The Interlagos Circuit in São Paulo is a classic track that’s simple in layout and yet somehow always great for racing.

 

Creating a decent race setup is something of a conundrum. On the one hand, you are on full throttle for a large percentage of the lap, so having lower wings around 20 would definitely help you. On the other hands, I’ve been recently finding out (especially when doing my CoTA setup) that using higher is also often beneficial on this game, as it makes car control much easier on worn tyres and also helps with following and dirty air.

So which way to go at Brazil? Ultimately, I’ve decided that since tyre wear is not normally a massive issue here, I’m going to err on the lower side for wings, and just go for straight line speed and trust that the traction will still be manageable on the harder tyres.

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

• Wings – 25/27
• Diff – 10/55
• Camber/Toe – -3.50/-2.00/0.03/0.13 (LL/3/13)
• Suspension – 41-3-14-10-22-49
• Brakes – 100% Pressure/53% Bias
• Tyres – Maximum pressures all tyres

This is still a bit of a work in progress. But the good thing about Brazil on this game is that it’s a Sprint Race weekend, meaning parc ferme is locked for sprint qualifying, but then briefly unlocked again for main Qualifying (4th session), so you can change your wing levels if you think you’ve gone in the wrong direction.

(update – I tested a higher downforce setup of 35/37 wings for the shorter sprint race, and reverted back to 25/27 wings for the main race, and my conclusion is that it’s better to stick with lower wings at this track)

update 2 – This setup did work well for me online as well, bagging me 3rd in a 50% league race. Not because of blinding pace but just consistency as the stable planted feel of the setup allowed me to set consistent laps on both the medium and hard tyre and pass ahead of others as they struggled on less stable setups once the tyres started wearing.

More Setup Analysis & Tips

Once again, you can go in different directions with the setup here, so here’s some extra analysis on creating your own preferred configuration.

Wing levels

There’s different directions you can go for sure here, but my conclusion is to use similar wing levels Brazil to the last few games – around medium level. I tried 35/37 wings for the sprint sessions, and it firstly wasn’t very strong in Qualifying, plus it didn’t make my traction, corner exits or chasing other cars much easier, plus I was getting pestered by the AI on the main straight.

Switching down to 25/27, pace was about similar for both quali and the race (it’s not my strongest setup and I’ll keep working on it), but it was possible this time to defend on the straights. I could still follow cars in the middle section, plus traction was manageable still, a little twitchy the last few laps of each stint, but still manageable.

Therefore, I’ve reverted back to the more normal approach of mid level wings, which seemed to work better. You just need that straight line speed here with the amount of the lap that’s full throttle plus even a moderate level of downforce still works fine in the middle section. Therefore, around 23 to 27 wing levels are what I’d recommend.

Tyre Pressures

Following on from the last track Mexico, Brazil is another one where the tyres seem to overheat very easily on this game (especially the rear tyres, with the rear right the worst). Therefore it’s maximum pressures all tyres again to keep the temps down. Watch out for the right rear especially for overheating.

Stability vs Pace

The really important settings I’ve tweaked here for stability are raising the Off Throttle Diff to 55, moving the toe in a few clicks and flipping the roll bars round to 14/10 (which keeps the car nicely planted going through the 1/2/3 Senna Esses plus the Junaco corner). These settings in combination reduce rotation and keep the car stable and easy to control on worn tyres (especially on the hard tyre). If you want something more aggressive, drop the Off Diff down to 40 or 45, move the toe values back to the left or flip the rolls bars round to 12/16 or 12/21.

Intermediate Conditions

Brazil is one of those tracks that’s got tricky traction zones in the wet, and where over-rotation on a pad can really hurt you out of corners. Therefore I’d always space the rear wing 4 clicks above the front in any wet conditions, for more stable handling (so something like 26/30 to 28/32). Also set your On Throttle Diff to 10 if not already there for easiest traction, and raise you Off Throttle Diff to 55 or 60 to dampen the rotation and make traction easier. Then it’s a case of smooth inputs on the steering and throttle out of corners.

Full Wet Races

Not uncommon round here but sadly not fun usually, as the traction gets even harder. Here I would add a lot of wing, and space them 5 clicks apart, so something like 35/40 or even 40/45. You would need the extra downforce and traction of higher wings in the wet. Also raise the Off Throttle Diff to 60 and raise the ride height 3-5 clicks. Then focus on being super cautious and moderated on throttle and steering input, not going on full power until 5th gear in full wet conditions. Turning ERS down to None in slow corners can also help with traction.

Strategy & Racing Tips

Brazil often presents an interesting race, with unpredictable weather as well as the hectic weekend format throwing up some surprises and challenges. Here’s some tips for racing here.

Sprint Weekend – On the 2025 calendar, Brazil is the 5th of 6th Sprint Race weekend formats (Practice—-Sprint Quali—Sprint Race—-Main Quali —– Main Race).

Therefore, you’ve only got one 30 minute practice session to do the practice programmes and dial a setup in – choose the Harder tyre allocation before the weekend starts to free up some softs for this session if you want to prioritise qualifying pace for this event. The balanced allocation gives you one set of hards and one set of softs. And get going with the practice programmes right away if you need the resources points. Your setup is locked as soon as you drive out in Sprint Quali, but is briefly unlocked again before the main qualifying if you decide you want to try something different like lower wings).

Sprint Qualifying – Depending on your tyre allocation, you might be limited to only 1 set of soft tyres for some of the qualifying sessions. If so, wait until the last 5 minutes of these sessions before setting your flying lap, as this is when the track is “rubbered in” and at it’s fastest.

ERS (Qualifying) – Got a healthy allowance to use on the all the straights, but there’s an interesting new quirk that seems to have just been noticed on this game, whereby on some tracks it might be better on qualifying laps to switch between medium and Overtake rather than the supposedly faster Hotlap and Overtake. The medium helps with traction out of corners and can actually improve lap times, so it’s worth testing on different flying laps instead of just using Hotlap and Overtake.  Check the yellow ERS meter and look to drain it to around 10% just as you finish your flying lap.

Tyre Wear and Strategy – Here are approximate wear rates I found:

• Soft – 5.5 – 6% per lap (not really a usable race tyre, overheats very quickly)
• Medium – 4.5% per lap
• Hard – 3% per lap
• Front and rear right wear the most, and rear right is especially susceptible to overheating on all tyre types, so needs to be managed.

You might be able to do a 2-4 lap blast on the soft tyres in a 25% race, and then go straight onto the hards, but that’s often not an optimal strategy as you’re breaking out the DRS train too early, plus this might make traction tricky towards the end of your stint on the hards. Mostly, it’s a medium-hard strategy round here for all races, and 50% races are also likely a two stop unless you’re very good on tyres. Also, the “undercut” strategy – where you come in 1-2 laps early to take advantage of fresh tyres – does seem quite powerful here, and you can make up a bunch of places doing this.

(update – medium-hard-hard seems to work well in 50% races, with 8-10 easy laps on the medium and 15+ easy laps on the hard tyres using my setup. can push the whole time without much issue as setup keeps the rear end stable).

Defending – Fending off chasing AI can be very tricky round here on this game. And with two DRS zones in close succession at Brazil, it makes the low vs high wing trade-off even more difficult to decide on. But with 25/27 wings it was just about possible if you’re in a DRS train – just save your ERS for the two main DRS zones, and use it only when needed the let it recharge the rest of the lap. Also getting a good smooth exit out of the left hand uphill “Junção” corner that leads onto the pit straight is important to keep far enough ahead of chasing cars that they can’t overtake. If you fall out of the DRS train, you might have to give up position and recharge behind another car for a while.