3 years ago

F1 22 setup notes I spent all my sanity on!

Hello, people!

IMPORTANT: credit to @Nuvolarix and @ActuallyImJulie (more about this in OPENING STATEMENT) , without Nuvolarix I wouldn't have any confidence in most of the stuff and without ActuallyImJulie I wouldn't have much confidence in Ride height + tyre pressures parts and so I wouldn't post these. The tyre temperatures & wear & stuff Excel file wouldn't exist either without AIJ

IMPORTANT 2: EXCEL FILE! I manually put together(and stylized 🙂 ) a bunch of info about perfect tyre temperatures for every compound, % of grip loss depending on wear, stuff like that. You can find a link to the file near the end of the notes in "TYRES" section. Even if notes themselves aren't peak interest to you, that file might be, fun to know a little more especially that it's info straight from the game's files, in % format of course

I am posting these notes for people like me, who take every chance to get more understanding about setups, what different elements affect and all that. Are they 100% correct? There's no telling, different people will be telling you different stories, I haven't found an actual undisrupted consensus on what different elements affect and how. In that context, I want to draw your attention to point 3. in my "OPENING STATEMENT" I wrote some days ago, because I finally found an answer to a question that's been hunting me for a long time. Why does changing anti-roll bars do nothing for me? And suspension as well? Does ride height even matter? I sure don't feel like it.

Without further ado, I will make a beautiful line here separating what I wrote now and what I copy-pasted, the notes, enjoy

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OPENING STATEMENT
wow that title made it official, anyway. I made this section after putting all the notes together because I want 3 things to be said:
1. I myself only put these notes together, all the knowledge comes from Nuvolarix and ActuallyImJulie who I contacted on EA forum for F1 22, some bits and pieces come
from various sources I found while researching myself. But I take next to no credit in actually figuring these things out.
2. MANY parts of the setup affect each other(like ride height and suspension) so when making changes be mindful of that, don't scramble every slider because the
balance was off
3. Something that drove me to enter the world of setup guides and all the insanity that lead to these notes was that I was playing with some setup elements myself without
feeling any difference. I would switch between 8-2 and 3-2 anti-roll bars on Baku and set better times with each change as if it didn't matter. A conclusion I came to (with some
relatable comments on EA answers under my post) is that for some setup changes in order to feel the difference you need 2 things:
- be quick
- be consistent
I am consistently 3-5 seconds off the top Time Trial times myself, so that's why I might not be able to tell the difference between a 6-2 and 4-2 anti-roll bars setup. I might not be
able to see the difference because I am going to be losing/gaining tenths on every corner depending on how I happen to take it that particular time. It took me a long time to come
to this conclusion, if you feel the same then that just might be it. To overcome this best you can you will have to spend a lot of time on the track of your choice, don't make
setup changes, just drive around until you truly feel consistent, maybe then effects of the changes you make to your setup will be more clear
4. This is a new point I am adding with along with a rewritten "anti-roll bars" section, that is because what was previously there was mostly incorrect. If you want to know more
about roll bars then go to that section(it actually is correct this time I am confident as never before), here I wanted to say that discovering(thanks to ActuallyImJulie, again!)
and exploring what anti-roll bars do redefined my whole outlook on setup changes. There are things which you can modify and notice only a small difference, that's what I thought
about anti-roll bars for the longest time but with the discovery that stiffening rear ARB makes the rear more grippy and the oversteery, that was a huge game changer to me.
Do not be afraid to add some clicks to the rear ARB(I found Silverstone to be a very good track for testing the effect of this), explore and go with what you feel gives you an
advantage. I mention ARBs specifically because I feel like they have a huge impact on the car's balance, more so than a little bit of downforce from a lower ride height for
example

That said:

AERODYNAMICS
General points:
- Balanced towards the front(like 32-25) will introduce significantly more oversteer. Likewise something like 25-32 might make
you feel like the car doesn't turn at all -> understeer
- balance towards the front(almost always seen in top Time Trial times in dry conditions) is more pointy with a looser end.

