Alright, so I jumped into F1 24 today, planning to sort out a setup for Austria. The Red Bull Ring, always a tricky one. Short lap, elevation changes, and those nasty kerbs.
First thing, I loaded up the track in Time Trial. Just wanted to get a feel for the base handling with one of the default setups, think I picked the balanced one to start. Did a few laps, and yeah, felt okay-ish, but kinda sluggish out of the slow corners like Turn 1 and Turn 3. Also felt a bit unstable hitting the kerbs through the fast esses later in the lap.
Figuring Out the Wings
So, aerodynamics first. Austria’s got those long straights, especially the one up to Turn 3, but you still need grip for the twisty bits and the faster corners. I started knocking the front and rear wings down a bit from the default. Went too low at first, the car felt way too loose, especially the rear end through Turn 6 and 7. No good. Added a couple of clicks back, mainly on the rear wing. Found a spot, maybe around 20 front and 18 rear, felt like a decent compromise between straight-line speed and having enough grip to attack the corners without just sliding off.
Transmission Tweaks
Next up, the differential. Traction out of the slow stuff was my main headache. The default felt too open. So I started cranking up the on-throttle diff. Pushed it quite high, maybe 70% or even 75%. That really helped hook the car up exiting Turn 1 and Turn 3, could get on the power much earlier. For the off-throttle, I kept it reasonably low, maybe around 55%. Didn’t want to make the turn-in too lazy, especially for Turns 3 and 4 where you need the car to rotate.
Suspension – The Tricky Part
This took the most messing about.
- Geometry: Camber, I pretty much pushed it all the way to the right for maximum grip, standard stuff really. For toe, I went with minimal front toe-out, just a click or two, and a tiny bit of rear toe-in for stability under acceleration. Didn’t want too much drag.
- Suspension Stiffness: Austria’s kerbs can really unsettle the car. Started by softening everything up quite a bit from the default. Especially the rear suspension and rear anti-roll bar. Made it better over the kerbs, particularly the exit of Turn 1 and the final two corners. But then the car felt a bit too wallowy through the faster sweepers. So, I stiffened the front suspension and front anti-roll bar back up a touch. It’s a balance, trying to keep it compliant but responsive. Probably ended up somewhere softer than medium overall.
- Ride Height: Went pretty low, especially the front, to help with aero and turn-in. Maybe around 30 front, 55 rear? Had to be careful not to go too low, otherwise, you bottom out hard on the kerbs or compressions, which is race over. Did a few laps just hammering the kerbs to check.
Brakes and Tyres
Brakes, pretty simple. High pressure, usually run it around 100%. The brake bias is key though. I nudged it slightly rearward, maybe 54% or 53%. Helps rotate the car into the slower corners without relying purely on the steering, but go too far back and you’ll be spinning under braking.
Tyre pressures came last. After getting the rest sorted, I played with these to fine-tune the grip and feel. Dropped the rear pressures a bit to help with traction again, maybe 22.0psi front and 20.0psi rear? Something like that. Felt pretty good.
Putting it all Together
Did a longer run, maybe 5-10 laps straight. The car felt much better. Could attack the kerbs more confidently, traction was way improved out of the slow corners, and it still felt reasonably quick on the straights. It wasn’t perfect, maybe still a tiny bit edgy on throttle sometimes, but way better than where I started. Good enough base to work from for a race weekend, just need minor tweaks depending on fuel load and tyre wear then. Solid session, happy with that.
