First of all I should point out that this guide will not be quite as useful to the fastest drivers on the sim racing scene (Max Dell'Orco, Dom Duhan, Dominik Binz, Greger Huttu, Dave Nicol, Adam Dodd, Markus Kononen, Brad McGiveron etc). They are all extremely talented and they each know exactly how to set up the game (and car) to suit their own driving styles, I can't see anything in this guide been of great use to them as they are already driving on the limit of human possibility.


Chapters;

1. Opening Comments.
2. Setting Up The Game.
3. Player (PLR) File Editing.
4. Setting Up Your Steering Wheel.
5. Driving Aids.
6. Traction Control.
7. Choosing A Good Car.
8. Car Setup.
9. Driving Techniques.
--9.1. Braking.
--9.2. Downshifting.
--9.3. Turn-In
--9.4. Hitting The Apex.
--9.5. Corner Exit.
--9.6. Throttle Control - Finding The Limit.
--9.7. Side Note - The 'Differential Lock'.
--9.8. Gear Selection.
--9.9. A Note From The Experts.
10. Practice.
11. Driving Online.
12. Replays And Telemetry.
13. Talent.
14. Closing Comments.
15. Useful Links.


1. Opening Comments.

When I drive online against people who aren't quite as quick (or people who are really struggling) they often ask how certain lap times are possible. Normally I simply respond by saying "I practice a lot, and I work on my setups"... which is true but also a bit of a cheap way to end the conversation - I don't have to go into detail about anything and at the same time the advice of "practice" is quite a good piece of advice to give.
This sometimes leads to people asking for my setup and (depending on the current FSR league race) I'm normally happy to provide it. It's not always a useful quick fix though - yes there are times where I've given someone a setup and they have suddenly driven a lot faster but there are other times where it hasn't helped at all.

When someone is driving 1.28's at the new Hockenheim circuit (with a steering wheel) and giving them a setup capable of low 1.15's doesn't help them go any faster it's obvious there is another reason for the lack of speed. When I talk to people in this situation I often find that they haven't got a clue about setting up the game, how to make sure their steering wheel is set up correctly or on some occasions even use basic driving lines. That's why I decided to write this guide.

I am not the fastest driver in the world - I can name many drivers who are capable of driving faster than I ever have, but I still believe I drive at a very competitive level. I will offer all the advice I can and give all the information I have learnt; If this guide helps only one person to improve their lap times I will be happy.


2. Setting Up The Game.

For F1 simulations you really need a steering wheel and although not everyone has one I personally have used steering wheels since the release of 'Monaco Grand Prix: Racing Simulation 2' - as a result everything in this guide will be written assuming a steering wheel is the controller as that is my own experience.

I drive without any driving aids... this is something I have always done and whenever I buy a new racing sim the first thing I do is turn off any available driving aids. So I'm writing the guide from this point of view, I don't use Traction Control or Automatic Gears or anything else. I know a lot of people use those two aids specifically (as it matches to real F1 today) - hopefully they will still find some useful information.

One of the things I love about the EA F1 games is that they have plenty of options to adjust in the menus and lots of scope for customising the game to suit many different people. I will go through some of the more important options now;

It is best to leave 'Tyre Wear' and 'Mechanical Failures' turned on as these are often used online and in Hotlap competitions. You can go a bit quicker if they are turned off but I think most people prefer realism and in real life the tyres wear out and the engines blow up (if pushed too hard).

'Fuel Usage' is another setting where it is better to have it turned on for two reasons; Obviously most online sessions have fuel usage turned on (as again it is realistic) but another reason is simply to get used to driving the car with fuel onboard. If you always drive with fuel usage turned off and then you suddenly have to drive a 15 lap race with fuel onboard it can be a huge shock - of course you would expect the lap times to be slower but the extra weight can really make you struggle as suddenly the car doesn't slow down in the same distances and it doesn't respond in turns the way it normally would.
Personally I often turn fuel usage off if I am testing a qualifying setup because it allows me to do lap after lap without having to stop for fuel (and when you drive a qualifying lap online you will only have 2 or 3 laps of fuel anyway), but I still do plenty of testing with fuel onboard (online and offline). It is definitely worth having experience of the car with a heavy fuel load and also to learn to adjust your setups so they last a race distance.

Cockpit view or TV-Camera style onboard view..? I use the standard cockpit view myself and most of the fastest drivers seem to use the same (though there are some exceptions). For me it's mainly down to realism (I want to feel as though I'm in the car), but it's also down to turn-in accuracy - although you can see more of the track and upcoming turns with the TV-Cam view I actually find the standard cockpit view much more accurate when it comes to choosing a turn-in point. So I will always use the cockpit view but I don't see anything wrong with people using the TV-Cam view in leagues etc - some people think the TV-Cam view gives an advantage as it is higher up but I've tested both and I didn't notice much difference in the lap times (I certainly wasn't faster with the TV-Cam view).

One thing this game did make me realise is the number of people using 'kmh' for measuring their top speed. When I drive online and I mention a speed in 'mph' I nearly always get the response of "what's that in kmh?". I live in the UK and I often forget that a lot of other countries use 'kmh' to measure speed - obviously you should use whatever is the standard in your country but it's best to know how to convert from one to another if you end up discussing top speeds online;

To convert from 'mph' to 'kmh' multiply the speed by 1.6093
To convert from 'kmh' to 'mph' divide the speed by 1.6093

Another tip when setting up the game is to lower the Engine volume. By default they are set quite high but I find that lowering the Engine volume to 40% and keeping the Sound Effects at around 95% allows me to hear what the tyres are doing much more easily - I know when I am locking up, spinning the wheels or screeching the tyres. It might not be as realistic to actually hear these sounds so well but at the same time you don't have the benefit of being in a real F1 car and feeling the behaviour of the car and the tyres on the circuit.


3. Player (PLR) File Editing.

There are many well known options you can change simply by using notepad to edit the *.PLR file (C:F1_ChallengeSaveYourNameYourName.PLR). This is a list of the most popular option changes (the option numbers are already edited in this list so if you want the effect described here simply change the number in your *.PLR file to the same number from this list);