Like most of the players, I’m really liking the F1 23 game and see it as a massive improvement on it’s predecessor in many aspects, especially the handling and AI.
That said, the handling isn’t always plain sailing out the box on a controller especially, and can feel a bit overly nervous and sensitive with the default settings and setups. It’s great once you get used to it, but the getting used to it can take a bit of time.
Also, a lot of the custom setups being posted online are more for wheel users than pad users, and the two devices are massively different in terms of the nuance of the inputs. Therefore, for me at least, I didn’t find a lot of these setups useful on a controller, with too much oversteer built into them. You can use them as a baseline, but I find that the car setups need a bit of tweaking on a pad, at least when getting used to the game.
Therefore in this guide, I’m going to provide some baseline template car setups for pad users that should act as a good starting point to get used to the new handling and drive with confidence. The key car setup change is the early stages for pad users is to set the rear wing ABOVE the front wing for better stability and the optimal amount of turn in (not too little but not too much either).
Let’s look at this, plus some more, setup and handling tweaks pad users can make, plus resources for usable car setups for all tracks, plus for all types of tracks (generic setups).
Note – this articles covers F1 car setups. If you’re looking for setups for the F2 cars, I’ve got those in a separate guide here.
Baseline Setups For Every Track (Plus Pad Handling Tweaks)
A fantastic resources for car setups in general to use for the F1 games is the Simracingsetups YouTube channel, who always posts car setups for each F1 game for every track.
However, these setups are built for a wheel user, not a pad user, so they need a tweak which we’ll cover below.
See the video below for a summary guide – template car setups for all tracks on F1 23:
CAR SETUPS – ALL TRACKS IN ORDER:
Use these setups as a good baseline/template, but set the rear wing higher than the front wing for controller users. 2 clicks higher is a good baseline I use, but some tracks 1 click higher or 3 clicks higher can also work better.
Here’s some more general car setup and controller tweaks to use as a template:
- Wings – Set rear wing 2 clicks higher than the front on all tracks as a baseline on a controller, and tweak from there.
- On Throttle Diff – 50 all tracks
- Off Throttle Diff – 55 all tracks
- Throttle Deadzone – 10
- Steering Linearity – 10
- Steering Deadzone – 10
You can adjust the deadzone/linearity settings under the Pause menu (Settings….Controllers….Select Scheme…..Edit……Calibration)
Start with these, and adjust to your own preference. This provides the best traction, and also a good level of turn in, but not too much, when starting out on the game with a pad.
Whilst you can set the rear wing LOWER than the front like a lot of setups are doing, I just find this isn’t workable on a controller. There’s too much oversteer and nervousness, and I can’t get back on the traction with confidence. I want more stability and easier traction out of corners, especially when tyres start to wear in longer races (a lot of setups optimize for single lap time trial pace, not for longer races)
Quick Setups For Different Types Of Track
Users can either use other setups or create their own for every track based on preference, but in a lot cases this isn’t even necessary if you aren’t taking the game super serious. It might be better to have generic setups for different track types, that work well enough, without having a unique setup for every track.
Here’s some suggested setup templates for pad users for some broad track types on F1 23:
LOWEST DOWNFORCE TRACKS (MONZA, BAKU, LAS VEGAS):
- Wings – Front 10/Rear 12
- Diff – 50/55
- Camber – RRLL
- Suspension – 25-10-10-1-33-36
- Brakes – 100/55
- Tyres – 24.1 front/21.3 rear (move down 5 clicks for Baku)
LOW-MEDIUM DOWNFORCE (AUSTRIA, BELGIUM, MIAMI, FRANCE)
- Wings – Front 18/Rear 20
- Diff – 50/55
- Camber – RRLL
- Suspension – 30-10-10-1-35-38
- Brakes – 100/55
- Tyres – 22.7 front/20.3 rear (move to minimum for France)
MEDIUM DOWNFORCE TRACKS (SAUDI ARABIA, AUSTRALIA, IMOLA, CANADA, GREAT BRITAIN, JAPAN, MEXICO, BRAZIL, ABU DHABI, CHINA, PORTUGAL):
- Wings – 26/28
- Diff – 50/55
- Camber – RRLL
- Suspension – 28-8-8-1-33-36
- Brakes – 100/55
- Tyres – 22.7/20.4
HIGH DOWNFORCE TRACKS (BAHRAIN, SPAIN, QATAR, TEXAS, ZANDVOORT)
- Wings – 36/38
- Diff – 50/55
- Camber – RRLL
- Suspension – 20-10-10-1-37-40
- Brakes – 100/55
- Tyres – 22.5/20.3
MAXIMUM DOWNFORCE TRACKS (MONACO, HUNGARY, SINGAPORE)
- Wings – 48/50
- Diff – 50/55
- Camber – RRLL
- Suspension – 20-8-8-2-36-39
- Brakes – 100/55
- Tyres – Minimum or close to it front & rear
(For me at least, Zandvoort is a tricky circuit, and stuck between a High and Max downforce track, so you might need to experiment with different templates here)
INTERMEDIATE CONDITIONS:
Load a dry setup for a track and:
- Add 2-3 clicks on the wings
- Space the rear wing 3 clicks above the front for better stability
- Lower On Throttle Diff to 50
- Soften suspension a few clicks.
FULL WET CONDITIONS:
Load a dry setup for the track and:
- Increase wings 3-5 clicks
- Space the rear wing 3 clicks above the front for better stability
- Increase ride height 2-3 clicks
- Soften suspension 2-3 clicks
- Reduce On Throttle Diff to 50
- Reduce Tyre Pressures a few clicks
See our article on converting dry setups to wet setups for more on this.
These settings might not be perfect for every single track, but they should be a good enough baseline if you don’t want to be messing around creating custom setups for every single track. Just save 5 or 6 generic templates, and pick one according to the downforce level needed at the track, and then adjust wings as needed.
But for pad users, I’d always keep the rear wing 2 clicks above the front for stability, until well into the game’s life cycle and well used to the handling.
Also, be aware that in general, it’s better to run slightly lower wings than are “optimal” in terms of pure lap time, simply because it makes races so much easier, for reasons we explain in this article.
Individual Race Setups For All F1 23 Circuits
If you are wanting more specialized and specific race setups for all tracks on the game, we’ve added specific race setups for pad users on this site for F1 23.
Note that these are not top notch blistering one lap pace setups; they’re designed more to be stable and easy to drive on a controller in a race, whilst being reasonably fast. I can compete and win races with these setups on 90-95 AI level in career mode, which is decent.
Click on the links to view custom race setups (wet & dry) for pad users for all tracks in order:
- Bahrain
- Saudi Arabia
- Australia
- Baku
- Miami
- Imola
- Monaco
- Spain
- Canada
- Austria
- Great Britain
- Hungary
- Belgium
- Zandvoort
- Monza
- Singapore (new layout)
- Japan
- Qatar
- Texas
- Mexico
- Brazil
- Las Vegas
- Abu Dhabi
- China
- France
- Portugal
More F1 23 Setup Resources (All Tracks)
For pad users wanting more precision in car setups, and who DO want to create a custom car setup for all tracks, here are some resources to check out:
- Simracingsetups YouTube channel – Fantastic resource, the only one I need to use now as a pad player. Always produces great usable baseline setups for all tracks, which I just tweak the wings and diff levels for, for better stability on a pad.
- F1laps.com – Another car setup forum with pages for every track, and loads of custom setups posted.
- F1gamesetup.com – An even more specialized resource with custom setups, every car and every track, wet and dry weather.
