How it works

There are 7 days between races. Each tap of Next day moves the game on one day.

Every day your drivers recover condition, jobs in the workshop and the lab move on, and something may turn up in the news.

If you try to move on without doing anything, the game lists what you could still do. You can turn that off for the week.

The Factory tile holds four tabs: Build, Research, Analysts and Campus.

Pace: how fast they are over one lap.

Racecraft: how well they pass and defend.

Focus: how rarely they make mistakes.

Wet driving: how quick they are on a wet road.

Tyre care: how long a set of tyres lasts them.

Race IQ: how well they read a race and follow a plan.

Stats can pass 100 and reach 130. Each driver has a ceiling they stop growing at, and you can see it once they are fully scouted or on your team.

Condition falls when they train and race, and comes back day by day. A tired driver is slower.

Morale shows in how they drive. Results, feuds and life at home all change it.

A heavy crash can injure a driver. They cannot train until it heals.

Every driver signs for 1 to 3 seasons and is paid after every race. Better drivers cost far more, and a longer deal costs a little more each race. The debrief's accounts show what went out.

In a driver's last season the Team page offers a new deal at their asking wage. An unhappy driver asks for more, and below 20 morale they will not talk. A driver you do not renew leaves when the season ends, and a rival may sign them.

From 32, drivers lose a little every winter. Each one retires somewhere between 34 and 40, and says so after the 7th race of their last season.

When rival deals run out, those drivers are free agents in Scout until the season's first race, with no fee.

Technical director: Fewer failed projects and better odds when developing a part.

Head of analysts: The analysts get more race calls right.

Crew chief: Pit practice teaches more, and the crew gets sharper.

Pushing staff raises their strain: lab overtime for the technical director, pit practice for the crew chief, extra practice runs for the head of analysts. Above 60 they work worse, and at 100 they make a mistake. Strain falls a little every day.

The academy holds up to 3 juniors. They grow every race, faster with a better training centre, can join the race team from 18, and must step up or leave after 21.

Personality changes how a driver races: how close they follow, when they attack, how they treat tyres. Two big egos in one garage work worse together.

A drill raises skills and costs condition. Repeat the same drill in a row and it teaches more.

Training two drivers together teaches two skills at once and costs more condition: Lap together, Wet convoy, Share a long run, Debrief as a pair.

Pairs also build teamwork, and a driver learns more from a teammate who is better at that skill.

Engine: Speed on the straights.

Bodywork: Speed through the corners.

Chassis: Corners, and kinder to tyres.

Reliability: Fewer failures on race day.

Pit crew: Faster, cleaner pit stops.

Upgrades take days to arrive. A bold upgrade adds 9 points, costs 35% more, takes a day longer and takes 3 off reliability. Reliability and the pit crew have no bold upgrade.

Each car has 4 engines for the season, and they cost nothing. A new engine has full power for 2 races, then loses about 1.5% power and some reliability every race. Fitting a new one in Build or in the race briefing brings full power back. Engines 2 to 4 are free to fit. A fifth starts that car 5 places further back on the grid, so plan when to change: late enough to use each engine, early enough not to race a tired one.

The pit crew practises on its own once a week, at the plan you set in Train: rest, normal or hard. Practice adds an edge on top of the crew level you buy here, up to 10 with a top crew chief, and the edge fades after every race. Hard is quicker but wears the crew chief out, and without a chief it is no quicker than normal.

When every part, reliability and pit crew included, reaches its limit and the workshop floor is clear, you can unveil a new car, which raises the limit. An upgrade always pays in full, so a part can finish above its limit. The car gallery in the Factory compares your cars side by side.

Pick an area, choose what you want found, then choose a budget. Nothing is paid until you press Start project. The result is fixed at that moment.

Small, $120K, 7 days: Dead end 42%, Small gain 40%, Solid part 15%, Breakthrough 3%.

Big, $320K, 10 days: Dead end 26%, Small gain 35%, Solid part 27%, Breakthrough 11%, Miracle 1%.

Moonshot, $800K, 14 days: Dead end 20%, Small gain 20%, Solid part 30%, Breakthrough 25%, Miracle 5%.

All in, $4.00M, 14 days: Dead end 5%, Small gain 10%, Solid part 30%, Breakthrough 40%, Miracle 15%.

Once a project is running you can pay your engineers overtime to finish sooner. Each rushed day costs more than the last. Overtime buys time and nothing else, because the result was fixed when you started. The All in budget needs a level 10 lab. You can cancel a project for a full refund on the day you start it, as long as you have not paid for overtime.

A bigger lab means fewer dead ends. After 3 weak results in a row, the next one is at least a solid part.

Sometimes the engineers aim at one thing and find another. Many parts also come with a catch, so read the line before you fit one.

Dirty air is the rough air behind another car, and less of it lets you follow closer. A tyre's heat range is how hot or cool it can run and still grip.

Each area holds one fitted part, and a green dot on the area means a research part is on the car. Scrap what you do not need and get some money back.

Develop a part you own to make its next version: the gain grows by a quarter and the catch shrinks by half. Each part goes as far as a D-spec. Each step costs more and works less often, and a failed step leaves the part as it was.

A technical director cuts dead ends and makes developments work more often. With a level 10 lab and a technical director rated 80 or more, a second bench opens and two projects run at once, each in its own area.

There are 45 kinds of part to find. The part book shows what you still have not seen.

Standings shows how far each rival's car is behind yours and whether they are closing.

When you dominate, the team nearest you puts its factory on night shifts. Its car and lab move faster for a few races, then its crew burns out and slows down for a while.

