Throttle control

@ajmcspursfanHey fella….

Yes this is a issue…. The new meta that all E-spotters use and limitless and not to mention FRA Elite who holds pretty much all the TT records on Xbox. Use is higher gears in slower corners.

For instance Jarno Opmeer turns 9 & 10 at Bahrain instead off using 2nd gear now uses 4th.

It doesn’t represent real life but it is now the way

Im not that skilled when it comes to racing games so i tend to use automatic gears. Is that going to be a problem with how this years game is? I was wondering if there were set up ideas or something i could alter in the settings

Ah thanks, ill have a look. I didnt fully understand what the set up changes were for but ill try the wheel rotation and see if that helps.

Such a shame its not got more assists for controller players

Can I offer a slightly different approach? 

Sell your children (if you don't have any, your brother/sister, parents, grandparents -order is by personal preference) and buy a quality wheel and pedal set. Reaching a point whereby you are using zero assists is not easy - for the night is dark and full of terrors! .....Sorry about that bit - I lapsed into Game Of Thrones Red Witch mode for a moment!

I guess what I am saying is that it is not cheap, and not easy, but racing knowing you are using zero assists is a real buzz.

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@Lurtz_Uruk-hai wrote:

Can I offer a slightly different approach? 

Sell your children (if you don't have any, your brother/sister, parents, grandparents -order is by personal preference) and buy a quality wheel and pedal set. Reaching a point whereby you are using zero assists is not easy - for the night is dark and full of terrors! .....Sorry about that bit - I lapsed into Game Of Thrones Red Witch mode for a moment!

I guess what I am saying is that it is not cheap, and not easy, but racing knowing you are using zero assists is a real buzz.

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I'm with this one regarding buying a wheel. I was on a pad until July and haven't looked back since getting a wheel. Far more immersive. However, it's quite an outlay, even with the entry level wheels with FFB. But obviously only buy what you need. No point bankrupting yourself and the pad is perfectly fine control method; I've seen fast league racers use pads, so it's perfectly capable.

....And there's nothing to be ashamed of if you still want to use assists.

Going back to your issue with the throttle control and pad, have you tried changing your throttle linearity in the settings? The recommended linearity for starting out is 50 but try upping it 70-80. It means the first 70-80% of depression of the R2 button will allow you to modulate the throttle with a lot of resolution as it makes the throttle curve flatter until it hits the 70/80 mark and then becomes a steep curve till it hits 100. That's how I visualise it in my head at least. It'll likely mean you'll be slower out of corners but you can learn to guage how much you need modulate the throttle out of slow corners. Once you're comfortable, lower linearity by 10. Repeat cycle until you're down to whatever allows you to not lose time but also put the power down in a smooth fashion without spinning.

@ajmcspursfan you're getting views from the full player spectrum here 👌

I don't have much to add, my birds all sing to the same tune. I used to play on a pad back on PS4 and made it to no assists other than ABS on medium back on F1 2019 or 2020, don't remember. On the following title, grip felt much better and I turned off ABS too. This year I got a PS5 and playing with the adaptative triggers made it even more of a joy: having more fun and feeling even more in control. When F1 22 was released, I had already upgraded to a budget wheel (Logitech G923), but still spent some good hours playing with a controller.

A wheel does make it better, but I genuinely think that the triggers on the PS5 still makes throttle application easier.

You've got two great suggestions here, short shifting and throttle linearity.

Short shifting is what Duck is referring to and it helps. Automatic gears was the first assist I turned off back in the day so don't take my word for it, but I think you can still manually upshift even with the assist on? You don't have to do this all the time, mostly on slow corners. Get in wide, brake, turn in and, as the game ceases downshifting it for you, just go about upshifting even before opening up the throttle again. I got cozy with this year's traction relatively quickly, but it definitely has a narrower "safety" window for throttle. It is easy to go overboard and lose the rear. Short shifting will help you a great deal if you can – and it is not at all a workaround; the technique will still see plenty of application if you ever decide to go with manual transmission in the feature and it is way more prevalent in the real sport than a good chunk of the player base believes.

Now throttle linearity that Toto refers to is even more immediately applicable. Just fire up the settings and dial it waaay up, just as he said. It will basically change the throttle application vs button input scale. So if you press the R2 for like 50% of button travel, instead of the game reading that as you opening up the throttle to 50% it will translate to 30%. The difference between 80-100% trigger input will be swift, but at that point you're probably safe to smash the throttle anyway so it is all good.

Pay attention to the calibration screen. On the right you'll see a button prompt to get into a test button mode, and the game will display just how much input it is reading for whatever you're doing with the pad. Set it up so that you can easily and consistently hit around 10-20%, 25-33%, 50% and 80% pedal input and you're good to go. 

Edit: good visualization of throttle application, even though it's from a different game.