Less wings overall:
- less drag meaning better ERS as you use less energy to move through the air
- worse tyre life(more sliding)

More wings overall:
- shorter braking
- better tyre life(less sliding)

TRANSMISSION
General points:
- The basic idea is that this determines how independed the speed of turning the rear wheels is. If they can spin at vastly different speeds you will have more
"rotation"

On throttle:
- generally 50-60%
- higher % means more understeer on exit(because you're ON throttle, how independent rear wheels are is dependent on THIS setting)
but it will offer more traction. It will also be harder to correct if you lose the car
- less % means more rotation when you're on throttle, limits the available traction
- Bonus info: this is the setting you can change while driving, it's next to brake bias

Off throttle:
- most often 50-55%, 55 can already be considered "a lot", be careful with this one
- lower gives extra rotation but it may lock the inside wheel. A higher setting(starting as low as 60%) may introduce understeer at corner entry when you're off
throttle
- also if you find that during a corner you suddenly lose the rear end maybe make this higher

SUSPENSION GEOMETRY
General points:
- you will usually go with the "meta" setting specified below, this is part of the setup you want to start adjusting after the rest of the setup is okay IF you
feel like there's a little bit extra to be gained, the modifications here are going to have a small impact overall, compared to changes in wings, suspension
etc.
- the "meta" at the time of writing this is: RIGHT RIGHT LEFT LEFT(full to the specified side, starting from the top setting)

Camber:
- this will impact your "lateral grip" when cornering(e.g. long turns like T3 in Spain or many turns on Silverstone)
- as you go into a corner your car starts leaning on the outside tyre, the lower this setting you made have the more of the tyre's surface will come into contact
with the track's surface. That gives you 2 things: more grip, more tyre wear = more temperature
- if you're struggling with traction decreasing rear camber will not help, might even make it worse

Toe:
- theory here is that the more you increase this setting, the more you increase the angle at which the tyres are pointing away from the car, this causes 2-3 things:
- increasing this will make the car more responsive but should massively increase tyre temperature, presumably tyre wear as well
- absolutely start at the lowest setting possible and build up from there when the rest of the setup is ready, or just leave it at the meta values

SUSPENSION:
General points:
- this is a very broad section, the things you can adjust here will have an effect on how responsive the car is, how it handles bumps and how much tyre wear you've got
- rear suspension and ARB(anti-roll bar) will often be set to 1, always set to a lower value than the front versions of these parts. That is because in F1 22 traction
and overall rear stability is crucial

Suspension:
- will impact how stiff the car feels overall and how well it performs over kurbs and bumps
- stiff(high values) suspension will make it feel twitchy but more responsive
- softer suspension(low values) helps with stability under acceleration(probably more applicable to the rear)
- in F1 22 the trend is to run higher front suspension with lower rear suspension(values, not actual height lol). That allows front of the car to be more responsive
while the rear stays planted which helps with traction
- too stiff of a suspension will cause excessive tyre wear

Anti-roll bars:
- this element determines how much the car's body will roll when turning(bodyroll), the softer the more bodyroll you have
- IMPORTANT: each element affects the balance of front/rear separately(11-1 is the most understeery version, 1-11 is the most oversteery version but 11-11 isn't just "balanced",
it actually makes the front as understeery as the anti-roll bar can at the same time making the rear the most oversteery its anti-roll bar can make it)

Front anti-roll bar:
- the stiffer this is the more responsive front you will have because the car will reach the point at which it "leans" on the tyre quicker
- that means it will actually increase the understeer. Because there is less bodyroll there is less grip at the front so in longer corners you will start suffering from less grip
compared to a softer front ARB
- in short: softer(decreasing) -> more front grip, more oversteer, more sluggish("like a boat" feeling) at the first stage of turning
- stiffer(increasing) -> more outright responsiveness, less grip at the front hence more understeer
Rear anti-roll bar:
- I can't explain this logically, but it impacts the balance of the car in the opposite way to the front, so:
- softer(decreasing) -> more understeer, a more "planted" rear which might help accelerating out of corners
- stiffer(increasing) -> significantly less stability when accelerating out of corners when still turning(I like oversteer so increasing this appeals to me but apply this carefully),
more rear rotation, oversteer but coming from the back rather than the front

Ride height:
- the most important thing about ride height is to make sure you're not bottoming out because that limits your top speed and downforce. Bottoming out means dragging the floor on
asphalt, or hitting kerbs/bumps which can be recognized by a sudden and violent spin when going over aforementioned regular irregularities
- a few sparks are okay, but if you start seeing them 20 kph before reaching your top speed, you sure are bottoming out heavily on the straight
- bottoming out is affected but softness of suspension(the setting in Suspension tab) of course test that yourself, but e.g. on Baku's main straight with ride height 1-1 and
suspension 1-1(softest) I was able to hit 344kph in a realistic Ferrari. Changing suspension to 11-11(firmest/hardest) resulted in a top speed of 348kph, while still bottoming out
it significantly mitigated the issue
- as evident from the example above, bottoming out is affected by more than just ride height, even on the straights. Probably even wings will have an effect on that, suffice to say,
if you want to be on the limit you have to test this stuff for your own setups
- figuring this out took some time and confusion but this is what I found out about ride height and its relation to top speed:
1. the higher your ride height is "overall" the lower the top speed i.e. 11-11 will be slower than 6-6 in a straight line(and provide less downforce)
2. top speed is affected by the front-rear height balance, the more front ride height you will set compared to the rear the better top speed you will get
(e.g. 3-5 will be slower than 5-3)
- the lower you set your OVERALL ride height the more downforce and top speed you will have as long as you're not bottoming out
- where you get downforce is dependent on which part you lower. Lowering front ride will give you more front downforce(more oversteery balance) while lowering the rear ride will
grant you more rear downforce(more understeer)
- because you generally want to run ride height as low as possible I'd advise that if you're on, say, Baku with 10-2 ride height and find that you don't like the lack of front downforce,
instead of increasing the rear ride to change the balance you should decrease the front. You will lose a little bit of top speed in both cases, but only the latter increases the
(front) downforce rather than decreasing the (rear) downforce

