The Losail circuit in Qatar debuted in F1 in 2021 and returned on a long term deal from 2023 onwards, and it’s already got a strong reputation as being an awesome track to race at on the game. With challenging sequences of flat or nearly flat corners, it’s really satisfying to put together a good lap round here.

 

However, finding a setup that works in a race is challenging, simply because it requires higher downforce than you can realistically run simply because defending on the straights is so hard with how powerful the ERS/DRS combo is on F1 24.

Here’s a dry race setup for Qatar for a pad user:

• Wings – 34/36
• Diff – 10/40/50
• Camber/Toe – -3.50/-2.20/0.00/0.20 (LLL/20)
• Suspension – 36-9-19-15-25-55
• Brakes – 100% Pressure/53% Bias
• Tyre Pressures – Maximum all tyres

Hotlap With This Setup

 

More Setup Info & Tips

This setup was created by mashing together my favourite parts of my usual starter setup, together with a few other setups I tested. It’s definitely NOT a blistering single lap pace setup, but it does flow nicely round the corners and remains relatively stable over a longer race when using a pad, which comes in handy with the brutal tyre deg and wear round here.

Here’s some more info and tips for making your own tweaks to the setup.

Wing Levels – If pure lap time was all you had to worry about, you’d probably ideally want to use wings in the 40s round here. But unless you’ve got very strong pace to pull away from the pack, you’ll struggle to defend using wings that high. Therefore you may have to go quite a bit lower than optimal for the wing levels to remain competitive in races, and 34/36 seemed to work OK first time round. If you’ve got very strong race pace to break DRS and pull away from the pack, you can go higher with the wings, but otherwise go lower to be able to defend.

Rotation vs Stability – This is a trade-off, since you need strong rotation for the twisty sections and hairpins, but too much and the car is a nightmare to control on a pad when the tyres are worn. So I’ve kept the usual 2 wing spacing, but added more rotation by lowering the Off Throttle Diff all the way down to 40 and also using stiffer roll bars than usual. If you want even more oversteer, bring the wings closer together or lower the Off Throttle Diff even further. My setup is weaker in the high speed corners here, but strong on the straights and in slow speed corners.

Tyre Pressures/Temps – Qatar is another extreme track where the tyres overheat very readily, so it’s maximum pressures all tyres to prevent this as much as possible. However, even with max temps, sometimes they’ll overheat and you’ll have to either back off or pit. Also, forget using the soft tyres in races as they won’t even last a few laps. It’s the mediums or hards only to keep temperatures under control.

Intermediate Conditions – I won’t spend much time on this as you’ll never encounter this in career mode at Qatar. But for light rain, just use your dry setup, with space the wings 3 clicks apart instead of two for better stability, and raise the wing levels 1-2 clicks if wanted for a bit more downforce.

Full Wet Conditions – Full full wet, add a bunch more wing, keep the 3 click spacing and soften the suspension and raise the ride height. Again, you’ll almost never encounter this unless someone’s being mischievous in an online lobby.

Here’s a suggested wet race pad setup for Qatar:

• Wings – 40/43
• Diff – 10/55/50
• Camber – -3.50/-2.20/0.00/0.00
• Suspension –  36-6-15-11-28-61
• Brakes – 95% Pressure/50% Bias
• Tyre pressures – Max pressures all tyres

Bonus Setup Resources

For pure Time Trial pace, this setup is one of my weakest – like 4 seconds off ultimate pace when I checked. But it’s stable in a race. So you can definitely go a lot more aggressive if you want single lap pace. Here’s some more options in this regard:

• F1laps.com Qatar 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) – You need to buy these setups, but they’re top end eSports style setups with much more aggressive configuration. They’re mainly designed on a wheel and therefore not optimized for a pad, but they have a support team that might be able to help advise you on some tweaks you can make. Higher end advanced option if you want top level speed and are very good with the pad handling.

Racing & Strategy Tips

While the track itself is great fun to drive, the Qatar race itself can be more challenging than most for a number of reasons. It’s hard on tyre temperatures, tyre wear, ERS use and fuel use. Here’s some of those reasons, plus tips for successfully navigating a race weekend here.

Sprint Weekend

On the ’24 calendar, Qatar is the final sprint race format weekend, meaning it goes like this: Practice 1–Sprint Quali—-Sprint Race—Main Quali— Main Race. Therefore, you’ve only got one practice session to do all the programmes and lock a good setup in before you’re into the proper sessions. Here’s a few hacks for these spring weekends:

• Choose the Harder Tyre Allocation before the weekend starts if you want to free up two sets of softs for the sole practice session, or the Medium allocation gives you one set of softs and one set of hards.
• Depending on the allocation chosen, you might have limited sets of softs available for the Sprint and main qualifying sessions. Be sure save at least one set of tyres for the last 5 minutes of any quali session, as that’s when the track is “rubbered in” and at it’s fastest. Don’t waste all your soft tyres at the start of a quali session.

ERS (Qualifying)

You’ve got a surprisingly large extra quota of Overtake ERS mode to use around Qualifying laps here in online races here – 12 seconds plus. Therefore you can use it all along the pit straight going onto your flying lap, finishing the lap, and on most of the shorter straights as well. Be sure to use as it does massively boost acceleration and top speed, especially when combined with DRS. Aim to drain your yellow ERS bar totally just as you cross the line to finish a flying lap. It’s actually quite hard to use all your Overtake allowance on a flying lap here, which is surprising.

Tyre/Pit strategy

The tyres wear out very quickly at Qatar to the point where the red soft tyre is a total no-go for races (even 5 lap sprints). It’s the medium or hard you need to use in races, and it’s the front left that wears much more than the other tyres (around 3% per lap for the hards and 4% per lap for the mediums). Keep an eye on tyre wear towards the end of longer stints – 70% or above wear and you’re in potential puncture territory.

Also, overtaking is very hard around Qatar. Basically, if all cars are running roughly the same wing levels, then your only real way to overtake without a car in front making a mistake is through the pit stops. Therefore the undercut can be useful, but tyre wear is also high, so you might get caught out in your second stint if you pit too early. Consider pitting early to overtake cars in front, but not too early.

ERS & Defending (Race)

Your ERS allowance drains like mad around here, but unlike the last game it also recoups quickly around the twisty parts of the lap. Therefore, you can use your ERS all along the pit straight to fend off any chasing cars, and again on one or two of the shorter straights around the lap, and it still recoups for you to repeat the same process lap after lap. As long as you’ve got your rear wing set to 38 or lower, this seems to work in holding position.

Here’s a general strategy for defending:

• Make sure you go onto the pit straight with your ERS bar at least 2/3 to 3/4 full.
• Deploy Overtake it all the way down the pit straight if the chasing car has DRS, to prevent them getting alongside.
• If a chasing car does get alongside, normally the inside line is best. But round here, I find that sticking to the outside line also works well at turn 1, and just out-braking any chasing car that attempts to overtake.
• Then, the rest of the lap, just use one short burst of ERS on any other straight, but otherwise don’t use it and let it recharge the rest of the lap to at least two-thirds full, ready to repeat this process again on the next lap if needed to defend position.

This strategy worked fine for me using the setup posted above (your rear wing needs to be 36 or lower). I didn’t go forward much in the race, but I did manage to hold position well against much faster cars around me.