Motorsport Manager game preview: Think you can do it better?

Are you the type who's just as intrigued by the management of motor racing as the competition itself? Do you wonder what it would be like to do Christian Horner or Tim Cindric's job? Are you one of those who thinks you could do it better?

If you've said yes, or even maybe, to any of the above, then Sega's latest offering, Motorsport Manager, is for you.

Slated to be launched in the U.S. this fall for $34.99, Motorsport Manager, for Windows, Mac or Linux is an entirely new kind of sim racing game. Rather than focusing on the driving, Motorsport Manger is the ultimate, never-ending fantasy management game. It puts you in control of your own team, deciding everything from driver selection, to tire strategy to sponsorship negotiation. With the exception of driving the car, there isn't one aspect of team involvement that's been left out. And while it's not a driving game, every decision taken has real repercussions on your cars' on-track performance.

The game is based on a fictional international single-seater championship. The teams, drivers and circuits very closely mimic reality, but the fact that it is set in a fictitious racing world makes the game both more challenging, and unlimited in terms of possibilities. There are no options for you to pick Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes or Scott Dixon in a Team Ganassi car. That would be too easy. Instead, you have to study all the choices carefully with the only form to follow being the facts you are presented within the game.

The premise of Motorsport Manager is that you are, as the name implies, the team manager. You report to an owner who is quite demanding and likes to win, so you're own job is never secure. You could get sacked for failure to perform. Like all real teams, you have a budget to work within, which you must spend wisely. The goal of course is to keep the team performing on track in order to up the revenue.

As in the real world there are teams at the low end of the grid with small budgets as well as teams at the pointy end with large budgets. You can opt to start your career as a team manager with the wealthiest team; however, just as in the real world, the demands for success are much higher, so your seat may be a bit hotter than choosing to start with a low budget team.

In either scenario, the requirements are similar. You must higher two drivers and negotiate their contracts. Drivers come not only with track performance statistics, but they also have personalities that must be carefully taken into consideration and managed. You must also manage the team HQ, including decisions on expansion and facility requirements.

Do you buy that extra CNC machine, or is it better to have an in house paint-booth? Then there is staff such as race engineers that need to be hired and managed. There is also a car to build and develop with its own set of engineering compromises such as deciding whether to place more resources on suspension development versus aero.

The game is based on seasons. Depending on how much time you personally wish to devote to playing the game, you can adjust a variety of parameters that would enable you play out a season over the course of many days, or condense it down to within several hours. Once the season is over, assuming you still have a job (in the game, but possibly in real-life as well) there is an off-season component when you must give input to and negotiate rules and terms for the following year.

At the races themselves, there is wealth of strategy to deal with, from pit stop frequency to tire choice to car set up. There will always be variables outside of your control like crashes or weather to keep you fully on your toes. And, then there's the media, watching your every move and asking your probing questions. Answer them badly, and you may be answering to your boss.

From a realism point of view, the game-makers have really dotted their i's and crossed their t's. They've thought of nearly everything that's involved in team management with so many variables that the game is wholly unpredictable. It's also designed to build upon itself, meaning that all decisions and choices within the game will drive how it play out in the future. A new season doesn't start from a clean sheet.

Winning at Motorsport Manager probably isn't a résumé builder that will get you Maurizio Arrivabene's job, but it will at least give you a pretty good glimpse into what it takes to his job.

Motorsport Manager will be available Fall 2016 for $34.99. To learn more visit motosportmanager.com.