Front ride height:
- the lower it is the more downforce you get at the front -> more oversteer-y balance + soft front suspension will have less of an effect
- the higher this is compared to the rear the more top speed you get(i.e. if you go from 3-5 to 4-8 you lose top speed because you only gain it when lifting the front more than the rear)

Rear ride height:
- lower means more downforce at the rear -> more understeer + soft rear suspension will have less of an effect
- increasing this means losing downforce and top speed(not by much but still), generally advised to keep it as low as you dare, just off the kerbs

TYRES:
- I made an Excel file with temperatures and a bunch of other data pulled straight from the game's tyrecompound.erp file, it took a lot of time and sanity(and wouldn't be possible
without @ActuallyImJulie) but this will be your main decider on tyre pressures
link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/191BF5Afi6AAyJ-796sMIlogUvu40FtEM/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=111051482489922227625&rtpof=true&sd=true
Edit: @taattor uploaded his and @Mikulitsi graph of relative %grip performance for all slick tyres and a list of which compounds appear on which track, so I added the same type of graph to my Excel so it's all in one place if you want it(on the max right side)
- increasing pressure: higher temperatures, slightly better top speed
- decreasing pressure: lower temperatures, theoretically more grip. I personally sometimes can and sometimes can't feel the difference but it seems to be common to run slightly
lower front pressures so I guess you can go with that

Edit: @taattor uploaded his and @Mikulitsi graph of relative %grip performance for all slick tyres and a list of which compounds appear on which track, so I added the same type of graph to my Excel so it's all in one place if you want it(on the max right side)

- @ActuallyImJulie made a huge discovery. In the tyrecompounds.erp file every tyre's characteristics start with defining "Peaks" at different "loads". What AIJ realized
is that these must define the grip in low load and high load corners. So Peak is probably default pressures in the middle, PeakMin is the lowest pressures and
PeakMax is the highest pressures
- continuing from the previous point, PeakMin has the highest values at lower loads while about midway through PeakMax takes over building up an advantage over both
the other Peaks, conclusion is simple:
if you've ever heard "low pressures = more grip, high pressures = more responsiveness" and were confused, forget it. Lower pressures -> better low load grip(slow
corners), higher pressures -> better high load grip(high speed corners). The biggest difference between Peak and PeakMax I found was just above 1% more grip but I did not look through all cases, even just that 1% is worth fighting for even though it doesn't seem like a lot
- continuing from the previous point FURTHER some tracks with high-load corners are circuits like Silverstone, Spa, Austria. Some example of low-load focused tracks
could be Monaco, Azerbaijan, Singapore
- increasing pressure: higher temperatures, slightly better top speed, better high-load corners grip but worse low-load grip
- decreasing pressure: lower temperatures, better low-load corners grip but worse high-load grip

FINAL COMMENTS REGARDING SETUPS:
Here I wanted to say that a Time Trial setup and a race setup can be different things. What will work for you in a race as well as on TT might not necessarily be the
same thing that works for the fastest TT times. Tyre temperatures are an obvious difference between a TT and a race setup. You might also want to increase your wings,
because the cars are heavier since you have way more fuel. Another topic is consistency, it doesn't matter that you can put the fastest lap ever on your "lowest wings +
unstable suspension" setup if the next 5 laps you will lose many tenths trying to catch your car snapping from half the corners

An example Nuvolarix gave me for this is that he found 22-18 wings to be the best for a Time Trial around Australia. But once he tested various settings in Grand Prix
mode he found that for an actual race he was much happier with 25-19 or 26-20 wings, quite a drastic change, isn't it? You might like it on some tracks, maybe not on others,
just test what feels right for you and seems to make those overtakes easier

f1 22