The Monaco race is seen as a classic in real life, but honestly on the games it’s probably more a race that’s endured rather than enjoyed on a pad. I’m not going to lie, I’m usually glad when this event is over.

 

But the controller handling does seem massively improved on F1 25 vs ’24, with a lot of the twitchyness dialed out, and it is possible to find a setup that’s at least stable and planted if not blisteringly fast. But blisteringly fast is not what I want at Monaco anyway; I just want to get through this race without crashing or damaging my wing.

If that’s what you’re looking for as well, here’s the early controller setup I’ve saved for Monaco:

• Wings – 47/50
• Diff – 10/55
• Camber – -3.50/-2.00/0.00/0.15 (LLLL/0.15)
• Suspension –  39-6-14-10-23-50
• Brakes – 100% Pressure/55% Bias
• Tyres – 24.0 fronts; 22.0 rears

This was nice and stable and got me round the circuit reasonably consistently with competitive pace on 100 AI level, but again don’t expect it to be blinding fast because Monaco is about survival for many players.

More Setup Info And Possible Tweaks

Wing Levels – Need max wing levels round here, but I’ve put the 3 click spacing with the front lower just for stability and easier handling, especially when the tyres wear. Traction starts getting super tricky here when tyres are 40% plus on wear, so stability is needed over longer stints.

More Aggressive – If you do decide you want more “pointy-ness”, and general responsiveness and potential pace (at the cost of greater instability), you can a) bring the wings closer together and use something like 50/50 or 50/49 wing, b) go full LLLL for geometry settings, c) swap your roll bar settings round and go for something like 10/19 or 10/21, or d) reduce your Off Throttle diff to 45 or 40 for sharper cornering when off the power. Just be aware that the car will be harder to control, especially with worn tyres, and you’re also more likely to turn in too sharply and clip one of the barriers.

Controller Calibration – This was finally the race that forced me change some calibration settings for the throttle, since I was noticing that the traction was over-applying in the lower range of the input and causing wheel spin out of slow corners. You can just try to modulate your trigger input a bit more, but another way to reduce the sharpness of the early throttle input is to increase the Throttle Saturation by 10 or 20 clicks from where it is. There’s a whole lot of sort of creeping round sections of the track here on partial throttle on a pad just to keep the car stable, so tweaking the throttle calibration can help you get a level of traction input you prefer.

Intermediate Conditions – The dry setup posted above worked decently for me in light rain, but with a few important tweaks. First, add more spacing to the wings – even 1 click change from 47/50 down to 46/50 made a HUGE difference from the car being unstable to suddenly being stable. Then also raise the Off Throttle Diff from 55 to 60, and drop the On Throttle Diff to minimum if it’s not already there. It’s all about dialing over-rotation out of the car, so you can get back on the throttle smoothly out of slow corners, without that horrible wheelspin you get when the back end steps out.

Full Wet Setup – For heavy rain, take your inter setup and go even further with it, right down to 45/50 wings and 60 or maybe even 65 Off Throttle Diff to keep the car stable on traction. Also raise the ride height 3-5 clicks from your dry setup. You can also slightly soften the suspension and roll bars if you want.

Racing & Strategy Tips

It’s difficult to get to the end of a race weekend without something happening to your car here, but here’s some extra tips to make the most of a tricky weekend here.

Modulated Inputs – The setup I posted did work well for me at Monaco – I got through my first Qualifying and race with no flashbacks, crashes or wing damage, which is unusual for me here! But I had to get the hang of being super careful on both my throttle and steering inputs, not always using the full left-right range of the joystick for the steering (more like half or two thirds of the input), and being patient and progressive on the power. Waiting that bit longer before getting on the throttle out of slow corners adds to your tyre life and therefore how long you can stretch stints out before the handling gets trickier.

ERS (Qualifying) – You’ve got LOADS of Overtake ERS mode to use on a qualifying lap here, to the point where it’s actually hard to deploy it all. Try to spam your Overtake button on any short or medium length straight on a Quali lap to boost your speed, and you can use it on the pit straight both going onto your hotlap, and finishing it. You’re aiming to drain your yellow ERS meter until the “Deployment Used” sign comes up, just as you finish your hotlap.

ERS Management (Race) – Your ERS in the race is the opposite of qualifying – it runs out super fast and is very hard to recover once it drops below 50%. But the good news is that it’s very hard to be overtaken here so as long as you have enough for a burst going onto the pit straight each lap, it should be fine. You can also turn your ERS down to “None” in some of the slower sections (like the 5/6/7/8 section that leads onto the tunnel straight) to help recharge it. Going down to “None” in sector 3 for example can also help make traction easier when the rear tyres are starting to give up.

Tyre Wear – Tyre wear and overheating is less of an issue round here (hence the lower tyre pressures), but here are the figures I found:

• Soft – 6.5-7% per lap
• Medium -4% per lap
• Hard – 2.5-3% per lap
• Rear right wears the most, closely followed by the front right and rear left.

The soft tyre is usable in shorter races for a few laps, but traction starts getting really tricky on it quite quickly, so you might need to get rid of it fairly quickly. Then I actually prefer the hard tyre, as it seems to deliver comparable lap times to the medium but feels more stable for longer.

Strategy (IMPORTANT new rule for Monaco) – Also note that the mandatory 2 stop rule for Monaco in 2025 has been carried over to the game, so for 25% or longer races, you will need to do 2 stops. For longer races, it’s probably optimal to just use the medium and hard tyres in 3 stints, although you could do soft-hard-hard if you have 2 sets of the hard tyres spare. For 25% races, my current strategy is to save a fresh set of soft tyres and use them in your SECOND stint to really try and get a powerful “undercut” and jump a few cars after your first pit stop by extracting all the pace possible out of new soft tyres on your out-lap.

First Lap Carnage – Like Baku and a few other tracks, Monaco is one of those races where the AI really bunch up on lap 1 and it’s easy to go steaming in too fast and smash your front wing, and that’s your race ruined from there. Watch out for all of sector 1, and especially the Loews hairpin. Just focus on getting through the first lap unscathed, coasting cautiously into any slow braking zones, and then try to make up positions from there.