Alright, so, the Austrian track in F1 24. Spent a good chunk of my weekend trying to nail down a setup for that place. It’s a short lap, looks simple, but man, getting the car to behave there can be a real pain.
My First Stabs at It
Hopped into practice, used one of the default setups, and it just felt… meh. Understeer in the slow corners, then the back end would get all twitchy on me through those fast sweepers, especially Turns 6 and 7. The car felt like it was fighting me, not working with me. Traction out of Turn 1 and Turn 3, uphill, was a nightmare. Just spinning the wheels, going nowhere fast.
Down to the Nitty-Gritty
So, I rolled up my sleeves and dived into the setup menus. First thing I usually mess with is the aerodynamics. You see those long straights, you think low wings, right? Less drag, more speed. But Austria’s got those quick changes of direction and some pretty fast corners where you need the car to stick. I started taking wing off, then found myself adding a bit more rear wing back on than I initially thought, just to calm the rear end down. The front wing, I nudged that up a bit too, to help the car turn in better, especially for Turn 3 and that tight hairpin at Turn 4.
Next up, the transmission. That on-throttle differential, crucial for Austria. I lowered it quite a bit from the default. Trying to get the power down smoothly without the rear tires just giving up on me, especially with all those traction zones. The off-throttle, I played with that too, trying to get the car to rotate nicely into the corners without it snapping.
Then, suspension geometry. Camber and toe. Always a bit of a balancing act. Went for a bit more negative camber on the front than the rear, trying to get that bite on turn-in. Toe, kept the front toe-out minimal, and a little bit of toe-in on the rear for stability. You go too wild here, and your tires will be screaming at you after a few laps.
Feeling it Out, Lap by Lap
The suspension itself – springs, anti-roll bars, ride height. This took a lot of back and forth. Austria has some nasty curbs, especially those yellow sausage curbs. You want the car soft enough to ride them without unsettling it too much, but not so soft that it’s lazy and unresponsive in the fast sections. I ended up a bit stiffer on the front anti-roll bar than the rear, trying to keep the front end sharp. Ride height, as low as I could get away with without bottoming out too badly on those curbs.
Brakes. Oh, the brakes. Brake pressure, I usually run it pretty high, but I had to dial it back a touch for Austria. Kept locking up into Turn 3 and Turn 4. Moved the brake bias a bit more to the rear than I usually do, helped with stability under braking and getting the nose in.
And tires. Pressures. Always fiddling with these. For Austria, I found running the pressures a tad lower than some other tracks helped with traction and tire wear, especially on the rears. Trying to keep them in that magic temperature window for as long as possible.
Getting Somewhere Finally
It wasn’t a quick fix. I’d change something, go out, do five, six laps. Come back in, look at the telemetry (or what feels like telemetry in my head), tweak something else. Sometimes it felt better, sometimes worse. Frustrating, for sure. There were a few times I nearly threw the controller.
But eventually, things started to click. The car began to feel more predictable. I could attack the curbs a bit more. Traction was better. The car felt more planted through the fast stuff. It wasn’t perfect, mind you, never is. But it was a world away from where I started.
- Key thing for me was finding that aero balance – enough for the corners without being a parachute on the straights.
- And getting that differential right for the traction zones. Makes a huge difference to lap time there.
- Being able to ride the curbs without the car launching into orbit was also a big one.
So yeah, that was my journey with the Austrian setup this time around. It’s always a process, innit? You learn a bit more about the car, the track, every time you go through it. Now, this setup works for my driving style, might not be your cup of tea, but hopefully, my little adventure gives you some ideas if you’re struggling with it too. It’s all about trial and error, and eventually, you’ll find something that just feels right.
