Alright, so I’ve been messing around with F1 23, specifically the Qatar track. Let me tell you, getting the setup right for this one was a bit of a head-scratcher, but I finally cracked it.
First off, I jumped into Time Trial mode. I figured that was the best way to get a feel for the track without worrying about other cars. I grabbed my trusty wheel and pedals, and started doing some laps. The track is pretty fast, with a lot of long straights and a few tricky corners.
Aerodynamics
Initially, I went with a pretty standard aero setup. I started with the front wing at around 20 and the rear wing at 25. But it felt a bit sluggish in the corners, like the car wasn’t rotating quickly enough. So, I started experimenting. After a few runs, I bumped up the front wing to around 24. That made a big difference in turn-in.
But it turns out that the change in the front wing made the car a bit unstable in the high-speed corners. To compensate for that, I had to increase the rear wing to 28, which gave me more stability when the car was at full speed.
Transmission
On Throttle Differential I set to 55%. It gave me good traction out of the corners. And I found that it helped me accelerate smoothly without losing the rear end.
Off Throttle I stuck with 50%. Seemed to work fine for engine braking.
Suspension Geometry
- Front Camber: I went with -2.50, which is pretty standard.
- Rear Camber: -1.00, again, nothing too crazy.
- Front Toe: I used 0.00 for good straight-line speed.
- Rear Toe: 0.10 to keep the rear end stable.
Suspension
This is where things got interesting. I played around with the suspension stiffness a lot.
- Front Suspension: I ended up with 35, which felt like a good balance between responsiveness and stability.
- Rear Suspension: I went softer at 8, allowing for some weight transfer to improve traction.
- Front Anti-Roll Bar: 10, for quick turn-in.
- Rear Anti-Roll Bar: 1, to keep the rear stable.
- Front Ride Height: 35, low for better aero.
- Rear Ride Height: 45, slightly higher to help with traction.
Brakes
Brake Pressure I set to 100%. I like a strong brake feel, and with ABS on, it was fine. Brake Bias, I found that 55% to the front worked best for me.
Tyres
I kept the tyre pressures pretty close to default.
- Front Right: 23.0 psi
- Front Left: 23.0 psi
- Rear Right: 20.5 psi
- Rear Left: 20.5 psi
After tweaking and testing for what felt like hours, I finally nailed down a setup that I was happy with. My lap times started to drop, and the car felt much more predictable. I managed to shave off a good few seconds from my initial times. It was a pretty satisfying feeling, to be honest. This whole process took me a good chunk of the afternoon, but hey, that’s part of the fun, right? You gotta put in the time to get the results. And trust me, seeing those lap times improve makes it all worthwhile. I saved the setup, exited the game, and took a break. It was a good day.
