The bike handling on MotoGP 23 is very different to the ’22 game, and is taking players a LOT of time to get used to. Even more experienced players of the MotoGP games are finding their lap times up to a few seconds off their MotoGP 22 times.

And one common complaint is understeer, where the bike is constantly running wide out of corners, as they try to put the power down on corner exit. It’s pushing the bike wide and massively hindering lap times as you’ve to wait forever to get fully back on the accelerator without running off the track.

There are a couple of fixes for this understeer. Firstly, getting used to the very different handling on MotoGP 23 does require a lot of time and practice to get the muscle memory of previous games (especially the very different ’22 edition) out of your system. Second, it’s not recommended to use the default game setting for MotoGP class bikes especially, and there are some bike setup changes you can make to reduce this annoying understeer that often appears on corner exit.

Let’s cover this second option in more detail, as it’s the most important tweak to make.

MotoGP Class Bike Setup To Reduce Understeer

If you’re really getting annoyed by the bike running wide when trying exit the corners, try modifying your bike setup to these parameters to reduce the understeer:

• Suspension (Front Fork):
  • • Front pre-load – 2
    • Oil Quantity – 3
    • Front Spring Hardness – 4
    • Front Swingarm compression – 3
    • Front Swingarm extension – 3
• Rear Single Shock Absorber:
  • • Rear Pre-load – 4
    • Swingarm connector – 3
    • Rear spring hardness – 2
    • Single shock absorber compression – 3
    • Single shock absorber extension – 3
• Vehicle Geometry:
  • • Steering head inclination – 4
    • Trail – 4
    • Steering plate position – 3
    • Rear swingarm length – 5
• Transmission:
  • • Gears (1-6) – 5-5-4-4-4-3
    • Final ratio – 3
    • Slipper clutch – 3
• Brakes:
  • • Front disc – 340 High mass or 355 mm
    • Rear disc – 220mm
• ECU
  • • Traction control – 5
    • Engine braking – 4
    • Anti-wheelie – 5
    • Power mapping – 2

I’ve made my own tweaks for personal preference (gear settings, brake discs and ECU settings are largely down to personal choice so test and adjust to your own preference).

Test versus the game default setup and see if it allows you to get on the accelerator sooner without running too wide coming out of corners. Once you do manage do get rid of this annoying understeer, it does make MotoGP a much more fun game to play.

You can also go even further with the Guided Setup feature to reduce understeer even more, but I found this can start affecting other aspects of the handling.

For Moto2 and Moto3 class bikes, see our starter setups page for ’23 for starter setups for these bikes that are also easier to ride and can reduce understeer, though it’s a little bit less of a problem on these bikes as they don’t deliver as much power as the MotoGP class bikes.

ECU Settings To Reduce Understeer

For the MotoGP 23 game, I’ve also noticed that the Traction Control (TCS) setting on your Electronics/ECU dash also massively affects understeer out of corners.

Settings a TCS value too low I’ve found causes the bike to push wide when applying the throttle out of certain corners. Increasing your TCS setting to 5 helps massively reduce this understeer effect on corner exit.

You can set your TCS value from the Bike setup menu and also on the fly during races using your D-Pad to scroll and adjust the ECU settings.

Keeping it high definitely helps when learning the game (more advanced players that don’t use assists may be able to lower it).