Henry Stockdale On The Joys Of Playing Sports Games As The Underdog | Winter Spectacular 2024
Good things are rarely handed to us on a plate. Some get dealt a luckier hand, sure, and there are always factors beyond our reasonable control. For most of us - and I'm simplifying this for brevity - getting what we want requires several things: perseverance, hard work, and a lot of fucking luck. That mentality reaches many walks of life and accomplishing those goals is often a source of pride. When I'm playing sports games, that mentality is reflected in how I play.
I've never been a big FIFA EA Sports FC or Madden fan, but many know I'm a close Formula 1 follower. Racing in EA's F1 series can be pretty fun, though the most rewarding sports experience I've had in recent years is Frontier's F1 Manager series. I've reviewed all three entries, and seen it gradually evolve, and F1 Manager 24 is easily my favourite so far. Why? Because I can create my own team from scratch.
If you're not familiar with F1 Manager, imagine Football Manager for motor racing. Instead of directly getting behind the wheel, you work as the Team Principal sending out orders from the pit wall during races, all while managing where to invest your resources with car development, team facilities and more. It's a nice balance that lets you feel in control without becoming overrun by micromanagement, and my IGN review goes into more detail.
I'll always test how higher-end teams play during my reviews, yet my greatest joy comes from campaigns where I'm playing either a midfield team or less competitive backmarkers. 2022 was Aston Martin, 2023 was AlphaTauri and McLaren (before they started improving), while 2024 was an original creation. I could've swept through the championships immediately as Ferrari or Red Bull, but where's the fun in that?
The best sports games are slow burners where you actively see your efforts pay off after much hard work. To feel truly rewarded involves overcoming tough odds, seeing where you were at the start and where you've reached now. That feeling is exactly what keeps me coming back to F1 Manager, and I recently found myself putting this to the test once more. What follows is basically a campaign diary on normal race difficulty.
This time, I wanted a bigger challenge than normal. I created an original team called Eclipse Racing, one with minimally developed facilities, a modest annual budget and a rookies-only driver line-up: Ayumu Iwasa and Théo Pourchaire. My budget was limited and largely dictated by the demands of Eclipse's sponsors, which brought in much-needed cash at the expense of team and driver development.
Unsurprisingly, my first few races were rather unremarkable. Each race lets you select one of three targeted race positions for each driver, with better results earning more cash. I could barely hit our mid-range targets, and limited resources meant I had to constrain what car parts I could further develop. I didn't expect to score points so soon, with Pourchaire reaching 9th in four races in at Suzuka.
As mentioned before, success often requires considerable luck and fortune smiled again at the following race. If you watched the Austrian Grand Prix this year, Verstappen and Norris emulated this collision and a fortunately timed pitstop gave me the advantage with the safety car. Suddenly, I found myself finishing in 8th when I realistically shouldn't have even reached the points.
Reality soon kicked in. I began upgrading my car but so did other teams and I soon found myself outmatched in several regards. The pace simply wasn't there. Iwasa was underperforming compared to Pourchaire and points suddenly became elusive. If Lance Stroll can somehow regularly score points, why couldn't I? After a series of not-terrible but not points worthy results, a particularly poor outing at Hungary ended with double retirements.
The problem is, that it's not as simple as just upgrading your facilities or creating new parts for your car. You have to think about so many other strategic considerations in the process. Do I budget towards those new parts now? Do I research parts for next season to gain a better advantage? What if I overspend, and I suddenly can't replace car parts for this season without incurring debt? Even if I had Aston Martin money, the cost cap means you can't just spend your way out of trouble; every penny has to count. I stuck to more worn-out components during practice because I simply couldn't afford new ones.
I persisted and after nine races without a point, Pourchaire coming 10th at the Dutch Grand Prix felt like a minor victory in itself. Come Italy, I suddenly had a second points finish in a row, despite Iwasa retiring from floor damage. Another 10th-place finish, sure, so it was only one point. Managing that twice in a row? We're finally getting somewhere, though I didn't realise 2024's best was yet to come.
Azerbaijan provided another turbulent race for Iwasa, who took 18th after both spinning and colliding with someone else. But Pourchaire? Taking advantage of a safety car, adjusting my pit stop strategy and putting the hammer down earned a career-best 6th place. I began feeling vindicated in my management strategy, even though there was a clear performance deficit between both drivers. Come Singapore and qualifying 17th and 20th brought me back to solid ground.
The remaining 2024 season isn't much to write home, yet I can take pride in my progress showing demonstrable results. At this stage though, I'd given up on improving this year's car. When the season's halfway over and upgraded parts take weeks to develop, resources felt better diverted to researching improved parts for 2025. Eclipse wasn't catching RB and 15 hours into my run, cutting my losses made sense. No further points finishes followed.
