F1 Manager 2023 is the second game in Frontier Developments’ racing management series, and it covers the full 2023 Formula One season plus Formula 2 and Formula 3. It came out on 31 August 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. It is single-player only.
Trailer, via F1® Manager.
What Frontier Built With 23 Tracks
The pitch is control. F1 Manager 2023 hands you a team and asks you to run every part of it — the race weekends, the season, the decisions that decide who stands on the grid as the best team. Frontier’s own description promises “unparalleled control” and “rich and detailed management features.”
The track list is the season, all of it. All 23 circuits are here, including the Losail International Circuit that hosts the Qatar Grand Prix and the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, which arrives as the calendar newcomer for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Six sprint races are included.
That matters more than it sounds. A management game lives or dies on whether the calendar feels like the real thing, and a 23-round season with sprints mixed in gives the player a schedule with actual texture rather than a flat run of identical Sundays.
Race Replay and the Las Vegas Strip Circuit
The headline addition is race replay. F1 Manager 2023 lets players recreate certain moments from the season — the ones that stuck, the ones people argued about afterward. The mode is the clearest statement of what this series wants to be. A management sim usually asks you to build forward. Race replay asks you to go back and try again.
That is the same idea behind the broader season-rewriting pitch the game advertises. You take the 2023 season and beyond, and you drive the decisions. The replay mode just narrows the scope to a single flashpoint. It gives players a low-stakes way to test the simulation’s logic. If you remember how a race unfolded, you can set it up again and see whether the game’s model agrees with your memory of why it went that way.
David Croft Returns, Karun Chandhok Joins
The broadcast layer is where this series has always sounded right, and Frontier kept building on it. David Croft returns as a commentator. Karun Chandhok joins the game to narrate the key moments.
That pairing is doing real work. A management game is mostly menus and numbers, and the thing that keeps a player inside the fiction is the voice telling them what just happened. Croft’s commentary carries the race. Chandhok’s narration frames the moments worth remembering.
Neither name is decoration. Sky Sports F1 viewers know both voices, and putting them in the game is a statement about authenticity — the same statement the official license makes. F1 Manager 2023 is not a racing game with an F1 skin. It is the licensed management sim of the 2023 championships, and it sounds like the broadcast.
Where the Management Actually Bites
The genre has a trap, and it is worth naming. Management games can drown a player in depth that never resolves into a decision. F1 Manager 2023 avoids the worst of that by keeping the racing spectacle refined enough that you can watch your choices play out on track. You make the call, then you watch it either work or fail.
The single-player focus is a limitation, and it should be said plainly. There is no multiplayer here. You are running a team against the game’s simulation, not against another person’s strategy.
For some players that is the point — the fantasy is the job, not the competition. For others it will be the ceiling.
The deeper question is whether the second installment does enough to separate itself from the first. Race replay is the answer Frontier is offering, and it is a genuine addition rather than a roster update. It changes what you can do with the season after the fact, which is a different verb than managing forward. Whether that is enough depends on how much you wanted to relive 2023 rather than simply run it.
The Verdict on F1 Manager 2023
F1 Manager 2023 lands at 8 of 10, matching the published critical aggregate of 8.0/10 across five outlets on IGDB. That score feels right, and the reason is that the game knows exactly what it is. It is not trying to be a driving game, and it is not padding its management systems with noise.
The parts that matter most are the parts that are hardest to fake. The full calendar is there. Croft and Chandhok are there. Race replay gives the season a second life, which is more than most annual sports games bother to attempt. The parts that hold it back are equally clear: single-player only, and a second installment that refines more than it reinvents.
Frontier has now built a management sim that sounds like the broadcast and covers the season completely. The next question is whether the series can make the management itself feel as dramatic as the races it is simulating. The replay mode is the proof that Frontier is willing to try something with it. An 8 of 10 is a strong score for a sequel that plays it safe in places. It is also an honest one.
KEY FACTS
– Release date: 31 August 2023
– Developer and publisher: Frontier Developments
– Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
– Modes: Single player
– Tracks: All 23 circuits of the 2023 season, including Losail International Circuit and Las Vegas Strip Circuit
– Sprint races: Six
– Commentators: David Croft (returning), Karun Chandhok (narrating key moments)
– Published critical score: 8.0/10 (IGDB critic aggregate, 5 outlets)
– Clay Tribune score: 8 of 10
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