Advantages of higher level?

Hello fellow managers,

I was wondering if anyone could help break down the advantages of having a higher manager level. As I understand it, the design, research, and training components of the game is enhanced by having a 5-star CD, TD, and DR respectively. 

So doesn’t that mean a level 10 player with 5-star staff will create more design points, more research points, etc. per race than a level 12 manager with 4-star staff?

Is there anything that a higher level offers other than access to better drivers and HQ facilities? 

Thank you for your insights! 

Advantages:
1. Higher max HQ levels meaning you can further upgrade HQ's buildings, leading to: 1. more fixed design points generated per race (design), more parts generated per race not counting ads (manufacturing), able to further upgrade technology leading to more powerful DRS and more boost which is a big help in live race management (technology), higher level youth academy leading to higher chance to generate Talent 20 drivers needed for Elite; drivers from youth academy also start with much lower salary helping your finances, then better Simulator for more training gains. Offices and hospitality has little use atm.

2. Higher sponsor salary and bonuses as they scale with manager level.

3. Able to sign higher level staff. You can train staff to be higher than your manager level, but to sign staff they must be within your level. So if your manager level is 17 you can sign level 17 drivers or staff.


Disadvanatages:
1. Cited as the biggest disadvantage is that it's harder to get better initial car design at the beginning of the season unless you have high level staff. How well your starting design is for next season I believe is based more on your CD and TD staff level, preferably 5 stars but 4.5 stars is good too. That's why once you reach high manager levels, like level 15 onwards, that is when you should start hunting for high level staff like CD and TD, to match your manager level as best as possible. DR is not important unless you want to train your drivers faster; you can save costs by not having high level doctor.

2. You also have less research gains per race. It can be 49% gain at level 17, but 44% at level 19. Here star level is important; 4.5 and 5 stars get max research gains, no difference between the two from my experience, but I might be wrong. I believe the game does this to balance your car design against lower leveled managers, as higher manager level usually means higher HQ levels, meaning more design points from your design HQ. Level 17 manager will get 17 design points per race from their HQ if fully upgraded, while level 19 manager will get 19 design points from HQ if fully upgraded, so gains from research is meant to close the gap up.

3. Higher parts cost to repair cars. If you're racing 2 car, you'll feel this. Either watch ads to get more parts, or don't repair your cars in the last 2-3 races of a season to save parts. New season will generate you a fully repaired car.

Apart from that there's little disadvantage from being a higher leveled manager.

Design is usually close when you have good CDs and you won't be off pace even if you start with less design points, and by mid season in Elite all teams should equally have 100 in the big 4 stats.

The advantage of better DRS and better/more boost with higher level managers is also quite apparent, especially when there's a big gap between manager level, for example between a level 15 and a level 20 manager. Even though Jack the main dev says a level 15 can compete with level 20, trust me I've done this a few times, using level 16 team to compete with level 18, lvl 17 and 18 to compete with 19 and 20, even level 15 to compete with level 20, and while I've had some success, I have to say I'd rather be level 20; level 20 boost and DRS is awesome. Differences of 1 or 2 levels is not too bad, even 3 levels if you fancy yourself as a pretty good player, especially if it's between level 18 and level 20 as performance is slightly closer at higher levels than at lower levels, but it's still a difference, and for some managers it can still feel like a lot.

Wow. Thank you so much for such a detailed and comprehensive answer. So just to clarify one point: A level 3-star CD at level 15 will yield less design points/race compared to a 5-star CD at level 14? 

Again thank you for your very comprehensive response. 

That makes perfect sense. I appreciate the very straight forward answer, it was very informative!