The Hungaroring circuit is a real classic and has been on the F1 calendar for nearly 40 years now uninterrupted. It’s a tight, twisty and technical track and overtaking is difficult, but it’s great fun to drive once you get into the rhythm of it and it’s a good test of concentration as there’s not much time to rest.

 

For a car setup, it’s always been pretty straightforward – you need maximum downforce for this track to help you through the twisty sectors 2 and 3.

And I’ve just found a setup that worked very well in Quali and also the race as well, mixing and matching the aspects of a few different setups I tried.

Here’s a general dry race setup for Hungary for a pad user:

• Wings – 47/50
• Diff – 10/50/50
• Camber/Toe – -2.50/-2.20/0.00/0.05
• Suspension – 36-6-16-13-25-55
• Brakes – 95% Pressure/50% Bias
• Tyre Pressures – Maximum all tyres

Using this race setup, I did manage to qualify and finish a lower midfield car ahead of where it should be. But it needed some clever ERS use and consistency, which I’ll cover further below.

More Setup Analysis & Tips

This setup can be tweaked slightly and I may do so myself in future career races here, so here’s some extra pointers in this regard.

Wing levels – This is a tricky one. Using 47/50 was just about OK for defending against the AI, but only just. I needed to use a lot of ERS, and chasing cars were constantly getting alongside me using their ERS/DRS combo. To stay safer on the straight, you might want to try 46/49, 45/48 or even 44/47 wings instead for slightly more top speed. But 47/50 can just about work if you’re consistent and clever with defending.

Wing spacing – I normally use 2 click spacing in the dry, but for Hungary I set the rear wing 3 clicks above the front for better stability and traction as the tyres wear. Bringing them closer together can help for qualifying, but the for the race I always use 47/50.

Tyre Pressures – Tyre temps are not as critical on F1 24 as some other games, but Hungary is one track where they can overheat more easily. Therefore, it’s max pressures all tyres to keep the temps down. And even with max pressures, the red soft tyre can overheat quickly, so it’s not a good race tyre. The front right tyre overheats less than the others, so you reduce the pressure on this one a little. But the rest all need to be at maximum to keep temps under control.

Differential – Because Hungary has so many traction zones and stability gets tricky on this game as the tyres wear, I’d always keep your On Throttle Diff at minimum (10) or close to it when using a pad, for the easiest to apply traction. And for the wet, definitely keep it at minimum. Setting it higher can provide better potential traction and push the car on better through higher speed corners, but it gets harder to control on a pad.

Intermediate Conditions – For light rain inter conditions, the dry setup should work OK as the wings are already maxed out. Keep the 3 click spacing (47/50), and soften the suspension and raise the ride height 1-2 clicks if needed. Also bring your throttle diff down to 10 if it’s not already there, and bump up the Off Throttle Diff to 55 or even 60 to make traction easier.

Full Wet Conditions – For heavy rain conditions, it gets trickier to control the car with all the kerbs and traction zones. You’ll need to make some more drastic adjustments to the suspension settings, roll bar and ride height settings. You also need to bump up the Off Throttle Diff to 60 or 55 to dampen the rotation and make traction easier on corner exits.

Here’s a suggested wet race setup for Hungary for a pad user:

• Wings – 47/50
• Diff – 10/60/50
• Camber – -3.50/-2.20/0.00/0.17
• Suspension –  34-4-13-10-28-61
• Brakes – 95% Pressure/53 Bias
• Tyre pressures – Max pressures all tyres

Mastering Hungary – Track Guide

 

More Setup Resources For Hungaroring

My dry setup seemed to work pretty well in a career race, allowing me to qualify and race a lower midfield car a long way ahead of where it should be.

But if you want more aggressive single lap pace and TT style setups, plus custom setups for specific cars, here are some extra resources to check out:

• F1laps.com Hungary page – Another car setup forum with pages for every track, and loads of custom setups posted, both TT and race, all cars, all conditions.
• F1gamesetup.com – An even more specialized resource with custom setups, every car and every track, wet and dry weather.

Racing Tips For Hungary

Racing at Hungary is all about gaining, and then keeping, track position, so here’s a few extra tips in that regard.

ERS (Qualifying) – You’ve got a surprising amount of extra Overtake ERS mode to use on Qualifying laps in online races, about 10-12 seconds. Use a strong burst going onto a flying lap and along the straight to push you into 8th gear quicker and reach 200 mph top speed. Then you can use additional several second bursts on the other straights in sector 1, and then whatever you have left going back onto the pit straight to finish the lap. Keep an eye on the yellow bar and aim to fully deplete it just as you finish a flying lap.

Tyres (Qualifying) – Quite surprisingly since the tyre degradation is quite high, I actually found that you can sometimes get two good flying laps out of a single set of soft tyres (outlap—flying lap—cool down lap—second flying lap). Therefore you can fuel for around 5 laps and get two runs on one set of tyres, and the second lap sometimes is better.

Kerbs – You want to generally be avoiding all the kerbs round here, as they’re mostly raised and will spit the car off. This is especially so when threading the car though the “esses” in sector 2. You can very lightly brush the kerbs with the edge of your tyres, but any more than that and you’ll lose lap time as the car is unsettled. Use a setup which delivers an optimal level of turn in through this section where you’re not over-rotating the car and riding the kerbs when you don’t want to.

Defending – Overtaking is hard at Hungary, but the AI will give it a good go on the main straight with their ERS and DRS. To ward them off, you’ll need to a) make sure you get smooth exits out of the penultimate and last corner; and b) use your ERS all the way along the pit straight if the car behind has DRS. Make sure you’ve got enough left to deploy it right away coming out the last corner, and then you can use your fresh allocation going over the start-finish line to continue defending (if a car behind is really close then you’ll need to use it the whole way down the straight). Then use a little bit more on the other sector 1 straights, and then recoup for the rest of the lap ready to defend on the pit straight next time.

Tyre/Pit Strategy – You can squeeze 3-6 laps out of the soft tyres in a 25% race, but for longer races it’s a medium-hard strategy. Tyre deg is high at Hungary so the undercut can work if you take advantage of the initial pace of fresh tyres and put some strong outlaps in. Pitting 1-2 laps early can help you jump a few cars ahead and also give you a few seconds breathing space against a car that was constantly pestering you with DRS before. With overtaking being so difficult round here, your best way to make up places is definitely through the pit stops and clever strategy.