Okay, so let’s dive into what I’ve been tinkering with for Spa in F1 24. Belgium, man, it’s one of those tracks, isn’t it? It looks simple on paper, long straights, a few tricky corners, but getting a car to behave itself through all of it, that’s another story. I spent a good chunk of my afternoon just going round and round, trying to find something that felt, you know, right.
My Starting Point – A Bit of a Mess
Honestly, I started with one of the preset balanced setups. And well, it was… okay. But ‘okay’ doesn’t cut it at Spa, especially when you’re trying to nail Eau Rouge and Raidillon without scrubbing off all your speed or ending up in the wall. The car felt a bit lazy, a bit unwilling to turn in sharply when I needed it to, and then a bit loose on exit. Not a great combo.
So, first things first, I headed into the setup screen. I always find it a bit daunting, all those sliders and numbers. But you just gotta start somewhere, right? I figured the main issues were a lack of front-end grip on turn-in and then the rear just wanting to step out when I got on the power, especially out of La Source and the Bus Stop chicane.
Getting Down to the Nitty-Gritty: What I Tweaked
I started fiddling, bit by bit. It’s a slow process. Change one thing, do a few laps. Does it feel better? Worse? Different? Sometimes you go backwards before you go forwards. It’s like cooking, a pinch of this, a dash of that.
Here’s roughly where I ended up after a lot of back and forth:
- Aerodynamics: This was a big one. You need straight-line speed for Kemmel, but you also need downforce for Sector 2. I ended up running the Front Wing a bit lower than the Rear Wing. Something like Front Wing Aero: 18 and Rear Wing Aero: 22 felt like a decent compromise. Still experimenting here, though.
- Transmission: That rear end stepping out was annoying. I played with the On-Throttle Differential a lot. Bringing it down to around 55% seemed to help calm the rear tyres when I was greedy with the loud pedal. Off-Throttle, I kept it fairly standard, maybe around 50%, to help with rotation.
- Suspension Geometry: Ah, camber and toe. The dark arts. I went for a bit more negative camber on the front, maybe around -2.70°, and a little less on the rear, say -1.20°. For toe, I kept the front toe-out pretty minimal, like 0.05°, and a touch of rear toe-in, maybe 0.20°, just for stability.
- Suspension: This is where Spa gets you. It’s bumpy, but you also need responsiveness. I softened the Front Suspension to 25 and the Rear Suspension to 8. Anti-Roll Bars, I tried Front at 9 and Rear at 3. Ride Height, you want it low for aero, but not so low you’re bottoming out too much. I think I had Front Ride Height at 30 and Rear Ride Height at 35. This felt okay over the kerbs at Les Combes and Fagnes.
- Brakes: Pretty standard for me. Brake Pressure around 100%, and I like a bit of rearward Brake Bias, maybe 54%. Helps me trail-brake into those slower corners.
- Tyre Pressures: This year, the tyres feel a bit different. I found running the pressures a bit on the lower side helped with grip and wear. For the Front Tyres, around 22.5 psi, and for the Rear Tyres, around 20.5 psi. This seemed to give me a good feeling, especially as the tyres got some temperature in them.
How It Felt and Final Thoughts
After all that faffing about, the car felt much more planted. Eau Rouge was still a challenge – it always is – but I could take it with more confidence. The car turned in better, and I could get on the power earlier out of the slow stuff without the rear immediately trying to overtake the front. It wasn’t perfect, mind you. I still had a few moments where it got a bit lively, especially if I was clumsy with the throttle.
The biggest improvement was consistency. I could string together more laps without feeling like I was on a knife-edge all the time. It’s a setup that, for me, felt pretty good for a race distance, not just a single hot lap. You know how sometimes you find a setup that’s super quick for one lap but chews through its tyres or is just too edgy to live with for 20-odd laps? Yeah, I was trying to avoid that.
Of course, this is just what worked for me, with my driving style, on my controller. You might try it and hate it, or you might find it’s a good base to tweak further for yourself. That’s the fun of it, I suppose. Every little adjustment can change how the car feels. But yeah, that’s my current F1 24 Belgium setup diary entry. Took a while, but got there in the end. Now, onto the next track!
