The handling on the last F1 22 game was one of it’s huge frustrations for many players, with unreliable, unpredictable, and overly difficult traction for many users. But is it any better on the new F1 23 edition of the game?

We can fork out big bucks for new versions of the game on or near release day, so people understandably want to know whether it’s worth it or not before upgrading. Is the handling any better or easier overall on F1 23?

The handling is overall easier and much improved on F1 23, with significantly easier traction and a more stable car overall. It’s much easier to get used to the handling and get comfortable and confident racing others with the latest edition of the game.

But traction is only one aspect of the overall handling model, so we’ll look at all the different components of the handling in turn on the new F1 23 game, assessing the changes in each versus F1 22 and an overall difficulty assessment.

The Individual Handling Aspects Of F1 23 Analysed

There are multiple different factors that go into the handling model of an F1 game, so let’s look at each element in turn, starting with traction, since this is arguably the most important factor.

Traction – Overall, traction is much easier to control on F1 23 versus F1 22. You can apply much more throttle sooner and more aggressively out of corners and at race starts without wheel spinning or losing control of the car (like happened very often on F1 22). If you were using a certain level of traction assist (Full or Medium) on F1 22, you may with a little practice be able to move back down an assist level, as it’s much easier this year. The traction is also more consistent, with less of this annoying “RNG” effect that we had on F1 22, where if you applied the same amount of throttle at the same place on 2 laps, you’d be OK one lap and spin the next (infuriating indeed). It’s also easier to catch slides and “rescue” the car if you do lose traction a little on F1 23 versus the last game. In other words, traction is overall much more forgiving and player friendly on F1 23, which allows us to drive with more confidence than the last game.

See here for a more detailed video breaking down the more technical aspects of how the traction handling and metrics have been modified in this year’s game to make them more forgiving.

Race starts – Really an offshoot from the traction model, but they’re basically a lot easier. You can pretty much floor it on full throttle from 3rd gear onwards, so it’s much more forgiving on wheel spin and general traction. You can get much better starts than the AI much more consistently on F1 23 than on F1 22 (where I ALWAYS lost multiple places on the start – I don’t think I EVER gained any places on any race start on ’22 – it’s a lot easier this year).

Overall Downforce and Grip – This is a mixed bag. You’re got more downforce in high speed corners on F1 23 than on F1 22, plus more traction. Some corners that required a lift on 22 are now flat on 23. But you’ve got slightly less grip in the low speed corners. Overall, lap times are comparable to F1 22, perhaps slightly slower on F1 23, but in the same ballpark. You’ve got a little bit more understeer in the handling this year in slow corners, so aim to make your setups a bit more pointy on the front end to compensate for this and get the front nose turned in quicker (if you’ve got the opposite problem and find the handling too nervous and sensitive to begin with, see here for tips). The setups I’ve seen so far generally have the front wing a little higher than rear wing for good turn-in, but I’m keeping the wings level to begin with while I’m getting used to it.

Steering – Can actually still feel a bit nervous and jittery on straights when you first try it – see here for some simple calibration tweaks you can make to solve this. But feels quite similar to F1 22 in that it can feel a bit sensitive, but once you put a few hours practice in and/or get the right controller/wheel calibration settings, you can get comfortable with it.

Braking – Actually harder this year on F1 23. Braking distances are longer and it takes longer to stop the car, plus you can’t just run 50 brake bias all tracks like on F1 22, otherwise you’ll lose the rear of the car. You have to toggle in that 54-57 range depending on the track, and more advanced players are even adjusting brake bias corner to corner and as tyres wear for best results over a race. It’s more of a challenge this year, but not an infuriating challenge like the traction was on F1 22.

Tyre temperatures – Again quite sensitive this year, overheating (and the understeer that comes with it) is common in longer races if you set the pressures too high. With the release build of the handling, you will need to run the tyre pressures somewhere between middle and minimum values depending on the track, to keep the temps under control in longer/hotter races. Similar to ’22 in this regard.

DRS/ERS – This is maybe one area where Codies/EA might have overcompensated a bit from last year. DRS and ERS are both massively overpowered on F1 23, with the DRS especially offering an insane speed advantage. Slipstream is also more powerful. On some tracks with longer DRS zones, you can just blast past cars easily without even deploying any ERS, so it’s very powerful. May get tweaked back downwards in a future patch, but on release, is much more powerful than on F1 22 and can make it a disadvantage being the lead car without DRS. Also, ERS runs out very quickly and is harder to recoup on F1 23, so whilst it’s powerful, it has to be used sparingly in longer races.

