Okay, I was assigned to 71st division tonight and started my team.

A couple of questions for the veterans here:

1. Do I need a commercial manager to negotiate sponsors (I don't have one but I'm working on two deals each with 50% right now)?

2. Does it make any sense at all to hire a (crap) designer just yet to enhance my components?

Just need it a little startup help here .

You should get all departments. Commercial department is important.

I can't afford all departments, though. My engine is too damn expensive.

How much are you spending on your engine?

division 25 for me this time.

First season, I wouldn't worry too much about development - you develop so slowly that it won't be too hard to catch up later on. But you really ought to be developing both chassis and engine as your primary concern IMO. If you don't have them well-prepared, by the time you reach the top 15 divisions you'll have to throw a lot of money at customer deals which you should be spending on important things like test tracks and research.

Up to 58th division now! This game really has depth, or it seems so.

im starting, when do the race happens?

im in the 17th division

races start at 8pm everyday

Just to clarify, 8 PM is UTC.

I bought the Turbo Jam engine for 180.000, as the other available one was soo crap that I was afraid to not finish a single race with it. Seems that was my first mistake already. I also hired a crap designer of which I can't get rid of without loosing too much money to not being able to race.

My drivers are not too bad, though -- I guess. They both are supposedly good with sponsors and one is a girl. Which probably does not make any difference in this game, though. It should however. We all know that it's much easier to find sponsors if the driver is a (fairly good looking) girl .

Well, I see how it goes. If it turns out that my strategy is pure crap, I can always start from scratch .

It seems I'm glued to the back of the grid in league 5, over a second off the pace of the leaders.

Mine is the only team running its own engines, but it seems like such a waste of money to get a customer engine deal at this level when I need to be ploughing all my cash into research. Looks like being another dull season, then.

I might fit my cheapest engine and save another half million a race.

Be careful that your sponsors/second companiy income (which like results) don't start decreasing their payments if you do that.

Hmmm, Div 9 for me now, just over a second off the pace in the first race there, and the same again in quali for the next race. So finishing towards the back of the field
Should have my chassis developed to the point of using my own next season, although it'll still need some more work done on it. However, improvements on that are going through every 3 races appprox.
Engine improvments are every 8 races at the moment. Current project takes it to 100%, 100%, 100%, 56%. That should come down a bit though, as I'm currently ploughing money into getting my Design and Tech departments up to level 5. Still going to need to get an engine in for next season though, as mine's not going to be quick enough / reliable enough as yet.
Next on the list for money is the Chassis and Engine departments to Level 5, then it's finish the Research and Engine facilities, which are both at Level 3 just now, then the Test Track.
Commercial department is currently almost at Level 4, with enough money in the pot to take it up to Level 5.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Be careful that your sponsors/second companiy income (which like results) don't start decreasing their payments if you do that.

Yeah, but I've looked into how much I'd need to spend to be competitive and it's silly money - money I'd be better off investing. I saw one engine that looked quite attractive for £2.5M, then noticed that it was being offered by a team in my league who are running customer engines themselves...

By the way: Do second companies make worthwhile money? I've researched up to level 5 but don't feel like dumping £20M into a junior racing league if it's going to take me 20 seasons to make it back.

My Junior Racing League makes me 2.8m per race, and I've pumped in something like 36m. So it'll take about a season to get that back.

At the moment I'm trying to get my engine research facility to level 8 (which is as high as you can get before the money gets REALLY silly), then the other ones as well. My engine development is going as fast as I can.

Money isn't really the problem at the moment, it's the time it takes to develop engines/chassis. Getting 20% chassis improvements every 3 or 4 races, and new engines every 8 races. I cannot do it faster than that!

Well, exciting league I'm in. Only one other team actually has drivers, but the team manager doesn't seem to be active (no qualifying times). Still I only got 1st because Sarah Porsche crashed out in lap 13.

And my sponsor negotiating is really slow. It's gonna take forever before anyone will offer a deal, it seems. I guess I should have gotten a commercial manager .

Edit: And a question: If it says the track is damp right now, will it stay like that for tonights race?

Quote from Linsen :

Well, exciting league I'm in. Only one other team actually has drivers, but the team manager doesn't seem to be active (no qualifying times). Still I only got 1st because Sarah Porsche crashed out in lap 13.

And my sponsor negotiating is really slow. It's gonna take forever before anyone will offer a deal, it seems. I guess I should have gotten a commercial manager .

Edit: And a question: If it says the track is damp right now, will it stay like that for tonights race?

Take the easy wins and enjoy them. They won't last!

Commerical dept is most important department for first few years. To improve you NEED money, and you get more money with a better commerical dept.

Yes, weather is constant for a whole meeting. I still frequently waste all my practice laps on dry tyres before realising it's wet or damp. Grrr.

Thx. So it would probably smart to sack my designer and hire a commercial manager instead (even though those guys are much more expensive). Problem is, it seems I can't afford it without missing the next race. Unless the figure "current funds" is correct. So here's another question:

If I spend almost 300k per race, which I do, and my only income is the 300k from tv rights why does it say that my "current funds" are over 600k? That can't be right, can it?

Yes you should. Personally, I'd take a Comm. Manager before any other department. After all, that's your main cash source.
Once you've got an income fixed for a few races, then you can start on other departments.

I'm currently running at a $365,000 loss per race, but I'm about to complete 2 new deals. Thankfully I also have a few million in reserve to keep me going

If you think you've screwed up and can't afford something vital, there is the option to start again from scratch.

Okay, thx Dajmin. But just to be sure if my calculations are correct:

My finances are as follows:
current funds = 600k
income per race = 300k
expenses per race = 353k
profit per race = -53k

Am I correct in thinking that I could theoretically keep going like this for 11 races (53kx11=583k) before I actually need a sponsor, because my current funds will keep me on the plus-side?

Sorry, if this is a dumb question, but I'm just not sure where my 600k all of a sudden came from. Before the last race I had 300k of current funds and expenses of almost 300k so I was expecting to end up with funds of 300k (tv rights income) and not double that amount.

Edit: nevermind, I just had a look at my "team messages" and learned that I got 200k for 1st and 100k for 4th place in magny cours :doh:

My season just gets better. My #1 driver is out for three races with an injury.

Sod this season!

Yay, got my pro features. Too bad that engine development is still slow as hell... you say increasing the level could speed up development? I already got my 5 star facility
And I love my new test track, 1100 test laps are great

How much cash have you got to 'invest' in research before you see any improvement?
I've spent about 250k in each so far, and nothing has moved off of 0%!!!
Research facility still at level 2 btw!