There will be red flags in the upcoming racing management sim F1 Manager 2022. And no, that doesn’t mean you have to stay away from Frontier’s first foray into an annual licensed game.
In a preview event attended by content creators such as Tiametmarduk and The F1 Word, the feature was seen in action- though no gameplay of it was shown yet.
Red flags will appear when a race has to be stopped on safety grounds.
The F1 Manager Twitter officially confirms this feature and has outlined how red flags work in the game.
In F1 Manager 2022, red flags will be waved when an on-track accident happens, which can involve a car stopped and blocking the track, which can endanger other drivers should racing continue.
Red flags can happen not only during the race, but it can also trigger during qualifying and practice sessions.
Just like Formula 1 in real life, red flags will stop the session timer during qualifying, but won’t stop during practice sessions.
During a race, the race will pause and the classification (the current running order of the cars) will be taken from the last lap completed. All drivers will be returning to the pits. During this period, you can change tyres and replace certain parts like a damaged front wing, effectively a free pit stop for everyone. The race will then restart from a standing start.
There’s a big deal about the inclusion of red flags as for a long period of time, the F1 racing games by Codemasters have been missing this feature.
And it’s a big deal. Race stoppages by red flags have resulted in many entertaining classics, as these added more uncounted variables to a usually controlled, and boring at times, race.
And you don’t even need to have a short view back to the past either, last year’s season saw many red flags which resulted in an unexpected new Grand Prix winner, a race that’s barely a race, and a controversial end to an exciting season-long title fight.
F1 Manager 2022 will be out on August 30 for the PS4, PS5, PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. Pre-ordering the digital version will allow you early access five days ahead of the official launch, on August 25.