Tyres – Broadly similar to F1 22, but drop off in pace as the tyres wear is more pronounced. You also feel the grip more on a new set (if there’s a late safety car, box for softs if you can). You really need to try and maximize the first 25% of wear especially on soft tyres, as this is where the best grip is. Pit strategies are similar to ’22, with similar pit windows. But soft-medium strategies can work on some tracks instead of medium-hard. See here for a brilliantly produced video analyzing the tyres in detail on F1 23 vs ’22, going into real depth. See also marbles section below. However, there a huge issue for online league players that has been identified whereby tyre wear is not equal even on the “Equal cars” settings – we wait for a patch to fix this but is still on the game up to and including the 1.06 version (update – fixed now).

Gears – Again links up with the traction and torque metrics, but again easier, more forgiving and more realistic. You can use lower gears more often in slower corners (the actual gears real life drivers might use), rather than having to stay in higher gears on the time to minimize wheel spin and traction issues like we had to do on F1 22. You can still short shift through gears, but there’s less benefit to doing this on F1 23 – the gears like being revved out more this year.

General weight – Car feels more heavier this year, especially with larger fuel loads – you can feel the weight of the car more. Also braking distances are longer as covered.

Kerbs – Again much more forgiving on F1 23 – you can ride the kerbs much more aggressively without spinning so much. Also the kerb profile has changed on some tracks – some kerbs that were raised before are now flat and vice versa – but overall, it’s easier to ride kerbs to minimize lap time on this year’s game than last year’s.

Car setups – Broadly similar in terms of the general settings you get to change (Front/rear wing, Diff, Suspension, Camber/Toe, Brakes, Tyre Pressures) but some of the values have been tweaked. Front and rear suspension now run on a 1-41 scale instead of 1-11. The Anti-roll bars run on a 1-21 scale this year, and the Ride Height runs on a 30-50 scale to make it more realistic. Therefore, the setups are different this year to last year; see my generic setup guide for a good starting point.

Force Feedback (wheel users) – Again generally reported by wheel users to be much improved on F1 23. The general “feel” and handling of the car gets fed much more to the player through the wheel this year. You will feel more connected to the car using a wheel on F1 23 – the physics seem to get translated much more effectively this year. Still some minor bugs reported for some wheel users (aren’t there always on these F1 games), but much better feedback overall. Are still some bugs where FFB disappears when you do certain things, but a quick pause and un-pause usually brings it back (hopefully will be patched).

Pad handling – Massively improved on F1 23 to make it easier to control and catch slides and make it more on a par with wheel users. Steering much more sensitive on a pad, with faster and more responsive turning. This can make it a little too jittery or nervous to begin with – see our post on fixing that using the Calibration settings. But much better overall on a pad than last year.

Marbles – A great realism addition to the game this year, where if you run off the racing line too far, you will actually collect “marbles” or bits of discarded rubber off the racing line as they do in real life, and your grip will suffer. A nice extra challenges that means you must pay more attention to where you place your car around a lap – going off the standard racing line will cost you more this year on F1 23.

Summing All These Handling Factors Up

Hopefully this gives a decent overview of the handling changes between F1 23 and it’s predecessor. It’s fair to say it’s an evolution of F1 22’s handling rather than a revolution on F1 23, but it’s almost universally being acknowledged to be a lot better than F1 22, because the key area that needed to be improved or made easier, have been. In this sense EA and Codemasters seemed to have listened to the audience and given them a more consistent and raceable handling model on F1 23.

Overall, you’ve got a car that IS more easier and more fun to drive this year, with a bit more understeer and comparable or very slightly slower lap times, but much better traction.

Here’s a summary breakdown of what’s easier, about the same, and harder this year on F1 23’s handling model:

Easier/Better:

• Traction – way easier and more predictable and consistent.
• Race Starts
• Kerbs – easier to ride
• AI – we’ll do a separate post on this
• Force Feedback

About the same:

• Downforce/grip – broadly similar but very slightly less overall.
• Car setups – work very similar, just different values required for certain parameters.

Harder:

• Braking – Longer braking zones and needs some practice to be able to brake without locking the rears and spinning, plus a higher brake bias setting about 55. But a good challenge, not an annoying one.
• Weight – Links in with braking, longer stopping distance especially with lots of fuel on board, need to account for the weight of the car more carefully in longer races.
• Marbles – Much more loss of grip if you stray off the racing line this year.

Overall Summary:

Much better this year. If the handling was your main frustration with F1 22, then F1 23 is definite step in the right direction and much more fun to drive. I can’t find anyone saying the handling is worse on F1 23 than on F1 22; everyone is saying it’s an improvement, and that’s my opinion as well trying the game out.