Team Principal: A Racing Manager · published · build 25179724
Hello everyone, it is late and I am overdue on sleep -- so these may be formatted improperly, I apologize! But here are the patch notes for the new version nonetheless. On another note - I have seen and met so many new faces over the last couple of weeks, and I genuinely never anticipated the amount of growth and support we have seen recently in such an early stage of the game. It has given me SO much more passion and motivation to keep working on this project (and given me more to do ;) ). I have a ton more in the pipeline that I am really excited to share with you all.
I also have some other exciting news and follow-up patches on the horizon this week, so stay tuned!
🏁 Race, Strategy & Sessions
• Added the optional Mandatory Tyre Compound Usage regulation, including wet-weather exemptions, strategy tracking, warnings, and results enforcement.
• Expanded the tyre model with configurable tyre wear cliffs, including separate lateral and longitudinal grip-loss multipliers.
• Added automatic race-event pauses and pop-ups for cautions, major incidents, or all incidents. Configurable in options.
• Added clearer garage and retirement indicators during practice and qualifying, including better explanations when a driver cannot be sent out due to crashing.
• Added optional team secondary-color position numbers to car markers across preseason testing, practice, prequalifying, qualifying, and races, configurable in options.
• Added a completely new refueling system for Formula, tied to two new regulations: "Refueling" and "Fuel Tank Capacity".
• Significantly overhauled AI strategy to be more malleable. If a 0 stop is permitted by the regulations and is advantageous per the tyre model for instance, they will do so.
• Fleshed out pitting, with definable track-by-track pit times, with tyre changes and refueling added on top, in separate phases
• Added pit time tracking to compare driver-by-driver.
👤 Driver Market & Negotiations
• Vastly improved AI driver recruitment logic with primary targets, conditional backups, longer decision windows for drivers, realistic reapproaches, and stronger competition between AI teams.
• Added quality floors so prestigious AI teams are less likely to panic-sign severely underqualified main drivers.
• Added team prestige as a separate influence during contested driver negotiations while preserving contract quality, personality, and relationship importance.
• Added one additional driver negotiation slot at every HQ level.
🏭 Development, Facilities & Team Management
• Added a team dashboard Needs Attention panel highlighting outstanding upgrades, stalled work, and helpful reminders for next-season preparation.
• Added direct navigation between the Factory and Parts Warehouse, while retaining oval-specific Factory behavior. Introduced some QOL buttons for the Factory/Warehouse UIs
• Added pin and delete controls directly to email subject rows.
🛠️ Save Editor & Modding
• Added support for defining future contracts for drivers, in drivers.json. These can only work for contracts beginning after the end of the starting season.
• Added editable live ERS levels to the Save Editor, including creation, fitting, and synchronization of corresponding physical ERS units.
• Added selectable current and future engine and tyre contract types.
• Supplier contract selections now support supplier-specific Works, Partner, Customer, and year-old availability, including exclusivity and duplication rules.
• Added configurable investment-event amounts for modding.
• Populated default tyre models with the new tyre-cliff settings.
• Added ability to define track specific pit time loss.
🏁 Race, Strategy & Tyres
• Improved AI strategy evaluation with a more realistic active physics model when comparing tyres, fuel loads, and pit stops, including refuelling strategies to better match fuel loads with expected tyre stint lengths. AI will adapt. If you want less stops for example, lower tyre wear/increase pit loss time.
• Improved wet-weather tyre selection when preferred compounds are unavailable.
• Improved starting strategies offered to manually controlled drivers.
• Improved strategy tyre-set management so removed stints correctly release their tyre sets and planners cannot schedule more physical sets than are available.
• DRS detection now correctly evaluates physically close cars on different laps, including leaders and backmarkers, so that they can also get DRS, even if not on the same lap.
👤 Driver Market & Negotiations
• All drivers take longer to decide on contracts, in a more realistic manner. Typically signings begin in week 20ish, and continue into week 45ish.
• Increased likelihood of AI teams willing to challenge rivals for desirable drivers.
• Prevented AI teams from promising first-driver status to multiple candidates competing for the same seat. Looking at you, Mercurion, who decided to offer both Magnus Vester and Louis Hamrell first driver status.
• Improved negotiation percentage displays and general offer feedback.
🏭 Development, Facilities & Equipment
• Investor and manufacturer facility upgrades now automatically cancel superseded HQ construction, waive remaining payments, release the project, and notify the affected player or parent team.
• Improved AI engine selection to avoid unnecessary allocation penalties when suitable used engines are available.
• Improved engine rollover synchronization across power, lap-time representation, contracts, designs, suppliers, and manufactured units.
• Improved ERS and driver-aid development displays so remaining weeks always round upward.
• Expanded the current-car rating area on the next-season chassis screen so potential ratings remain visible at 1080p.
• Removed upfront cash requirements when signing supplier contracts.
• Eligible drivers with scripted future main-series contracts can now continue racing in junior series before those contracts begin.
• Fixed a lot of the menu lag, and loading save time. Included loading bars on multiple UIs. Massive UI speedups.
🖥️ Interface & Quality of Life
• Improved dashboard header sizing, notification links, and empty-state text.
• Added driver ages and nationality flags to the negotiation screen.
• Updated regulation icons and reorganized selected regulation controls.
• Improved strategy labels, upgrade-button text, and several responsive layouts.
• Removed session-screen black bars on ultrawide and 4K displays.
• Long circuit names now truncate safely instead of hiding temperature and track-wetness information.
• Slightly adjusted team-selection logos to keep them clear of the Team Value heading.
• Improved adaptive result-table spacing across different display sizes.
🏁 Race, Strategy & Sessions
• Fixed excessive repeated pit stops in simulated races.
• Removed an obsolete UI restriction that could prevent necessary additional pit stops.
• Fixed missing race-control buttons with certain ERS/refuelling regulation combinations.
• Fixed the prequalifying results Continue button.
🔧 Engines, ERS & Equipment
• Fixed save edited engine-contract changes leaving inconsistent supplied engine specifications.
• Fixed ERS equipment reassignment during save edited driver transfers.
• Fixed some preseason testing bonuses disappearing after saving and reloading.
• Fixed engine rollover inconsistencies affecting engine specifications and associated systems.
• Fixed Oval next-season driver readiness checks.
• Fixed car-number and equipment reassignment during Oval driver transfers.
• Fixed team performance calculations in the Save Editor so both main cars' ERS specifications are considered.
• Fixed ERS and driver-aid development displays incorrectly showing incomplete projects as 100% complete.
📜 History, Calendar & Rosters
• Fixed incorrect historical wins, podiums, points, championship positions, and zero-point seasons.
• Fixed historical lineup issues caused by midseason team changes.
• Restored blank historical rows for teams that did not participate in a season.
• Removed duplicate staff assignments from affected default rosters.
👤 Negotiations
• Fixed incomplete negotiation offers displaying as 100%.
• Removed duplicated negotiation offer feedback.
🖥️ Interface
• Fixed background controls remaining interactive behind Recon Centre popups.
• Fixed Finance and Season History navigation so Back and Escape correctly return to the Finance screen.
• Fixed the private-testing warehouse layout when interacting with destroyed engines, preventing controls and parts from becoming hidden or unselectable.
Thanks as always everyone!