Levels can only be gained by experience and determine many things for your team, such as:
Level XP is earned each time you race, and the higher the level of the competition (relative to you) the faster you will gain level XP.
A level cap applies to each tier in a league. When a manager exceeds the tier level cap their team will receive ballast to regulate their performance to appropriate levels for the tier (see 2.6 above for more info on ballast). This means that even if the best Elite team in the Hall of Fame relegates to Rookie, they get to keep their entire Elite team, but ballast will make them perform equally to a top Rookie team, keeping the league and level of competition fair for all participants.
The team level cap is only enforced in the form of ballast, and not on the management of the team. The manager still has access to HQ, drivers and staff up to their own level, unrestricted by the team level cap, but ballast will regulate performance to a level obtainable by all teams in the same tier. While this ensures fairness it also enables top teams to continue upgrades in preparation for promotion to a higher tier.
Here are the level caps for each tier:
| Tier | Team level cap |
|---|---|
| Rookie | 10 |
| Pro | 20 |
| Elite | 30 |
Reputation is how well you perform relative to expectations in the races you take part in. It starts for all managers at 5000 and increases or decreases based on your results. The maximum reputation is 10,000 and the minimum is 0. Similarly to level XP, it will increase by greater amounts if you are racing with managers with higher reputation levels than you.
Reputation is calculated entirely on the level of competition. Seeking out reputable rivals and populated leagues is very important to keep making progress with your own reputation level.
Not doing so can result in decreases in reputation even with good results. For example, let's say a top manager from the Hall of Fame whose reputation is 9000 goes and starts racing with total newcomer managers with 5000 reputation. It's so uncompetitive that simply participating in such an environment can be damaging to a reputation. So, a highly ranked manager could lose reputation even for victories there.
Another example would be if there are only two teams in a league. Whoever wins those races will also surely see a decline in reputation, again because they are not racing in a competitive environment.
The easiest way to keep your reputation on an upward momentum is to keep seeking out tough competition and challenging yourself. By racing stronger competitors, even a poor finishing position can result in reputation gains, because you won't be expected to win. Any competitive results in such an environment will also bring a huge boost to your reputation.
Stars indicate skill relative your current level. So, if you're currently level 10, a level 10 driver or staff would be displayed as 5 stars. A driver or staff that's half your level will have 2.5 stars and so on. This is why, as you progress through the game and level up, you may see the star rating of your own drivers and staff decrease. Their skill level has not actually changed, but your level as a manager has increased relative to them and you are now in a position to get higher level drivers and staff. The star rating acts as a clear way of indicating this to a manager.
If you ever see red stars on drivers or staff, then they have a higher level than you, and you would not be able to hire them. It's possible through driver training to raise your driver(s) levels above your manager level, but training becomes very slow beyond that.
You can participate in an auction either by placing a 'bid' or 'buy now' offer. Each works slightly differently. A 'bid' does not guarantee winning the auction and allows other managers to place rival bids. While it costs less tokens, it costs more cash. A 'buy now' offer by contrast guarantees that you will immediately win the auction and costs more tokens but significantly less cash than a bid. When any manager places a 'bid' they automatically and immediately remove the ability for any manager viewing the auction to make a 'buy now' offer and force the auction to bidding mode.
Each auction is conducted in rounds:
Drivers and staff age at a rate of 1 year per 20 races. By ageing based on race count, all teams will be able to extract the maximum value from their drivers and staff regardless of how often they race. When a driver or staff member is not employed they do not age. They are "frozen" in their current state until they are hired by another team.
There are some significant setbacks for running a team in debt:
To get out of debt, the easiest way is to make an investment in your team. Investments can be made by clicking on your balance at the top of the screen or by visiting the Shop on the menu in iGP Manager. If you don't want to spend tokens on an investment, then these steps may help you to recover some money at each race:
