F1 2021: MyTeam guide — Facilities and R&D upgrades

F1 2021‘s MyTeam mode has you managing your own organization from the ground up. You’ll have to take a look at the inner workings of your company, and your choices here will determine how well your car performs, as well as how each department develops. Here’s our F1 2021 MyTeam guide to help you with facilities, R&D upgrades, resource points, department events, and boosts from calendar activities and press interviews.

Note: For more information, check out our F1 2021 guides and features hub. You can also take a look at our MyTeam guide regarding the basics such as sponsors, driver selections, engines, and acclaim.

 F1 2021 MyTeam guide – Facilities, R&D upgrades, and resource points

Gaining boosts from calendar activities and press interviews

Once you start F1 2021‘s MyTeam season, the press will ask you several questions during an interview. One particular question about the department that you’re most proud of will actually confer an instant level up for that group’s specialization. Subsequent press interviews also affect the growth of the departments that you aim to support.

Additionally, you’ll want to look at your list of calendar activities. Every race weekend allows you to pick from several team activities. Some will provide boosts to specific departments, while others can lower their efficiency by a bit. Likewise, there are those that will directly impact the acclaim of your team or partner/second driver.

Try to maximize the calendar slots so you can obtain the most from each race weekend. If you’re playing a shorter MyTeam season in F1 2021 (i.e., 10 races), these opportunities will be very important.

Upgrading your facilities/departments and encountering critical events

Anyway, here are the facilities you’ll see in the game:

• Aerodynamics – Focuses primarily on maneuverability and speed during turns.
• Powertrain – Maximizing your speed on straights.
• Chassis – Overall performance and weight distribution.
• Durability – Reduces damage and wear.
• Personnel – Improves the stats of your teammate.
• Marketing – Increases acclaim and boosts from team activities.

The first four directly impact your car’s performance, and they’re often tied to interview questions. For instance, I chose the Aerodynamics department during the initial interview, which was why the facility started out with a +1 spec rank compared to others.

The Aerodynamics, Powertrain, Chassis, and Durability departments all have similar facility upgrades. Once you’ve upgraded these four perks to their next tiers, you’ll gain an extra level for the department’s specialization (spec). This unlocks more R&D parts for you to create.

• Fabrication – The number of projects that can be active at any given point in time.
• Build Time – How long it takes to complete a project/part.
• Quality Control – Reduces the failure rate of manufacturing.
• Resource Point Generation – Increases the weekly resource points provided. By default, each department adds 25 research points (denoted by a plus sign). We’ll talk more about this currency in a while.

Before I forget, you can sometimes encounter critical events related to departments that’d require you to make a decision. Here are some examples:

• Improve your partner’s pace or awareness stat (+7 points).
• Sponsors will invest more, lowering the resource point cost of a particular project.
• The facility got flooded. You can pick a safe solution (-100k cash) or a cheap solution (-1k cash).

R&D upgrades and resource points

The R&D tab allows you to spend any resource points you’ve earned to craft upgrades and improvements for your vehicle. Compared to last year’s game, the interface is a lot cleaner and more intuitive. It no longer looks like a spiderweb or something inspired by a Final Fantasy-esque Sphere Grid. Instead, you’ll check the tabs of each department and scroll down various rows. Additional upgrades/parts get unlocked in succession (i.e., obtain the first one in sequence before you can discover the next part). In some instances, you might need to level up a department’s spec rank to discover new improvements.

Here’s an example for the Aerodynamics department:

• Drag Reduction – Front Wing Gurney Flap, Streamlined Suspension Arms, Bargeboards, Redesigned Brake Ducts, and more.
• DRS – DRS Activation Mechanism.
• Front Downforce – Front Wing Main Flap, Secondary Wing Flaps, Tertiary Wing Flaps, Front Wing Adjuster Bracket, and more.
• Rear Downforce – Rear Wing Main Plane, Rear Wing Outer Strakes, Rear Wing Upper Flap, Diffuser-Refined Strake Positions, and more.

Be careful because it’s possible that the development of a part might end in failure, especially when you try to rush things. Thankfully, a failure means that you can redo the process without any chance of screwing it up again.

As for resource points, you’ll obtain these gradually from departments, calendar activities, and via certain events. Likewise, you can some of this currency by completing goals during practice sessions (seen in the image below).

You’ll also gain boosts based on your partner’s EXP stat, and your own character’s unlocked perks. Simply go to Corporate -> Contracts -> Driver Perks and look at the “Development Feedback” upgrade. It has three tiers, increasing the resource point modifier by a small amount each time.

F1 2021 is available via Steam. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.