Settings — Career | The Undercut Wiki

The Career tab exposes career-mode parameters as live sliders. Tuning these changes how the season economy and progression feel, without affecting individual races.

Settings list

`race_prize_total`

Default: 1,500,000 ($1.5M)

Total prize money paid out per Grand Prix, split across finishing positions weighted toward the front. Roughly:

Position	Approx share
1st	25% (~$375K)
2nd	18% (~$270K)
3rd	14% (~$210K)
5th	8% (~$120K)
10th	2% (~$30K)
17th+	$0

Tune this to make race prize feel more / less important relative to sponsor income.

Lower (e.g. $1M) — sponsors dominate; finishing position matters less for the bottom line
Default ($1.5M) — balanced; race results drive ~10–15% of weekend revenue
Higher (e.g. $3M) — race results dominate; podium chases become big-money decisions

`championship_prize_total`

Default: 50,000,000 ($50M)

Total prize money paid out at season end, split by constructor standings.

Position	Approx share
1st	30% (~$15M)
2nd	22% (~$11M)
3rd	16% (~$8M)
5th	8% (~$4M)
10th	2% (~$1M)

This is the biggest single payout in a career — winning the constructor’s championship is roughly equivalent to 2–3 seasons of top-tier sponsor income combined.

Lower ($25M) — championship matters less, year-to-year income smoother
Default ($50M) — high-stakes championship season finale
Higher ($100M) — championship is everything; mid-table seasons feel pointless

`race_distance_factor`

Default: 1.00

Multiplier on race lap count (and thus part lifetimes / fuel needs / strategy windows). Useful for:

0.5 — half-distance races, faster careers, ~30 laps per GP. Less wear, faster-paced.
1.0 — default, ~60–80 laps per GP depending on circuit.
1.5 — extended races, ~100 laps per GP. More tire stints, more strategy variance.

This scales:

Total laps for the race
Fuel target per stint (base × distance factor)
Tire wear distance accumulated per race
Pit-strategy generation (more 2-stops viable on longer races)

`sponsors_per_marketing_level`

Default: 2

Number of additional sponsors unlocked per Marketing department level above 1.

1 — slow scouting; reach Marketing 10 to unlock 9 extra sponsors
2 — default; 2 extra sponsors per level
3 — fast scouting; reach Marketing 10 to unlock 27 extra sponsors

Affects mid-game progression — higher values mean Marketing investment pays back faster.

Other Career fields

(These are present but rarely tuned; they’re set by the new-career wizard or via gameplay.)

Field	Notes
`default_initial_budget` per tier	Set at career-start by tier choice
`starting_reputation` per tier	30 / 50 / 70
`staff_payroll_base`	Base weekly staff cost
`transfer_window_open_lap`	When the transfer window opens (typically end-of-season)

Saving

Career slider changes save to saves/config.db SQLite, scope = "career". Same SQLite pattern as the Simulation tab.

The career sliders override defaults at career creation AND at runtime — but existing contracts (sponsor money, supplier money) are NOT recalculated when sliders change. Only NEW contracts use the new values.

So bumping race_prize_total mid-career affects all future races; bumping sponsor_payout_per_gp (in race_config.txt — not exposed as a slider) affects only sponsors signed after the change.

Reset Career Defaults

The “Reset Defaults” button on this tab rebuilds the career slider list from CareerConfig::default().

Tuning advice

Easy / casual mode

race_prize_total          = 2_500_000  ($2.5M, more buffer)
championship_prize_total  = 80_000_000  ($80M, big year-end payout)
race_distance_factor      = 0.75      (shorter races, less risk)
sponsors_per_marketing_level = 3

Hardcore / financial-pressure mode

race_prize_total          = 800_000   ($800K, rely on sponsors)
championship_prize_total  = 30_000_000
race_distance_factor      = 1.25     (more wear, more pit strategy)
sponsors_per_marketing_level = 1

Realistic 1990s F1 mode

race_prize_total          = 1_500_000  (default, real-life rough scale)
championship_prize_total  = 50_000_000  (real-life total purse rough scale)
race_distance_factor      = 1.0
sponsors_per_marketing_level = 2

File / DB inspection

sqlite3 saves/config.db
> SELECT key, value FROM config WHERE scope = 'career';

You can also edit career_config.txt (next to the binary) for keys not exposed as sliders.

Finance — how prize money flows into your budget
Sponsors — how sponsors_per_marketing_level interacts with the marketing department
Settings — Simulation — race-tick tuning