I'm terrible with a wheel

I had same issues before using analog sticks became I thing.  And numb thumb was all the rage from using d-pad.   Was useless when forced to use the stick but before long stick was the way.   Just a matter off getting used to it and muscle memory 

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@Nylink wrote:

@Ultrasonic_77no, I don't find it as fun right now because I'm not as quick. It's just really frustrating at the moment. I've been driving for years in real life, it just doesn't feel the same in a game for some reason. I can't get the hang of it.

Right now I'm on medium TC (I don't spin out with it) and auto gears because I can't drive properly in the first place lol. My whole reason to switch to wheel is to stop using autogears and tc.

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First up a week sounds like nothing to me although it will depend how many hours per day we're talking. I'd suggest you switch to manual gears right now personally. You're already slower than you'd like so may as well bite the bullet and learn this while you're at it. Assuming you drive a manual car in real life you likely won't find it takes too long to get the hang of this, although it may feel a little overwhelming when you very first try. It may be obvious but get used to thinking how many gears you need to go down as you approach each corner, and then count the gear change lever pulls (e.g. going from 8 th to 4 th I'm thinking four clicks down on the gear change lever as I approach the corner). Manually controlling gears will allow you to short-shift, and make it much easier to then transition from medium TC to off. 

Personally I find the physical activity of driving with a wheel, pedals and also manually changing gears greatly adds to the immersion (sense of driving a real car vs a toy/game). The downside is that sometimes when I'm tired after work I don't feel up to playing in the way I probably would if I used a controller.

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@Nylink wrote:

@Ultrasonic_77no, I don't find it as fun right now because I'm not as quick. It's just really frustrating at the moment. I've been driving for years in real life, it just doesn't feel the same in a game for some reason. I can't get the hang of it.

Right now I'm on medium TC (I don't spin out with it) and auto gears because I can't drive properly in the first place lol. My whole reason to switch to wheel is to stop using autogears and tc.

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First up a week sounds like nothing to me although it will depend how many hours per day we're talking. I'd suggest you switch to manual gears right now personally. You're already slower than you'd like so may as well bite the bullet and learn this while you're at it. Assuming you drive a manual car in real life you likely won't find it takes too long to get the hang of this, although it may feel a little overwhelming when you very first try. It may be obvious but get used to thinking how many gears you need to go down as you approach each corner, and then count the gear change lever pulls (e.g. going from 8 th to 4 th I'm thinking four clicks down on the gear change lever as I approach the corner). Manually controlling gears will allow you to short-shift, and make it much easier to then transition from medium TC to off. 

Personally I find the physical activity of driving with a wheel, pedals and also manually changing gears greatly adds to the immersion (sense of driving a real car vs a toy/game). The downside is that sometimes when I'm tired after work I often don't feel up to playing in the way I probably would if I used a controller.

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@Nylink wrote:

@Ultrasonic_77no, I don't find it as fun right now because I'm not as quick. It's just really frustrating at the moment. I've been driving for years in real life, it just doesn't feel the same in a game for some reason. I can't get the hang of it.

Right now I'm on medium TC (I don't spin out with it) and auto gears because I can't drive properly in the first place lol. My whole reason to switch to wheel is to stop using autogears and tc.

@mariohomohit's been about a week. I thought I would pick it up faster than I have so that's probably why I feel so frustrated. I think I'm honestly worse than when I started using the wheel. I play on PC, and I have a lot of other sims that I want to play that I haven't because they suck with controller. That's the main draw for me to these F1 games, since I can use a controller and have fun with it.

@Bauersomeyeah, the stand I bought allows me to adjust for my liking, which I think I have nailed at this point. I don't know if my wheel is acting right or that I set it up correctly because I find it super sensitive, which makes me twitchy when using it.

Tried the wheel again today and dropped it for my controller in Canada, I don't want this wheel to go to waste..

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Like you've I've made the switch to wheel from a pad and after 8 weeks on and off due to holidays and work commitments I'm only just reaching the same speed I did with a pad. Unfortunately a week is not enough to gain the confidence and muscle memory to adjust to the technique of trailbraking and wheel turning speed. I was worse with the wheel for a few weeks as I was constantly adjusting calibration etc because I thought that would help. You probably should sort out your calibration and the learn with those settings, no matter how fast or slow you feel. 

Regarding that wheel and pedals, Logitech use a weird system to make the brake seem like it's a progressive brake but it ends up being way too stiff and you may find that this is also impacting on your times. There are a few mods out there to help if you find it too stiff. I have modded mine, originally with a 3D printed part to make it and since then I've changed the spring completely. Even doing that I was slower when I did the last mod because I had to retrain my muscle memory.

It all takes time, patience and acceptance that it'll take time that it'll get up to speed. 

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@Nylink wrote:

@Ultrasonic_77no, I don't find it as fun right now because I'm not as quick. It's just really frustrating at the moment. I've been driving for years in real life, it just doesn't feel the same in a game for some reason. I can't get the hang of it.

Right now I'm on medium TC (I don't spin out with it) and auto gears because I can't drive properly in the first place lol. My whole reason to switch to wheel is to stop using autogears and tc.

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There are many reasons as to why your experience in driving doesn't translate in the game experience. The primary one has to do with the fact that in a real car you feel what the car is doing more by lower back sensations and g-forces than by the steering wheel, however in a sim racing game - where such sensations cannot be replicated, at least not with usual consumer hardware - you have to teach your brain to develop those same sensations through the feedback given by the steering wheel. It takes time to do so, it's not a matter of days nor of weeks. Just like every other activity in which you brain has to develop the necessary links by repetition. 

The other reasons can be tied specifically to how you play. The more dissimilar the experience is from real life and the more it will take for you to adapt. For this many experienced drivers, for example, like to play in VR, as the latter mimics real life much better than a 2D screen would. If you use pod camera, then, you will feel even more detached from what it happens in real life, as the field of view and how you approach corners etc. will be completely different.

With a pad the brain skills you developed are totally different from the ones you use in driving a car. You cannot use those skills to drive a car as you cannot driving in a sim using a racing wheel. For this it takes so long for you, because you practically have to start from the beginning and approach the game in a completely different way. You cannot translate all the experience you accumulated with the pad to the wheel, and linking your driving experience to sim racing will take some time. If you only care about lap timing then you either stick with the pad or you take for granted that for at least 6 months you will be slower with a wheel (but later you will actually become faster).