The Imola circuit is a challenging but super fun track to race on, with tricky and technical sections that require accuracy and consistency lap after lap to get right. It seems like it’s set to drop off the F1 calendar in the next few years, but I hope it stays on the calendar and on the games.

Medium downforce seems to be the best way to go round here, with one long massive straight you need to defend on, but much of the rest being high speed technical sections that you need a decent level downforce to navigate.

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

• Wings – 25/27 or 36/38
• Diff – 10/55
• Camber – -3.50/-2.00/0.05/0.15
• Suspension – 41-3-14-10-23-50
• Brakes – 100% Pressure/55% Bias
• Tyre pressures – Middle fronts, maximum rears

My setup is a significant mod of my usual template, with some major tweaks to add more stability to the setup for the high speed sections and tricky traction zones where the car can over-rotate.

It’s also designed to help you drive more consistently and avoid the one thing that can really kill you in races here – corner cutting penalties if you’ve got strict settings on.

Note – I didn’t have a great first race here as I kept getting blown past on the straights by the AI, but this seems to be a common complaint for many players at this track in the early build of the game. It appears the AI difficulty is over-powered here, still not patched as of July 2025. Therefore consider dropping the AI difficulty down about 10 clicks if you can’t match the AI’s delta on the straights regardless of the wing level you use. 

Hotlap With This Setup

 

More Setup Info And Tweaks

Wing Levels – You can actually vary this quite a bit and different players go different routes here. For me, I got absolutely destroyed by the AI on the straights using 25/27 wings on 100 AI, but I’m pretty sure it’s a bug at this track so next time I’ll be turning the AI down to 90 and think I’ll be fine. Some players are using wings in the 30s here (try something like 36/38 or 38/40), but you’d need strong race pace to pull away from chasing cars or you’ll get eaten up on the straights. My usual 2 click spacing with the rear wing higher is also important for stability and traction as stints go on.

For now, I’m sticking with 25/27 and just lowering the difficulty until the AI is patched at this track and brought back to a more reasonable level.

Geometry and roll bars – I’ve bumped both the front and rear toe in 5 clicks to add some much needed stability round here. I’m finding this LLLL geometry setting that all the wheel users are recommending doesn’t work well on a pad once the tyres start to wear and introduces a lot of instability. Adding the extra toe does make the tyres wear very slightly more, but makes handling a lot easier towards the end of stints. I’ve also used 14/10 roll bars to again give a planted feel that may feel a bit sluggish on fresh tyres but is badly needed for smoother traction once the tyres start to wear.

Tweaks To Get a More Aggressive Setup – If you do want something that isn’t so focused on stability, take my baseline and do any of the following to make the car more nervous/unstable but potentially faster: a) go more aggressive on the roll bars using something like 10/19 or 10/21, b) invert the wings so the front is higher than the rear, something like 33/30, c) move the toe settings all the way to the left again, or d) lower Off throttle Diff to 45 or 40 for sharper rotation.

Intermediate Conditions – Rain makes it super tricky round here with the traction zones. For light rain conditions, use similar wing levels to your dry setup but space the rear wing 3 clicks above the front for more stability. Also raise your Off Throttle Diff 10 points or 2 clicks in the settings to reduce rotation and make traction easier. These tweaks seemed to work for me, but I had to be super cautious and patient with the throttle on the slower corner exits.

Full Wet Conditions – Heavy rain is going to be even harder if you run into it here. Add a bunch more wing to your dry setup and space them 5 clicks apart (I’d use something like 35/40, and again put your Off Throttle Diff to 60 and On Throttle to minimum if not already there). Soften your suspension and raise your ride height 3-5 clicks from the dry. And as with inter conditions, be a lot more progressive and patient on the power out of corners.

Racing Tips & Strategy

Imola is a tricky track that requires patience and practice to master. It’s not advised to just turn up to competitive races at Imola and hope everything works out fine; it’s really a track you need to practice beforehand on to build up a good rhythm and consistency. Same for career mode – it’s really a circuit when it can pay to make full use of the practice sessions to master the layout and find a setup that works for you.

Here’s some more tips for navigating a race weekend here:

Rear Tyres And Traction – Just like the last track Miami, it seems to be all about being patient on the throttle here out of certain corners (Tosa Hairpin turn 7, bottom of the hill turn 12, exit of 14/15 chicane at the top of the hill) is crucial to save the rear tyres. Applying too much steering input and/or “snatching” on the throttle out of corners makes the rear tyre wear worse, so try to be more patient and progressive as tyre stints go on.

Tyre Wear and Strategy (Race) – Here are the wear rates I found from my testing:

• Softs – 7% per lap
• Medium – 4.5% per lap
• Hard – 3.5% per lap
• Front right tyre wears the most

The soft tyre actually holds up better here than at some other tracks, so it can be used for a 3-5 lap stint in 25% races if you have a fresh set of them to start with. They’ve got great grip for a few laps, but once the wear on them starts going above 35-40%, traction gets tricky. For longer 50% races, it’s realistically a 2 stop using the medium and hard tyres.

Defending – Holding position in a slower car against the AI can be really tricky on this track, as ERS runs out quickly and does not recoup easily on the ’25 game (especially when it drops below 50%). The pit straight is massive and DRS is enabled along most of it, so try to always get a strong exit (smooth throttle) out of the final corner onto this straight, and if necessary save ALL your ERS allowance every lap to use along this straight (and don’t use it anywhere else), as you’ll need it to defend against AI cars closing in on you. Sometimes though, even using lower wings it’s a losing battle and you may be best to let cars through the stay in their DRS for a few laps to recharge your own battery.

(If you’re using lower wings at around 20 or below and still getting blown past on the straights, I’m pretty sure it’s a fault with the AI calibration at this circuit as I’ve seen this feedback a lot specifically for Imola. Perhaps leave it out of custom seasons until a patch, or lower the AI 10 clicks or more from normal).