Driving Tips

The basics

1. Brake in a straight line, as hard as you can, then ease off as you turn in. An F1 car stops astonishingly quickly from high speed, because downforce presses it into the track. Brake later than you think you should, but release the brake smoothly as you start to steer.
2. Use the brake boards. The 300, 200 and 100 m boards count down to the turn-in point of every major braking zone. Pick a board and brake at it every lap, then brake later, a little at a time.
3. Slow in, fast out. Give up a little entry speed to get the car turned early. Then you can apply full throttle sooner, and the extra exit speed carries all the way down the next straight.
4. Squeeze the throttle; don't stamp on it. In slow corners the rear tyres spin easily. Build up the throttle as you unwind the steering.
5. Downforce grows with speed. Fast corners have more grip than you'd expect, and slow ones have less. Trust the car at high speed, and be gentle below about 150 km/h.
6. Stay on the asphalt. Kerbs have 88% of the grip, grass 50%, and gravel 42%. Clip kerbs lightly, and don't drive across them in the middle of a corner. Two wheels on the grass at speed usually means a spin.
7. Look ahead. Look for the next apex, not at the car's nose. The chase and T-cam views show more of the track while you're learning.

Learning a circuit

1. Watch it first. Turn on Autopilot (F2) and let the AI drive a lap or two. It follows a good racing line.
2. Hot lap with the ghost on. Follow it, and note where it brakes and where it's on full throttle.
3. Watch the delta. Where it turns red, you're losing time. The sector bars show which part of the lap.
4. Improve one sector at a time. Once you can follow the ghost, try to beat it in a single sector, then the next one.

The Circuits page has corner-by-corner notes for every track.

Assists: when to turn them off

Turn them off in this order:

1. Traction control (T)

Turn it off once you can feed in the throttle smoothly. You'll get more drive out of slow corners, but you have to manage wheelspin yourself. If WHEELSPIN keeps flashing, you're applying throttle too early or too hard.

2. Automatic gearbox (G)

The automatic is quick, so you lose little by keeping it. Manual gives you control of engine braking into slow corners. Shift up at the shift light. The game refuses a downshift that would over-rev the engine, so you can't break it by grabbing too many gears.

3. ABS (B)

Turn it off last. Without it, a locked wheel (the red LOCK-UP warning) stops the car less well and won't steer. Brake hard at first, then release gradually as the car slows, because there's less downforce holding the wheels at low speed.

Brake bias

Brake bias sets how the braking force is split between the front and rear (57% front by default). Change it with [ and ] while driving, or D-pad down/up on a gamepad:

• More forward (]) is stable under braking, but the fronts lock sooner and the car turns in less.
• More rearward ([) makes the car turn in more willingly, but the rear can lock and step out.

Move it half a percent at a time. Many drivers move it rearward for slow hairpins and forward for fast braking zones.

Tips for each controller

Keyboard

Tap the steering keys rather than holding them through a corner. Keep traction control on, because full throttle is the only throttle you have. Lower Keyboard steering speed if the car feels twitchy.

Gamepad

Use the triggers progressively. Half throttle out of a hairpin is often faster than full throttle and spinning. If small stick movements feel too sharp, raise steering linearity above 1 to soften the centre.

Mouse

Small, steady movements. Adjust Mouse recentering so the wheel returns at a speed that suits you.

Wheel and pedals

Calibrate first. If you can't quite reach full brake, lower brake saturation. It's the most precise way to drive, and makes ABS-off braking realistic.

When it goes wrong