I finished in 7th for the constructors' championship. The board was pleased I surpassed their expectations of 9th, and we geared up for the 2025 campaign. Ferrari became my new engine supplier, Franco Colapinto signed on as my new reserve driver, sponsorships were looking more favourable, and I could afford to refurbish/upgrade my facilities. My next target from the board was 6th, and I felt ready.
Immediately, things looked good. While Iwasa didn't break through the top 10 in practice, Pourchaire achieved this in all three sessions, though I was disappointed we could only muster 17th and 13th for qualifying respectively. I hoped we'd be fighting for points; I just didn't expect it to go quite so well. Iwasa finished in 17th, which is admittedly down to my own botched tyre strategy. Pourchaire though? 4th! I couldn't believe it. Game on.
The following race is the very definition of mixed fortunes. Iwasa qualified last, Pourchaire was 9th. Did I make a mistake retaining the former? At this point, I'd committed and following a red flag close to our scheduled pit stop, Jeddah became more promising. P7 and P14 for Pourchaire and Iwasa, not quite the highs of Bahrain. In Australia, P8 and P11. Japan in the rain, a second P4 for the Frenchman. China? P5 and P8. Finally, points for Iwasa. The consistency proved encouraging
A near miracle happened in Miami, one I didn't expect to come so soon. After an early season of McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and Aston Martin all being competitive, the field was fierce but an opportunity for Eclipse soon emerged. Iwasa started 15th, Pourchaire somehow reached 4th. I issued the orders to go all out at the start: maximum speed with attacking, pushing on fuel and draining the battery for a boost. We were leading the race. Better still, tactical battery deployment means we kept Verstappen out of DRS range.
I've never felt so nervous watching a virtual race. Pourchaire held his nerve, getting through two rounds of pit stops and maintaining the effective lead. However, I suddenly had a new challenger and it wasn't Max. It was Yuki Tsunoda, 2025's newly signed Aston Martin driver, with a fresh set of soft tyres versus Pourchaire's hard tyres that we were pushing all out. I felt tense. Was victory about to be snatched away in the closing stages, despite all that hard work? Unfortunately, yes. I simply couldn't catch up, and Piastri was closing in too. At the last corner on the last lap, even 2nd was snatched away. Still, I could take pride. Running out of fuel just as we crossed the line was embarrassing but Pourchaire had done it.
We secured 3rd and won our first podium.
Six races had given us four different race winners from three different teams. I became determined to see us become the fifth race winner - which eventually went to Max Verstappen in Monaco. More competitive races followed for Pourchaire with several podiums and consistent points scoring. My efforts were still paying off, the team was really pushing hard to secure those better results.
Belgium will haunt me. Another near miss that felt considerably more frustrating than Miami. Despite leading the race, our efforts were once again frustrated by taking a gamble that simply didn't pay off. Sticking to intermediates when the track dried three laps from the end caused both cars to get punctures on the last lap, and Pourchaire crawled it home to 4th. Lessons were learned in Italy when another rain-affected race saw Pourchaire reach 2nd again.
That win began feeling elusive, and I conceded that 2025 wouldn't be my year despite consistently strong performances from Pourchaire. He reached a very respectable 6th in the drivers championship, while Iwasa came away with 12th. With only a handful of races left and all six areas of the car having received multiple upgrades, I accelerated funding research projects for 2026. The remaining races delivered consistent points but no more podiums, while Verstappen beat Piastri and Norris in a three-way title fight. Eclipse Racing ultimately came 5th in the Constructors.
I didn't reach my goals, yet I still found myself motivated to keep going. Taking 259 points is no small feat, especially after 2024 saw my earning just 17 total.
I had to see this through and come 2026, dumping my remaining budget into the research projects helped. The season opener in Bahrain saw my long-term efforts pay off in a big way. By lap 3, Pourchaire was leading the race. By lap 17, he was 10 seconds ahead, while Iwasa was fighting for 6th. By the end, we'd finally done it! Our first win. And what an effort it took to get there.
Jeddah didn't follow with another win, claiming a comfortable 3rd instead but Australia delivered our first pole position, followed by our first 1-2 finish. At this point, I established Eclipse as the dominant run and with that, my interest waned. Eclipse and Pourchaire eventually won most races before taking their respective championships and I came away feeling incredibly rewarded for our efforts.
Management sims certainly aren't for everyone. These games are slow burners that require a substantial time investment and a lot of patience. When you start hitting those goals and earning success, everything feels that much sweeter. Reaching this point wouldn't have felt nearly as good if I'd started with Ferrari; an original team makes this more personal. If recent rumours are true that this is the last entry, I'll be disappointed, but at least F1 Manager went out on a high. I'll likely be playing for a long time yet.
