F1 2020: Increasing Acclaim and press interview questions

From time to time in F1 2020’s MyTeam and Driver Career modes, you’ll be presented with press interviews with numerous questions. Some of the answers you give will also end up affecting your personal and team Acclaim rank. Here’s our mini-guide to help you out.

Note: For more information, check out our F1 2020 guides and features hub.

F1 2020: Increasing your Acclaim

In F1 2020, you can think of Acclaim as “fame or prestige.” It’s accumulated by way of the following:

• Your performance in races
• Participating in practice and qualifying laps during race weekends
• The answers you give during press interviews
• Your second driver’s/teammate’s Experience stat
• Facility upgrades
• Your own driver’s perks
• Winning a rivalry (more on this below)

Acclaim is further subdivided into two categories:

• Personal or driver-specific
• Team Acclaim

After certain moments in F1 2020 (such as race weekends), both you and your teammate’s Acclaim points are tallied, eventually showing just how much your Team Acclaim has increased. If you’re playing MyTeam mode, this will greatly affect your progression since Team Acclaim levels will unlock additional secondary sponsors while increasing your monetary rewards.

It’s also possible to lose Acclaim if, say, you’ve performed poorly during a race weekend or if you neglected to show up for practice laps. While practices are optional and you’re free to simulate them, completely skipping can lead to a drop in your personal Acclaim level.

Acclaim and a department’s morale are also affected by how you answer certain interview questions, so try not to be rude or unforgiving towards other drivers or your organization.

Press interview questions and answers

Press interviews can happen during F1 2020‘s seasonal modes during the following instances:

• The beginning of the season
• After the qualifiers
• After a race
• Winning a championship

The journalists will usually have three to four questions and you have multiple answers to choose from. Some of these answers will adversely affect your Acclaim (personal, teammate, or team-wide) or the morale of your R&D departments.

Sometimes, the answers will be clear-cut, such as those directly referencing the names of the departments:

In most cases, though, you’ll have to take note of the keywords. Here are some examples:

• “Take a lot of punishment,” “reliability,” and “stress tests” refer to Durability.
• “Turns,” “downforce,” and “corners” refer to Aerodynamics.

Don’t forget that you check Corporate -> Contracts -> Driver Perks (MyTeam) or Contracts -> Driver Perks (Driver Career) to boost the “Media Coaching” upgrade. Higher tiers will unlock additional interview answers.

Rivalries

Lastly, there will be times when you’re asked about another Formula One driver, allowing you to initiate a rivalry. The higher the driver’s stats, the more Acclaim you’ll get if you win the rivalry at the end of the season.

The rivalry will be judged based on your performance during competitive races — ie. your placement at the end of the race, your qualifying position, who had the fastest lap, and so on.

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.