The top teams also copy your best parts. A copy works less well than your original, so keep inventing.

You can hire a rival's chief engineer. They become your technical director, the rival slows down and hires someone weaker, and the chief brings a copy of their newest part with them. Each hire in a season costs double.

Analysts tell you about the weather, what your rivals have built, and what to teach your drivers next.

They show their pick on every race call. If you let them decide, you can still overrule them while the call is open.

More levels mean better forecasts. Forecasts can still be wrong.

During a race they can make calls for you, and a driver who follows good advice goes faster.

Rehab centre: Drivers recover condition faster and come back from injury sooner.

Training centre: Every drill teaches more, and drivers can grow past their ceiling.

Workshop: Upgrades reach the car in fewer days.

Research lab: Fewer failed projects, and better odds of a breakthrough.

Simulator: A simulator day narrows down the right setup for the next circuit.

Fan shop: Fans spend more every day on shirts, caps and tickets.

Youth centre: Juniors train here, and young drivers learn faster than older ones.

Hospitality suite: Sponsors pay more and warm to the team faster.

Each building goes up to level 10. You can only run one building site at a time.

Buildings wear 2 points a race. Below 70 they slip toward 60% of their level. Refurbishing uses the building site for a few days and makes a building like new. The building card shows what it does after wear. What a level opens, such as the second lab bench or the All in budget, stays open however worn the building gets.

Qualifying sets the grid. A safe lap has no risk. An all out lap is quicker and may go wrong.

In the race, Save looks after the tyres and fuel, Push goes faster and wears them out, and Even sits between.

Each circuit has its own best balance, from very soft to very stiff. A simulator day in Train narrows it down. On race day, practice runs let the drivers say what the balance you picked does: a head of analysts makes room for three runs. The right balance adds a little grip and saves tyres. One step off gives half. The briefing always offers the recommended setting.

More wing helps in corners and costs speed on the straights. Tyres wear out and a pit stop costs time, so pick your moment.

Rain changes everything. Slick tyres on a wet road are slow and dangerous.

A driver who loses the car slides off on the outside of the corner and is out of the race. Gravel and wide run-off stop most cars short of the wall, and the marshals can often clear them without the safety car. A car that hits the wall hard always brings the safety car out.

The camera follows your best car. Tap another car to follow it, drag to look around, or tap the map to look at a spot. Back to your car brings it home.

Drivers race by the rules. They attack in braking zones, a defender gets one move before the braking point, and a car alongside gets room. Lapped cars move over.

Teamwork changes how your two cars race. From 50, the second car covers the inside to hold up rivals for the first. From 80, they never touch and hold position unless one has a problem.

A car that has to stop picks its lap: early to jump the car ahead, or straight after a rival stops. It avoids rejoining in traffic and queuing behind its team-mate.

A hit bends the bodywork and costs time every lap. Your pit wall asks whether to fix it. Stop only when the rest of the race would cost more than the stop.

A season has 10 races. Each season draws its own calendar, so some circuits come back.

After a season every driver is a year older and the next grid is stronger, so ratings fall. Win the title and they fall 7.0%. Finish outside the top six and they fall 1.2%.

The first 2 seasons are free. To keep racing after that, pay RM9.99 once or invite 5 friends who sign in and finish a race. Either way you can then pick your team's colour, and a rival that races in it switches to yellow. Paying also lets you rename your team and your drivers.

You can carry 1 title sponsor and 2 partners. Each deal pays a set sum every race, a bonus when its demand is met, and runs for a set number of races. A title sponsor pays the most, and pays once more on signing.

Each sponsor wants one kind of result: a car near the front, both cars finishing, points, new fans, or beating a named rival. The demand follows your recent form, so it stays within reach.

Each sponsor also has a relationship with the team. Meeting a demand adds 8, missing one takes 10, and at 0 the sponsor walks away. A sponsor at 60 or more when its deal ends offers a new one that pays 15% more. The hospitality suite raises every payment and warms sponsors faster.

Fans come from scoring points, and a showman brings in more. Good news stories add some, bad ones cost some, and a small share drifts away after every race.

Fans pay you back every day through merchandise and tickets, up to $80K a week, more with each new car and more again with a fan shop. Bigger fan levels make sponsors pay more and lift the morale your drivers settle at. The winners' podium fills up too.

Local favourites, 0 fans: sponsors +0%, morale +0.

Town heroes, 2,000 fans: sponsors +5%, morale +1.

Regional pride, 6,000 fans: sponsors +10%, morale +2.

National team, 15,000 fans: sponsors +15%, morale +3.

Continental stars, 40,000 fans: sponsors +20%, morale +4.

World icons, 100,000 fans: sponsors +25%, morale +6.

Fans belong to your career. In the Pro League every team starts equal.

Every circuit has a board. Your career board lists the quickest drivers you have raced against, your own included.

The all-players board lists each signed-in player's best lap from their career or the Pro League.

The news is part of the game. A story can change a driver's morale or condition, your money, your fans, or a rival's car.

Feuds carry into the race, and a driver works harder to beat someone they have a grudge with.

The Pro League opens after your first race win, and you sign in with Google to join. You race real players, and computer teams fill any empty places. There is one race a day on the real calendar. Each week from Monday to Sunday crowns a new champion, and your best 5 races of the week count, so you can join midweek and still win it.

Build a team on the shared budget, or bring your career team. A career team is scaled to the Pro standard, so what counts is how you shared out your strength. It goes in as it stands when you save it, so save again after you improve it.

Tap Enter on each day you want to race. Once you are in, the race runs whether you watch or not. If you watch your own race on the day, your drivers race happier next time.