The good news is that the F1 23 game is widely regarded as a much better game than it’s predecessor F1 22. But as with all F1 games, there’s still a learning curve and not many players will find themselves being quick immediately playing the game “out the box”.

The handing is quite different to other recent F1 games and takes some getting used to. As a result, you might find yourself a little bit slow in relative terms playing the game early on. How can you get faster on F1 23?

That’s what we’re going to cover in this guide, offering some simple general tips to get faster on F1 23. A lot of the tips are geared towards newer F1 gamers, but there’s some car setup and controller calibration tips that can be useful to all players to get quicker on F1 23, plus a video with some more advanced tips at the end.

Let’s get started with some things you can try to get faster on this year’s game.

Tip #1 – Don’t Use Full Traction Control

Most established F1 players already know this, but if you’re new to the games and still using the Full Traction Control (TC) assist, know that it’s really slowing you down. Full TC really bogs down the revs coming out of corners, and will make you a lot slower than players using Medium or no TC. This will be even more noticeable on tracks with a lot of slow corners.

You can adjust the traction control from the Assists menu from the Pause menu or main menu. Traction is really easy on F1 23, so there’s never been an easier game since 2017 to successfully shift down from Full TC to Medium TC.

You just need the make sure the car is pointing somewhat straight out of a corner, and from there you can pretty much smash on full throttle out of corners when using Medium TC. Full TC requires a bit more care and throttle modulation, but is still very easy on this year’s game versus previous games.

Tip #2 – Space Your Wings For Optimal Traction Out Of Corners

Carrying on with the traction issue, it’s clear to me that on this year’s game, a HUGE amount of lap time gains come from getting a smooth exit out of corners, without wheelspin.

Of course, this is true on all F1 games, but watching deltas it’s especially noticeable on F1 23 how much time you gain on corner exit when your throttle application and exit is smooth.

Being analytical about this, it’s about getting the optimal amount of turn in to corners – not too much, but not too little either. This allows you to get the car pointing straight and not twisted out of corners, so you can get back on the throttle smoothly.

Taking this back a step further, the key setting you need to nail for this is wing spacing. Space your wings apart for an optimal level of turn-in for corners, so you can get back on the throttle as quickly and smoothly as possible on corner exit.

You’re needing to find a happy medium between two extremes:

• Too much turn in (oversteer) – Car over-rotates and means you can’t get back on the traction without wheelspin.
• Too little turn in (understeer) – Car doesn’t rotate enough and it takes too long to get back on the throttle out of corners.

This will be different depending on input device, controller settings, personal preference and driving style. Pad handling is also very sensitive out the box on F1 23 and can lead to over-rotation, but here’s what works for me using a controller:

• Dry conditions – space the rear wing 2 clicks above the front wing for optimal turn in.
• Wet conditions – Space the rear wing 3 clicks above the front wing for optimal turn in.
• On Throttle Diff – Start with 50 for easiest traction and adjust as you gain experience
• Off Throttle Diff – Start with 55 and lower as needed once you get used to the handling.

And then some ideal controller settings to get started with, and tweak to your preference, if you’re finding the handling too nervous and twitchy:

• Increase Steering Deadzone from 0 to 10
• Increase Steering Linearity from 0 to 10
• Also increase throttle linearity from 0 to 10 (traction is much easier this year, but I still wanted a bit more control out of corner)

Tip #3 – Use A Custom Car Setup

As well as using custom wing spacing, it’s generally better to use a custom car setup overall as well. It does vary in terms of the advantage it gives you versus using a default of “preset” setup – on some tracks it might only a be a few tenths advantage. On other tracks though, it can improve your pace by 0.5 to 1 seconds using a custom setup, which is a big advantage.

Also, as a general rule, using lower wing levels is proving to work better in races on many tracks on F1 23, with the overpowered speed on the straights and very powerful ERS/DRS/slipstream effect. Using a balanced default setup won’t give you enough straight line speed to properly attack/defend on many tracks on this game. It’s better to use custom setups.

See our generic car setup article with starting setups for different track types, plus links to customised car race setups for pad users for every single track on the F1 23 game. There are also lots of other setup resources online we link to, so you can find a setup style that suits you, since there’s a a huge variety in setups and driving styles among players.

Using a custom car setup also allows you set your tyre pressures appropriately on a track by track basis to avoid overheating, which is a HUGE problem on F1 23 and will cost you a lot of time. Keep pressures on the lower side on most tracks to avoid over-heating. Our custom setups provide good pressures to use for all tracks.

Tip #4 – Use Manual Gears

This is another assist that can gain you a lot of time if you turn it off. I haven’t managed to do this yet – I’ve always used automatic gears. But I’ll freely admit it hinders your pace and learning to use manual gears gains you quite a lot of lap time.

