Having a racing wheel for sure can bring some benefits when playing the F1 games, but lots of players including myself are still controller users. And a big consideration pad players have when deciding to get a new edition of the F1 games (which are very expensive at launch) is whether it’s fun to drive on a controller. Is F1 23 good to play on a controller? How is it compared to last year’s game?
F1 23 is relatively easy and fun to play on a controller, with easy traction and sharp, responsive steering. There can be a bit of a learning curve to get used to the handling which can be alleviated by finding good controller calibration settings.
In other words, yes, F1 23 is very good to play on a controller. Although views will differ on this, I don’t think there’s been an easier or better game to play on the pad since F1 2017 or possibly F1 2018, with the strong downforce levels and easy to apply traction.
Let’s look at the pad handling on the latest game in more detail to explain why.
The Positives Of The Controller Handling
After the frustrations of ’22, there’s plenty of positives about the general handling on a controller on F1 23. Here are some of the main ones:
Traction – This is a really foundational positive of this year’s handling – traction is very easy on a pad on F1 23, even using only Medium or No Traction Control Assist. On Medium TC, you can still floor full throttle really in second gear out of most corners, and you only have to be slightly more cautious with No TC in the dry at least (a bit more caution needed in the wet). But the traction is much better this year on controller, and getting a good smooth exit out of corners is really important for lap time (getting a good pad setup helps with this).
Responsiveness – The responsiveness and sharpness of the steering on a controller has definitely been increased this year on F1 23. When you move the joystick on a pad, you can feel the in game wheel responding with a sharpness that wasn’t there last year for sure. You can feel it most clearly on left-right or right-left chicanes like Turn 1/2 at Monza, and I find the responsiveness so sharp that it can border on being nervous, that I actually need to modify and tweak the races setups I use to make them more “under-steery” and usable on a pad. When you steer on a pad on F1 23, it definitely responds.
Wet Weather – Another thing I think that feeds off the traction issue. The pad handling does seem quite easy in the wet on F1 23, possibly to the point of being over-powered a little versus the AI and maybe wheel users as well. I’ve noticed I perform more strongly in wet races than dry, and the steering and easy traction combine along with the stable pad setups I use to really make wet weather driving more fun than it’s been for me in several years at least.
Race Starts – Related to the traction issue. It’s much easier to get a good race start on a pad now, with a much more forgiving torque curve. You can nail a good start and make up some serious positions off the start now, which was almost impossible on last year’s game.
General Confidence/Fun – This is just a more general broad thing I’ve noticed myself that’s really a result of all the above factors – I’m actually having fun and enjoying racing with confidence on a pad again on F1 23. In all honestly, I wasn’t on F1 22 and put the game down early. Because of the annoying AI and the difficult traction, it was enough of a challenge just to get to the end of a race without something happening. I almost never moved forward in races; it was just a chore to finish them. On F1 23, I’ve got my confidence in racing back and can actually move forward in races without having to worry about unpredictable handling and stupid AI.
Bottom line – After all the complaints that were received about the difficult handling on F1 22, I think EA/Codemasters have made a conscious decision to make the handling on all devices (including the pad) much easier this year. And I’m not complaining about that one bit. Some might say they’ve gone too far the other way and the traction especially is too easy now, but I think it was the right call to get the fans back on side and enjoying playing again.
After being irritated so much by F1 22, we needed to start having fun again on the F1 games, and making the general pad handing a lot easier was a good move to achieve that.
Is F1 23 Better Than F1 22 On A Controller?
This is a really easy one to answer, since F1 23 is a massive improvement on F1 22 in almost all aspects, and the pad handling is no different.
F1 23 is much easier and more enjoyable to play on a pad than F1 22, with much easier traction and a more linear torque curve where you can apply the throttle earlier and more aggressively and be more confident you know what the car is going to do.
The traction on a pad on F1 22 was so bad for me that I had to actually switch back to using Full Traction Control first the first time in years, having been able to use Medium TC no problem between 2017-2021. The bog-down effect of using the Full TC was painful, but it was my only option as I literally couldn’t use Medium TC and was faster using Full TC despite the revs being so much more limited.
With F1 23, I’m back to using Medium Traction Control no problem, and there was barely any adjustment period needed either. The traction is much more forgiving this year so it’s pretty hard to spin on ’23 even using Medium TC – you have to be really greedy on the throttle and apply it way too soon before the car is pointing straight.
On F1 22, you literally felt like you could spin at any time even applying what you thought was the same throttle in exactly the same way as the last lap. It was frustrating for sure. It’s much better on F1 23; the traction is predictable and you know where you stand.
Tips To Make The Controller Handling Easier
Although it’s great fun when you get used to it, the baseline handling on a pad on F1 23 can feel a little bit twitchy and overly sensitive when you first try it out the box. It did for me, but with making some small settings tweaks and putting in a few hours, I quickly got used to it and started enjoying it.
Here’s some quick tweaks to make using a pad a bit easier out the gate:
Controller Calibration – Bump up your Steering Linearity, Steering Dead-zone and Throttle Dead-zone all up to 10, just to deaden the handling a little bit to take away some of the nervousness and make it easier to get used to the game. In fairness, you can probably get used to it by not even making these changes and just pounding in some hours of practice, but I preferred to reduce the sensitivity of these inputs a little bit when getting started on ’23.
Wings – Try spacing the rear wing ABOVE the front wing (2 clicks for a start) when getting used to using a controller. Wheel/TT setups put the rear wing lower than the front, but I find this is too aggressive with the responsive pad steering, and car over-rotates and stops you getting on the traction smoothly. Rear 2 clicks above the front for me at least provides a decent level of turn in to get started with the game, and also for longer races when traction/grip starts to fade with worn tyres.
Differential – Put the On Throttle Diff down to 50 for easiest traction, and the Off Throttle Diff to 55 for again decent turn in but not too much, when getting used to the game on a controller. Once you get used to it, you can also raise the On Throttle Diff and lower the Off Throttle Diff to optimise for different tracks, but 50/55 is a good baseline to get started with building up confidence on a pad on F1 23.
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