Playing
Why was my lap time red / not counted?
The lap was invalidated. The reason is shown under the time: Track limits (all four wheels past the white line), Reset (you pressed R), Pit lane, or Wrong way. Only valid laps count towards your best.
I finished first but was classified lower. Why?
Penalties are added to your race time at the finish. The most common is +30 s for not using two tyre compounds in a race of 3 or more laps. You also get +5 s for each track-limits offence after the third warning, and +5 s for speeding into the pit lane. The results screen lists them.
Does the car I pick matter?
No. All cars share the same physics, so the choice is cosmetic. See Cars.
How do I learn a track quickly?
Watch the Autopilot (F2) drive a lap, then hot lap with the ghost on and follow it. The Circuits page has corner-by-corner notes.
The race is too easy / too hard.
Change the AI level (Rookie, Club or Pro) and your Start position in Race setup. For a pure pace challenge, set Opponents to 0 and race the strategy car.
Can the car be damaged?
No. Contact pushes cars apart and can spin them, but nothing breaks.
Is there a slipstream?
No. Overtakes come from better exits and later braking, not from a tow.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Try this |
|---|---|
| My wheel or joystick isn't listed | Plug it in and use Rescan devices in Controls, Sound & Assists, then pick it on the Controller line. |
| The car pulls to one side, or the steering isn't centred | Run Calibrate controller again, or raise the steering deadzone. |
| I can't reach full throttle or full brake | Lower that pedal's saturation. |
| Two devices fight over the car | Set Input mode to your device instead of Auto. |
| The steering feels too twitchy (gamepad) | Raise steering linearity above 1, or lower sensitivity. |
| Low frame rate | Turn off Cockpit mirrors and Mirror strip (about 8% of the frame together), or use a smaller window instead of full screen. |
| No sound | Press F4, because sound may be muted. Check Volume and the Windows volume mixer. |
| Engine sound too shrill | Lower Engine pitch. |
| Too much radio chatter | Set Team radio to Essential or Off. |
| Stuck in the gravel or facing the wrong way | Press R. |
| The HUD vanished | Press H. |
| The screen froze but the game didn't | You pressed Space (freeze frame). Press it again. |
| The car is driving itself | Autopilot is on. Press F2. |
| The game pauses when a race starts | It's loading the car models, which takes about 10 s for a full field the first time. |
| The game won't start | Update your graphics driver. The game needs OpenGL 3.3. The log file f1sim.log (see below) records what went wrong. |
Files, screenshots & replays
The installed game keeps all its personal files in one folder: %APPDATA%\F1Sim. To open it, type that into File Explorer's address bar.
| File | What it is |
|---|---|
settings.cfg | All your settings and controller calibration. Delete it to go back to the defaults. |
screenshot000.png, … | Screenshots, taken with F12. Use Space (freeze frame) and H (hide the HUD) to set up the shot first. |
logs\session-<date>-<time>.f1log | A recording of every drive. The newest 30 are kept. |
f1sim.log | A technical log of the last run, which is useful if something goes wrong. |
The game itself is installed in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\F1 Simulator. To uninstall, use Settings → Apps → Installed apps → F1 Simulator. Uninstalling leaves your %APPDATA%\F1Sim folder (settings, screenshots and replays) in place.
Watching a replay
The physics is exact, so a session log replays the drive precisely, AI cars included. There's no replay menu yet. To watch one, start the game from a command prompt with the log file:
"%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\F1 Simulator\f1sim.exe" --replay "%APPDATA%\F1Sim\logs\session-20260926-141500.f1log"
Replace the file name with one from your logs folder. C changes the camera while it plays.
Other start-up options
| Option | Effect |
|---|---|
--track <key> | Start straight into a hot lap: monaco, monza, silverstone, spa or suzuka |
--race <laps> | With --track: start a race instead |
--camera cockpit|tcam|chase | Starting camera |
--fullscreen, --size WxH | Full screen, or a window size (default 1600×900) |
--mute, --no-hud | Start with no sound, or no HUD |
--no-record | Don't record a session log |