The pace advantage can come from upshifts, where you can move up through the gears manually to control wheel-spin for better traction out of certain corners.

But also downshifts or lack of them when using manual gears. When on auto, the gears will often shift up unnecessarily in higher gears, which you have greater control of on manual gears. There’s often no need to shift to 8th gear at the end of some straights – it’s better to stay in 7th and you can control this better on manual gears.

Tip #5 – Switch To Using A Wheel

This is kind of a cheat tip, since a lot of readers want to stay on a pad like I have. But like turning off some or all assists, it’s another step up you can take that will give you a huge pace advantage if you put the hours in and are prepared to take one step back to take two or three steps forward in time.

Although if you’re a pad user and switch to using wheel, you’ll be slower to begin with, once you get used to it, you’ll usually be faster in the long run.

Some advantages of using a wheel include:

• Being able to control the steering and throttle more much more precision and nuance
• Making it easier to control traction and move to No traction control
• Making it easier to use manual gears (shift paddles)
• Allowing you to run MUCH more aggressive and faster over one lap car setups versus pad users, with the rear wing much lower than the front wing (I find this impossible using a pad).

See our article on using a wheel for F1 23 for more on these benefits, plus some wheel suggestions.

Tip #6 – Practice & Be Patient

Finally, a more over-arching point to get faster on any of the F1 games is just to practice. The F1 games in general are about developing muscle memory through repetition, consistency and patience.

For newer players though, the handling can be intimidating, so I advise building up confidence in stages.

Find controller calibration settings and car setups that allow you to drive comfortably and confidently with a stable feel, and then build up pace and try slightly more aggressive setups as your confidence with the handling grows.

But it’s always going to require lots of practice to get good at anything, and it’s the same with the F1 games. The good news is that in relative terms, the F1 23 game is actually one of the easier ones to get used to, so it’s a great game for newcomers to gain the experience and confidence they need.

Here’s some other tips on how to practice to get better.

• When on Time Trial, don’t restart laps where you invalidate – keep going to keep building that muscle memory on that particular track (where to brake, where to turn, where you can carry more speed, etc).
• Another Time Trial tactic is to leave rival ghosts on if you can stand it (I hate this myself) and keep selecting rival laps that are just a bit faster than the best time you can manage. And just observe which corners they are faster on so you know where you can find time.
• Race in online lobbies with drivers a little bit faster than you. When playing against better players, you can’t help but learn from them and see where they’re faster and how to drive certain tracks.
• Watch F1 YouTubers online to see how they race, how consistent they are, setups they use, etc. Again, by watching fast players, you’ll soak up info on how to get faster yourself. I learned most of my skills from this channel, but there’s many others as well (here’s another good channel).

See also the good video below for some more suggestions on getting faster on F1 23:

There’s some neat little tips in this video for more advanced players who already have some speed but want to increase marginal gains, as well as for new players.

Here’s some extra tips given in the video that are different from, or expand upon, the tips I’ve given in the post:

1. Spend some time getting your controller calibration and camera settings optimal for how you like them (already covered this in some of my points, but it’s really important to experiment to see what works for you).
2. Learn Trail-braking – this will provide more gains if you turn off the ABS assist, but it’s where you learn to go full on the brake into a corner, and gradually ease off the brake as you turn into the corner (a slightly more refined braking method versus the standard brake—–come off brake—-turn into corner—hit apex—back on throttle method). Gains you lap time when mastered as it allows you to carry move speed through corners.
3. Stay in lower gears – There’s isn’t as much need to short shift into higher gears so quickly on F1 23 as there was in previous games like F1 22. You can stay in lower gears and still have good traction and speed out of corners. Short shifting can still help in the wet, but in the dry lower gears work much better on this year’s game.
4. ERS Usage – Be very patient and sparing with the Energy Recovery System (ERS) or battery boost. It’s very powerful and massively increases your acceleration, but also runs out very quickly. Whilst it’s tempting to blow it all early on in the first few laps, it’s very hard to recoup in default cars and you’ll generally have a better overall race time if you save if for when it’s really needed and for the last few laps of a race (see here for our guide on ERS usage).
5. No Assists – We’ve already covered turning off some assists, but this video recommends moving towards using no assists at all and turning them all off (recommended order to remove assists is turn off traction control first, then learn driving with no ABS, then manual gears, then turn racing line off).
6. Quality vs Quantity – Sometimes, less is more when practicing on these games. It’s not advised to spend hours and hours at a time grinding away on F1 23 trying to get faster (I totally agree with this – I remember a friend who on release day of one of the older F1 games played it literally non stop from 8am when it dropped through his door, to 2am the next morning, just getting more and more wound up. That’s not the way to get good at these games). Instead, it’s better to practice in smaller chunks, taking 1-2 hours at a time, then coming off it to reset your muscle memory, and come back fresh later or the next day.