Pad problems

Ever since the beginning of the game, I, along with other pad players, have noticed that wheel players have a significant advantage.

Initially, I observed a clear advantage in slow corners, where, due to their much faster and smoother movement, they are able to rotate the car more quickly and get back on the throttle much sooner.

As for the pad, it has fluidity issues, since its inputs are jerky, no matter what steering or rotation speed is used.

Moreover, the pad suffers from noticeable mid-corner understeer compared to the wheel: because of this understeer, pad players can’t rotate the car as quickly as wheel players.

Additionally, since pad players rotate the car much more slowly, they can’t get on the throttle as early, which also affects traction.

Because of slow corners alone, pad players lose around 3 tenths just in those sections.

On top of that, a few weeks ago I noticed—thanks to a friend of mine and teammate in my esports team—that the pad has about 20% more tire degradation compared to the wheel during a race.

Even today, while watching a race from the RRS competition, I saw my friend on mediums only manage 7 laps, while another wheel player managed to do 11 laps and won the race because of it.

He even managed to get more laps out of the hard compound, while my teammate suffered a puncture despite doing fewer laps and managing almost every stint carefully.

There doesn’t seem to be any way to fix the tire degradation issue while still staying competitive, nor does there appear to be a solution to reduce the understeer.

I’m writing this long message to let the EA developers know that the pad situation needs to be improved.

Many people are losing their patience with being at such a disadvantage compared to wheel players—and honestly, I’m one of them.

I’m also very tired of this situation because both in F1 23, and especially in F1 24, I was one of the fastest pad players in the community, often beating wheel users who are now much quicker.

Please, EA, fix these pad-related issues—they’re ruining a game that is otherwise clearly better than its predecessor.

bug

technical issues

65 Comments

Centurio909
Seasoned Novice
2 months ago
Just had the feeling to comment again on this.

Yesterdy i had an Monza inter to dry race. 11 Laps on the Inter my wheel mates in the Party had 60% wear. I was on 81% and caught an puncture in 2nd lesmo... Normally the Wheel Users would use the argument that the Pad is stronger in the wet. It is, but at what cost when you will ultimately puncture your tires couple laps before the Wheel users even reach 70%
zwx4m68hesb1
New Spectator
2 months ago
Yeah, I totally get what you mean. Controller balance really makes or breaks the experience. I’ve noticed similar issues in other driving games too — for example, when playing Bus Simulator Indonesia, even small input differences can change how naturally the bus handles corners or traffic. It’s all about smooth control and consistency. Hopefully, EA looks into fixing this soon because it’s tough when hardware decides performance more than skill.
FMassa88
New Veteran
2 months ago
when will be fix for controler players ?
Blackbird90
2 months ago
Just had the feeling to comment again on this.
Add me on steam or ea friend me, well test it together.
mantazzoLTU
Rising Scout
2 months ago
I think nobody is really asking for pad driving to be as fast as wheel driving. Heck, I'd say the closest we had was F1 23, and even then the wheel was faster, though by a small margin. (I'd even say I still prefer 23's handling on pad, 24 was rough but at least the front end was sharp and 25 is... not as good as 23, almost like there is some sort of artificial delay to controls... maybe it's just me though with "skill issues".)
I think people just want to stay competitive enough by driving with a pad. They can try to somehow compensate a lack of speed, but when you just have traction discrepancies, (major) tyre wear differences and some other things as well (as it seems), it's hard to even try to stay competitive with a pad no matter what.
And not everybody can just have a wheel, or even drive fast with one. Heck, I have a wheel, but I don't have enough space for it to use it all the time, so it's sitting in a box waiting for better days - for me, a guy who now races casually but enjoys some competition, driving with a pad is just faster and easier.

Ideas

Pad problems