The new Miami circuit was introduced in 2022, and although it’s not one of my favourites personally, some people love it and it’s got it’s own unique corners and sections. It’s an idiosyncratic circuit for sure, with a couple of long straights, plus some undulating, technical twisty sections as well.

 

This is an annoying track in some respects, because there’s a trade-off that it seems impossible to resolve. You need downforce and grip for the high speed and twisty sector 1, but you absolutely need straight line speed even more for sectors 2 and 3 with the massive long DRS straights and over-powered AI.

Generally, the need for straight line speed wins at this track, and you have to use wing levels lower than you might expect just to stay competitive on the straights.

Here’s a general baseline dry race setup for Miami for a controller user:

• Wings – 12/14
• Diff – 10/40/50
• Camber – -3.50/-2.20/0.00/0.20 (LLL/20)
• Suspension –  39-5-15-9-25-58
• Brakes – 100% Pressure/53 Bias
• Tyre pressures – Fronts 26.0/Rears maximum

2025 tweak – Coming back to this game, I’m definitely liking the more stable planted rear end feel that moving the rear toe up to 0.20 (from 0.13) gives me. Especially seems to help round here.

Hotlap With This Setup (Nothing Special But At Least Stable)

 

This definitely isn’t my best setup or track on this game – it’s been one of my weakest tracks since it debuted on the games in ’22. But it’s baseline to get started with on a pad and tweak to your own preference. Next time I race here, I might have to go even lower with the wings, but it’s something to get started with at least on a pad.

More Setup Analysis & Tips

Wing levels – Much like the previous two games, this setup isn’t the best for single lap pace in terms of wing levels, but you need straight line speed at this track or you get eaten up on the straights by the AI. 16/18 wings worked just about OK in my first career season for attacking/defending, but even that was pushing it and you might need to go down to 14/16 wings. or even 12/14 wings. With the sprint weekend format, if you do realise you’ve set your wings too high and are getting mugged on the straights, parc ferme is briefly unlocked just before you drive out for main qualifying (after the sprint sessions), so you can lower your wing levels then to be more competitive on the straights. I’d experiment with anything from 16 down to 10.

More Aggressive – This setup isn’t one of my strongest, but it’s OK. If you want to make the setup more aggressive and potentially find more time, you can: a) Put the wings closer together and even invert them with the rear wing lower than the front (but will make the car harder to control once the tyres wear, b) Reduce the off throttle diff further (increases rotation in corners), c) increase the anti-roll bar values (much harder to control); and d) increase the on throttle diff (provides potentially better but harder to control traction).

Intermediate Conditions – For light rain conditions, you’ll probably need to spread the wings even further apart to maintain stability round the twisty sections. I’d leave the wings about the same or raise them 1-2 clicks, but make sure the rear wing is 3 clicks above the front for easier handing on a pad (update – using 13/16 wings and 55 Off Throttle Diff allowed me to qualify very well in intermediate conditions). You can also lower your on throttle Diff to minimum, and soften suspension and raise ride height 1-2 clicks if needed, but some players don’t bother with these changes for inter conditions and just stick with their dry configuration.

Full Wet Conditions – For heavy rain, it’s worth making some more drastic adjustments to keep the car stable and maintain cornering grip.

Here’s a baseline wet race setup for Miami for a pad user:

• Wings – 24/27
• Diff – 10/55/50
• Camber – -3.50/-2.20/0.00/0.20
• Suspension – 36-3-13-7-30-63
• Brakes – 100% Pressure/53 Bias
• Tyre pressures – Fronts 26.0/Rears Maximum

It’s similar changes you might make for an inter setup, just more pronounced and designed to give the car more stability. With all the tricky traction zones, it’s all about dampening the rotation so you can get smooth corner exits without the car wobbling all over the place because it’s over-rotating. Set whatever wing and Off Throttle Diff values allow you to do this.

Mastering Tricky Miami (Track Guide)

 

Other Setup Resources For Miami

The F1 24 game has a slightly different handling and setup model, and setups are still evolving. Plus the fact this isn’t my strongest track anyway. Therefore you might want to check out other setups.

