Automation hands any department of your team to the AI — the same decision logic the other teams on the grid run — so you can play the parts of the job you enjoy and let the rest tick over. Every department has its own switch; the race weekend has one too.
How to switch it
- In the app: every department app (Infrastructure, Marketing, Scouting, Academy, Car / R&D, Finance, the Weekend Loadout and the run-plan screens) shows a small AI pill in its header, left of the help book. Green = the AI runs this department, grey = you do. Click it to switch; the hover bubble says what the AI will do.
- All at once: Settings → Automation lists every department with its state, plus All departments: AI / Manual to flip everything.
The choice is saved with the career.
What each department does when automated
| Department | What the AI does, and when |
|---|---|
| Infrastructure | At the first turn of the Infrastructure phase: upgrades departments up to 60 % of the budget, Engineering and R&D first, levels capped at 5. |
| Marketing | Each turn of the Sponsor and Supplier phases, on BOTH markets (the phase’s own first): splits the free Marketing WU across the open slots / missing categories and starts negotiations that can complete inside the window (biggest cheque first); signs every deal that completes and the reserves your marketing discovered; when a rival takes a supplier’s works slot mid-negotiation it retargets another supplier of the category at once (or banks the client discount); at Car Review it fills any missing supplier or sponsor the way the grid does. |
| Scouting | Each turn and after each race: spends the free scouting WU on the best drivers you do not know yet; in the driver phases (and mid-season when a seat is empty) it signs the line-up. |
| Academy | Sets each prospect’s next-season plan: graduating juniors are promoted while development seats remain, the rest are kept. |
| Car & R&D | Builds and fits the season car at Car Review; at the end of the Development phase and after every race it repairs and improves parts and allocates the R&D pool into designs and next-year work; in the weekend repair windows it repairs the fitted parts with the weekend WU. |
| Finance | Only when the budget is negative: one bank loan sized to clear the hole, then equity sold down to majority control. |
| Weekend loadout | The truck is packed automatically (best parts and spares, mule when the rules allow) and the loadout confirmed. |
| Race weekends | Practice, qualifying and the race are simulated: the AI picks the run plans, the strategy and the pit calls and drives your cars, exactly as it does for the other teams. You watch the progress panel and get the debrief as usual. Quick Sim is used when it is enabled. |
Every turn, your assistant mails you a report — one e-mail in the Inbox, one section per automated department that did something, and the list of departments currently on Auto — so you can audit what was decided.
Protected apps
While a department is on Auto, its app is locked: clicking inside it drops the click and pops a message saying the assistant runs this department, and the app’s AI pill blinks for a few seconds so you see where to take it back. The header (Back, help) and the sidebar stay usable, and the app still shows everything.
Things to know
- Automation acts at the turn boundaries (End Phase, Next GP, after a race). Switch a department back to Manual at any time to act yourself — the AI then works with whatever you left.
- In Settings the rows read Auto / Manual; the header pill reads AI.
- The pre-season test session is not skipped: with Race weekends automated it is simulated like any other session, otherwise you run it yourself.
- The headless
--sim-careerauto-pilot and Automation share the same code, so a fully automated career behaves like the balance runs the developers use.