Solved

Which is more important: Ratings or Stars?

Sort of related to the earlier post about how stars work:

So, being new I've run into my first instances where, my 5 star employee is downgraded to 4 stars. What I'm wondering is, does the game use the ratings or the stars?

Example: If I have a driver that is 5 stars, and rating 5 in every category. When I level up, all things being equal, he still has a rating of 5 in every category but now is, lets say, a 4 star driver. Is he slower than when he was a 5 star driver - even though his ratings haven't changed?

For a driver you can generally train them back up in short order if they are under 28 years old. It's not an issue.
Staff are not trainable and the lack of 5 stars means they are no longer as effective (think design points after races or numbers at start of a new season). They should be replaced as soon as you can get to it so you don't destroy your budget either having multiple TD's, CD's, and DR's or by paying penalties for terminating contracts early.
If you are below level 6 you may want to wait another level as the levels go by quickly early on

The reason your staff will go down in number of stars is because when you level up, they are no longer the same level as you.

e.g. When I went from level 13 to level 14, my 5-star doctor was now a 4 1/2 star doctor to me.
I kept an eye on the Transfers market for a 5-star doctor and eventually landed one. He is level 14.

For staff it's stars that matter, only. For drivers it's the skills but since you quite probably want those skills as high as possible it means those drivers stay 4.5 to red 5 stars range anyway. :-)

So just to confirm - if my 4 star TD/CD provides 3 upgrade points per race, when I level up and they drop to 3 stars I might only receive 2 upgrade points per race (for example)?

Yes, because you are now a higher level and they remained static at their fixed level.

If you mean the points from research mentioned in the email then yes, the research power will drop together with the CD and TDs stars and that results in less gain (for the same tech distance between your team and the best team in that area). Also for each race with a CD with lower star rating in charge your starting points for next seasons car will be slightly lower.

Is there a max manager level?

Yes. It's 20 and only achievable if you race every day.

I've been here 2.75 years racing three days a week, and I'm only level 14.

OK, something odd there. I'm racing in a daily league and am level 14 as well and with joining in November that took 5 months. At the same rate per race you should have hit level 14 after roughly a year and probably about to max out by know. What made that kind of difference?

It's probably because you're racing against folks who are way above your level, which means you get the max bonus xp per race.

That could be, after my first season I changed leagues and entered into the MJL and was, most of the time, one of the lower leveled teams in my division. Still I'm surprised it makes that much of a difference.

For staff only stars matter :
CD stars = your design for next season (strength & weakness are VERY important)
CD + TD stars = your spying power
DR = your training efficiency

As for TD some say it also influences pit duration but for now there is no confirmation.
And finally for drivers individual stats are way more importants and stars is only a global level.

Stars are doing strange things.

I bought a doctor who is level 16, but 5 yellow stars, not red.
I am level 15.

Basically that means, when I turn level 16, that doctor will likely drop to 4 1/2 stars.

Which partly explains why I see 4 1/2 star staff who are the same level as I am.

I reported this as a bug some time ago. The star rating system is broken. I noticed after I upgraded, but my lvl 18 staff remained as 4.5 star and when I looked at the transfer market both lvl 18 and lvl 19 staff appeared as 4.5 star, when I would expect lvl 18 staff to be lower, or lvl 19 to be full 5 star.

https://igpmanager.com/forum-thread/7695

I reported this as a bug some time ago. The star rating system is broken. I noticed after a few of my teams leveled up. My lvl 18 staff remained as 4.5 star and when I looked at the transfer market both lvl 18 and lvl 19 staff appeared as 4.5 star, when I would expect lvl 18 staff to be lower, or lvl 19 to be full 5 star.

https://igpmanager.com/forum-thread/7695

So to check on this... I have a TD who is level 10 and has skills 13 13 and 12... but then I can hire a level 11 TD with skills 11 11 and 11.... which is better? Is there a definitive answer? If only stars matter then why even have the skills/experience/morale stats?

Exactly. Clarity on this would be good. Are the stats not used (but perhaps will be in the future)?

The 31 year old level 10 TD, will be a higher level in the future most likely level 13, to match the talent rating. Age counts towards stars, it might count towards level also.