You can be the fastest driver in the world, but if you have a car that isn't stable throughout a corner or that isn't able to rotate how you would like, you are leaving valuable time on the table. The best drivers can drive around set up issues to an extent, adapting their driving technique as such - but this can only get them so far, especially in top level racing.
In simracing, you can change the setup of the car in an instant, making it super easy to tweak the way the car drives. But this ease of use is not worth a lot if you can't actually understand how the changes you make will effect the car, which is what this article aims to cover. I will list different parts of the car you can change the setup on, and what difference it makes, so you can tailor a car to suit your needs.
Weight distribution
Weight distribution is exactly what it sounds like - the distribution of weight across the car. You can alter this to change the balance of the car. You might want to shift some weight to the right side for a circuit with right hand turns, to help the car perform better in those corners, and vice versa for circuits with left hand corners. This is something you should experiment with, as different circuits will require different weight distribution.
On ovals in indycar series, the car is fitted with a device called a weight jacker. The weight jacker is a small hydraulic ram device attached to the rear right damper. The weight jacker can be controlled by the driver, so it is important to map a button on your wheel to be able to change this mid race. It pushes the spring away from the damper housing, which raises the rear right suspension, placing more diagonal force across the car - this puts more weight on the left front tyre, pushing it more into the track surface, helping to reduce understeer.
Note: In Iracing, where the indycar series is most prominent in sim racing, control for the weight jacker is under the title "rear right spring set". This is the setting you may wish to map a button for on your wheel.
Image credit: Marshall Pruett - Indycar
Tyre grip and pressure
It's easy to get caught up in changing all these chassis and suspension settings - there is so much you can do. But in doing so, you can often overlook that fact that the only things that are always in contact with the circuit are the tyres. So it's important to have them set up in the right way, by controlling tyre pressures and such, to maximise performance. Suspension set-up also plays a part in tyre performance, and we will get onto how to maximise that later in the article.
Generally, lowering the tyre pressures increases the amount of grip you have, but too low can affect lateral grip in a negative way. Some IRL series have minimum tyre pressures, and teams try to run as low to the minimum as possible. A tyre with less pressure is softer, therefore there is a bigger contact patch, and often, more grip.
There are risks that come with doing this. It is easier to damage the tyre when it is cold, and there is an increased risk of a puncture from attacking the kerbs too much and such, because the tyre sidewall is softer with lower pressure. To my knowledge though, no sim currently available models the increased risk from lower pressures.
Even though there is often more grip with lower pressures, the car is more on edge because of this, and some may prefer slightly higher pressures for a more stable car.
It should be noted that as a tyre gets hot, tyre pressures increase, so you need to factor in how high the pressure will become when racing, and the potentially detrimental effect that may have on the car - usually the hotter the pressures, the smaller the contact patch and the less grip available.
On the other hand, it should be noted that if pressures are too low, you may struggle to keep heat in the tyres, especially during race scenarios as you are not pushing all the time. At this point the grip you gain from lower pressures will be cancelled out by the grip lost by a reduction in tyre temp.
Being more careful at the start of the race can help with this. Running over kerbs aggressively at the race start can reduce tyre pressure, making it even more difficult to get temperature into the car.
If you are not careful, you can fall into a loop. You need to push to make the most of low pressures and get the grip, but you can't push without the grip initially.
Again, it's important to experiment with different settings, to find the optimal ones for you.
Camber
Camber is the tilt of your cars tyres, when viewed from front and rear. Negative camber means the top of the tyre is tilted inwards, whilst positive camber has the reverse effect.
Adjusting camber settings can help improve the tyres contact patch with the surface of the circuit when cornering, increasing the potential for grip.
Negative camber provides increased cornering grip, because of a bigger tyre contact patch when cornering. Too much negative camber though can cause the tyres to wear unevenly and decrease straight line performance. This can vary from track to track.
Positive camber is less used in racing setups, because it has the reverse effect to negative camber. However it can be useful on some circuits. Take the Red Bull Ring in Austria, a circuit with a number of right hand corners, taken at a high speed, especially towards the end of the lap. Positive camber on the right side tyres in these situations can help make tyre wear more even and optimise grip during these corners. Again, this varies from track to track.
Suspension settings
I find that suspension settings are what I change most when trying to improve car setup. There's so much you can do to improve how the car reacts to certain situations, such as bumps, and different corners tyres (high speed, low speed, medium speed and anything in between). So it is important to understand the impact different settings have.
Toe adjust how your cars tyres point. Toe-in adds stability on straights but may effect turning. Toe-out has the reverse effect, lessening straight line stability but increasing turn-in ability, at the cost of tyre wear. Again, track type and conditions can effect your choices.
Caster changes your front suspension's pivot axis angle. More positive caster improves straight line stability but can make the steering heavier. Negative caster enhances the cars response in corners, but reduces straight line stability.
Toe out on turns or Ackermann steering allows the inside tyres to turn more during cornering, which reduces understeer and improves balance. This can be used to help optimise cornering performance.
Springs and dampers (also known as shock absorbers) determine how your car responds to the road surface. It is important to understand and optimise these settings to improve car stability and ride over rougher surfaces, and make the most of smoother surfaces.
Stiffer springs reduce body roll and enhance responsiveness, making them extremely useful on tight and twisty circuits. The platform of the car remains flatter in corners, allowing for improved grip. They are not so good on rough surfaces.
