 1/3rd of your CFD & Wind Tunnel hours on Research – Underfloor, Rear wing & Front wing so that you start the next season with a good advantage.
5. Practice sessions – Very Important and often neglected. The more time you spend on the practice, the better your race performance will be. Don’t worry about the laptimes in the practice at all. I always end up 19th & 20th in practice but it never affects the race. Try to get the Setup confidence over 95%. It takes time but it becomes easier over a period of time (and Race Engineers with good “Feedback” stats). Optimize your parts by setting everything to “Conserve” during practice. If you do all the 3 practice sessions and get the Setup confidence to 97% (Optimal setup), you will easily gain at least 14 development points for the drivers. That’s a huge boost which the AI drivers don’t get (AFAIK).
6. Qualifying – Try to send your drivers out when there is least traffic on the track. Typically, it’s 4-5 mins before the end. The lesser of the 2 drivers should be behind the lead driver so that he gets the DRS benefit and Improved laptime. Using Medium tyres for Q2 is fine most of the time unless there is a rain in one of the sessions.
7. Tyre Strategy – Try to save a new Soft Tyre set for the race (even if you have to use the old softs for Q3) and use the new Softs towards the end of the race when the track grip is at the maximum. This strategy gave me incredible gains when my car was only the 12th and 13th fastest in the first season. I was able to overtake even the Mercedes and Red Bull because the AI drivers always have the worn Hard tyres at the end. You can easily gain 3 or 4 positions due to this strategy. Also, if you have saved some fuel during the race, set the fuel use to “Push” in the end. Combined with the new Soft tyres, this can give you great advantage.
8. Safety car – The AI drivers are pretty bad when it comes to Safety cars. They don’t take advantage and change the tyres even if it’s only 5 laps to go before the scheduled stop. So, be aggressive during the Safety cars. Changing the tyres to a fresh one gives big advantage after the safety car period. Set the tyres, fuel and ERS to conserve immediately during the safety car period and then Push them after that or towards the end of the race.
9. Power Train management – Once the Engine and the Gearbox goes below 60%, don’t use them during the Quali & the race. Use these parts for the practice (I have even run Engines with only 7% at the beginning of the practice session, it does not have any Impact. ALl you need in the practice is to achieve the practice goals – not the lap time). I have run 2 seasons now without having to get new power trains and grid penalties.
10. Increasing Funding – Invest in things like Merchandising & Driver media appearances. This can give a good boost to the funding after each race. If you have an experienced driver who is not going to gain much in experience, give them more media appearances. This will give a good boost to your funding. Also, use the Performance bonuses to the maximum depending on your car performance. After Qualifying sessions, there will be a new section called Performance gain. This can also give extra funding if you predict the number of positions gained.