In F1 2020‘s MyTeam mode, you’re not a one-man band who’s going out on your own. You’ve got your teammate with you, a second driver who can help boost your organization’s standing during each Formula One season. You will need to manage their stats and perks, and, much later, their contracts if you wish to keep them in your racing squad. Here’s our guide to help you out.
Note: If you need more help with regards to primary sponsors and, later on, your secondary sponsors that get unlocked, head over to our MyTeam sponsors guide.
F1 2020: Recruiting your second driver in MyTeam
Many of the details regarding F1 2020‘s MyTeam mode, including those related to your teammate, have already been discussed in our beginner’s guide. The gist is that you get to pick one when you start a new save, and many of these racers tend to come from Formula 2.
They have lower stats compared to the Formula One superstars, but you can gradually see improvements as you go along. Here’s what each stat signifies:
- Experience – How much Acclaim they’ll provide your team.
- Racecraft – Their skill on the track.
- Awareness – Their capability to make those tight turns and split-second changes while driving.
- Pace – Keeping up and staying strong throughout the race.
- Overall – The driver’s overall stats.
Keep in mind that your teammate has a fairly inexpensive contract with no buyout fee due to their free agency.
Boosting your teammate’s stats and perks
There are two ways you can manually improve your teammate’s stats:
1. Season Calendar Activities
There are a handful of activities that can help improve certain stats for your second driver. You can see one example below where “G-Force Training” increases Racecraft by two points:
2. Personnel Facility Upgrades
The second method comes from facility upgrades via the Personnel tab. Upgrades include:
- Simulator – Increases the Pace stat.
- Fitness Center – Increases Racecraft and Awareness.
- Analysis Suite – Increases Experience.
Note 1: Calendar activities will permanently boost the affected stat for that driver only. If you change teammates, later on, the effects will be gone. Conversely, the Personnel upgrades will affect any and all teammates that you hire as you progress through F1 2020‘s seasons.
Note 2: Increasing a lot of stats will eventually boost the driver’s overall (OVR) rating.
Your own character’s stats
As an aside, don’t forget to level-up your own character’s perks. You’ll find this in the Corporate -> Contracts panel under “Driver Perks” (seen below):
These are the perks you can improve:
- Social Media Team – Increases your Acclaim.
- Power Mapping – Reduces engine wear.
- Media Coaching – Unlocks additional answers during press interviews.
- Development Feedback – Increases resource point generation for your R&D facilities.
The effects will increase based on ranks. The maximum rank (level 3) requires you to reach Acclaim rank 15 for your driver.
Contract negotiations
In F1 2020‘s MyTeam mode, you can build partnerships that are guaranteed to last — provided that you meet the second driver’s demands. That’s because, at the end of each Formula One season, you’ll need to enter contract negotiations with your teammate.
The driver will require a minimum amount of cash to re-sign with you. Likewise, you’ll need to hit a minimum Team Acclaim level for them to consider your offer.
Assuming you meet these requirements, you can make an offer for them to sign on your team. Using the exact amount for the driver’s market value will be a “medium-risk” offer. Going slightly above or slightly below that will be considered “low-risk” and “high-risk” decisions respectively.
Let’s say you’ve been playing a lot of seasons already in F1 2020‘s MyTeam mode, and you’ve amassed a lot of cash and Team Acclaim. Well, you could opt to hire a different teammate instead. You can select from other free agents as well as those who are already contracted to other Formula One teams (they do have an additional contract buyout fee).
You can freely compare the stats of two drivers, but remember that your current teammate’s stats will reflect any activity or facility boosts that are active.
F1 2020 is available via Steam. The standard edition releases on July 10. However, the Deluxe Schumacher Edition allows players to start racing on July 7. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.
