Quick Start Guide

So then, you want to start racing, but you're not quite sure where to start?
Start here.

The first thing you'll see when you log in is the Overview page. This page does exactly what you would expect. It shows an overview of your team, the other teams in your league, and the result of the last race. Have a look around. Try not to get lost. See where it says Race Worthiness? That's your quick guide to whether you can race. If you've just joined the game, you should have been assigned the basic Engine and Chassis supplier, if you're lucky you might even have some drivers too.

Lets have a look at the interface. There are drop down menus at the top of the page, saying things like Overview, Personnel etc. These are the primary method of navigating your way through the game. Hover the mouse over Funding. Four items appear: Profit & Loss, Negotiate Sponsors, View Sponsors and Loans. Click Profit / Loss. You're now on a page which shows you how much money you make per race. It's not much yet. You make more money by doing well in races and by signing sponsorship deals. Note that if you spend more money than you have you will not be able to take part in a race. One of your key objectives as a GP Manager is to balance the books, don't spend more than you have or things can go wrong for your team very quickly. Now, lets have a look at the drivers. Hover over the Personnel menu and click Drivers. If you don't have any drivers at all then watch out, you're not ready to race! Click on the recruitment link to find one's you like, but be careful, you're not made of money...yet.
If you have drivers assigned to your team, but don't like the look of them, you can always change them using the 'Recruit new driver' link below each driver. Don't worry about terminating his contract, as a new team you have a grace period of 6 races whereby you are immune from any termination of contract charges. You have slots for up to four drivers. Note that only two will take part in each race. The other two spots can be used for your third and test driver. Drivers can get injured, so it's always good to have a backup. Also, a test drivers is great for development, as testing with your race drivers will cost them motivation.

Ok, you've got your drivers. Now they need a car.

Go to the Development menu and click Negotiate Suppliers. You'll see you already have an engine and tyres, but they are the basic models. Also, you have no chassis supplier. Similar to drivers suppliers all have a set of ratings, with the better ones costing more.
You won't need a chassis supplier to race, your team has it's own chassis already, admittidly it's little more than a Go-Kart with a couple of planks nailed on as wings, but never the less, it will get you to the grid! If you've got any profit margin left, you can Negotiate a supply of nicer chassis from a supplier.

Time to prepare for the race then. Go to Racing, Race Weekend.
Scroll down. You'll see a list of everyone who has practised and qualified so far today. Scroll down to where it says Perform Qualifying lap. Each of your race drivers will qualify with race fuel. Use the drop down boxes that to specify their strategy. Pick one or leave it to the default (note that this option is also avaliable for the entire race, but a faster strategy will mean a greater chance of mishap) Click Go!
Now scroll down and see where you qualified.
Finally, you'll need to specify when you want your drivers do pit stops. You can specify as many or as few as you like. All there is to do now is wait until your race starts. The actual start time varies from server to server, the 'scheduled start' time under 'track status' (Race Weekend screen) will tell you the exact time. Log in sometime after this to find out how you did. Good luck!

Helpful tips:
Rookie mode - rookie mode is the pink italic writing. You can turn it off in preferences, but to begin with it gives some useful hints.

Sponsors - sponsors are where the vast majority of your money will come from. You'll want to start your commercial department acquiring you sponsorship deals as soon as possible.

Crashing every race? Remember that your teams attributes are relative to one another. A fast aggressive driver with little experience is more likely to crash more than a old granny who never goes above thirty. A fast engine with low reliability will actually be less dependable than a slow engine with the same reliability attributes. A basic rule of thumb is that balanced attributes make for good reliability.