The biggest factor here is how low a wing setting can you get away with to still maintain good overall pace, and be able to overtake/defend on the massive DRS straights.

If you’re looking for more finely tuned setups for different cars, game modes and conditions, check out these additional setup resources:

• For a more aggressive but potentially fast race setup, check out the SimRacingSetup channel’s Miami setup. But this channel does their setups on a wheel, so they might need significant tweaking for a pad user to make them controllable over an entire race (especially the wing levels and spacing). Try loading it up but then porting over the Wing and Diff settings I’ve used above and playing around with it from there.
• F1laps.com Miami 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.
• Sim Racing Centre (Premium) – The setups aren’t free here and you need to buy them, but they’re higher end, potentially faster but also harder to control setups from eSports drivers. Could work but may need some tweaking and getting used to to work on a pad.

Racing & Strategy Tips

Miami would be a hard enough race to dial in a setup and strategy even if it was a normal weekend format, but it isn’t on the ’24 game. Here’s some extra tips and things to bear in mind when racing at Miami:

Sprint Race – On the 2024 calendar, Miami follows China as another sprint race format weekend, meaning there’s only 1 practice session before your setups are locked and you’re straight into sprint qualifying (then the sprint race, then main qualifying and the main race). Therefore select the Harder tyre allocation to free up two sets of softs for the single practice session if you want to practice and prioritise Quali speed. The Balanced allocation gives you one set of hards and one set of softs for the sole practice session.

Changing Setups – Setups are locked into “parc ferme” when you drive out in Sprint Qualifying, and locked for that session and then the Sprint Race. But they’re briefly unlocked again just before you drive out for the main Qualifying session, so you can change your setup (especially the wing levels) here if you want to try something different for the last two sessions.

Tyres (Quali) – The soft tyres actually last surprisingly well round here, to the extent where you can actually get 2 good quali laps out of one set of tyres. So fuel for 4.5 laps, and do an outlap, hotlap, cool down lap (turn ERS to none to recharge), and another hotlap, and you’ll often be able to improve your times and save using too many set of tyres. Also, because the number of soft tyres you can use in Qualifying can be limited in Sprint race weekends, be sure to save at least one set of tyres (sometimes you only get one set to use anyway) for the last 5 minutes of any Qualifying session, when the track is at it’s fastest. Can gain you a couple of tenths of a second.

ERS (Qualifying) – You’ve now got 10-12 seconds of the Overtake ERS mode over a single qualifying lap to boost top speed since the 1.10 patch. I like to use it in short 3-4 second bursts out of the corners onto the main DRS zones, using the last bit on the start-finish straight as I complete the lap.  But basically use it anywhere you can – watch your yellow ERS bar and look to almost drain it just as you finish the flying lap.

Esses (sector 1) – The first sector is definitely the weakest using this setup, but you’re much stronger in sectors 2 and 3. For the esses, you need to practice carrying as much speed as possible by applying only the minimum braking needed, but also avoiding touching the raised kerbs too much, which will spit you off. You can clip them slightly when coasting off the throttle, but no more than that.

Turns 13-16 – This is the fiddly uphill then downhill left-left-right-left sequence before you lead onto the massive long second DRS straight. I always like to brake early going up the hill here – less is more – if you try to push too hard it never quite works, but you can climb over the kerbs quite a bit in this section to gain time. And then be patient on the traction on the exit of the sharp left hander onto the straight – getting a good exit without wheelspin is crucial to overtake and defend.

Defending (Race) – Very difficult as the ERS does run out quite quickly and is very hard to recoup once the bar is down to one-third full or less. You have to be really disciplined right from the start of the race and only use the ERS when it’s strictly necessary to overtake and defend and not otherwise. For holding position, you need low wings angles on your setup, and two blasts of Overtake mode heading onto the two long DRS straights – just as much as is needed to stop a car getting alongside. You still might need to out-brake AI cars after the first long straight, but defending in the second long DRS zone is a bit easier as long as you get a good exit out of the turns 13-16 complex.