Softer springs offer a smoother ride and better traction on bumpier tracks, like the Nurburgring Nordschleife. They absorb bumps more effectively, preventing excessive bouncing over undulantions that would cause a loss of grip with a stiffer spring setup.
Damping rates, whether you set them soft or firm, control the extension and compression of the springs. Firmer damping will minimize bouncing and maintain tyre contact with the track surface, which is ideal for smoother tracks. Softer damping, on the other hand, will allow for more wheel movement, providing better, more consistent grip levels on bumpier tracks.
Ride height is the distance between the chassis of the car and the circuit - how high the car rides. It can have a substantial impact on both aerodynamic performance and ground clearance. Lowering the ride hide improves aerodynamic performance and therefore increases grip, but if it is set too low, the car may scrape the track surface. Excessive contact with the surface of the circuit can slow the car down, destabilise it, damage it, and in some cases, the damage can lead to a breach of ride height regulations, though this isn't applicable in sim racing.
Anti roll bar
Anti-roll bar (referred to as either ARB or sway bar in some places) effects how the car resists body roll as a result of weight transfer. As you go through a corner, the anti-roll bars twist and resist the body roll, helping transfer some load from the outside wheels to the inside wheels.
You can either soften or stiffen the roll bars.
Stiffer anti-roll bars allow the car to lean and roll less in a corner, causing a more progressive change in load, which makes the car more stable.
Softer anti-roll bars allow the car to lean and roll more in a corner, letting the weight shift around more, potentially allowing for more oversteer.
Most changes in ARB settings come down to driver preference and how they want the car to control the weight transfer throughout a corner, in addition to their preference for understeer and oversteer.
Depending on the series, you can adjust both the front and rear ARB's. Note that the settings front to rear do not have to be the same. You can have stiff front ARB's and soft rear ARB's, for example.
Keep in mind that changes to the front anti-roll bars mostly impacts car behaviour on entry to a corner, whereas changes to the rear anti-roll bars mostly impact car behavior on exit from a corner.
A general formula would be:
To fix understeer on entry - soften front ARB
To fix oversteer on entry - stiffen front ARB
To fix understeer on exit - stiffen rear ARB
To fix oversteer on exit - soften rear ARB
Aerodynamics and downforce
These are settings that take importance in cars with bigger aerodynamic potential (from items such as wings). Speed also plays a factor. The faster a car goes, the more aerodynamic potential there is - or more simply, the faster the car goes, the more air flows over it, allowing items like wings to produce more grip.
Increasing wing angle improves cornering performance, but reduces straightline speed, as it increases drag.
Decreasing wing angle increases straight line performance, but reduces cornering potential.
These settings vary per track and car type, including driver preferences.
Brake balance
Braking is critically important in racing (it slows the car down, after all). Optimizing settings such as brake balance, also referred to as brake bias, can help improve braking capability and driver confidence when slowing the car down.
Brake bias settings allow for distribution of brake force between the front and rear axles, depending on the drivers wants and needs, in addition to car and track requirements.
Front brake bias increases stopping power at the front wheels, distributing more of the brake force to slow the car down to the front of the car. This can improve braking stability and reduce the chances of a rear-wheel lockup. Excessive front bias however can lead to understeer and will increase the risk of front-wheel locking.
Rear brake bias increases stopping power at the rear wheels, distributing more brake force to the rear. This improves rear stability during braking and can help eliminate oversteer during entry and mid-corner phases, as you trail off the brakes. Excessive rear bias can lead to oversteer and increase the risk of rear-wheel locking.
Finding the right balance is a process usually dependent on track type, track surface quality and driver preference.
Transmission
Transmission changes have to do with gear ratios, which can effect the car's tendencies to either accelerate quicker, or be able to achieve higher top speeds. This is almost entirely circuit dependent.
Shorter gear ratios increase acceleration performance, but can limit top speed.
Longer gear ratios decrease acceleration performance, but can allow for a higher top speed.
Differential settings
The differential settings have the potential to dictate how power is distributed to the wheels, which in turn can make massive differences to car rotation under acceleration and deceleration.
A limited slip differential (LSD) can substantially improve grip, particularly during the acceleration phase. An LSD provides better power distribution to the wheels driving the car, which can help prevent excessive wheelspin and improve traction. LSD settings are tweaked by changing the amount of locking force for the differential. Increasing the locking force can improve stability and cornering performance, but can cause understeer. Reducing the locking force can create a more agile car, so the car can rotate better, but can lead to oversteer, especially in the acceleration phase.
Coast and power ratios control the speed at which the differential transfer power between the wheels during both acceleration and deceleration. A higher power ratio can increase stability during acceleration, whilst a higher coast ratio can improve deceleration stability, with lower ratios having the reverse effect. Experiment with these to find the best settings for the track, car and conditions.
Some simulators have tyre-related differential settings, allowing you to control how much power is distributed between the inside and outside tyres during a corner. This can be adjusted to change tyre wear rates, and adjust grip levels, especially in longer races where the tyres will degrade.
Differential settings are heavily dependent on car, track and driver preference. When adjusting differential settings, I recommend small, incremental changes, as small adaptations can have big changes to car behaviour.
In conclusion, now you know how to setup your racecar. Experiment, practice, and have fun!
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