The awesome Lusail International Circuit in Qatar is a brutal high speed test on an F1 car’s aero and mechanical capabilities but also a super fun and popular track since it first appeared on the F1 games in 2023.

 

With regards to car setup, it’s largely a similar tradeoff to what we’ve had the previous two games, with you needing straight line speed to defend on the massive long pit straight, but need some serious downforce for the twisty infield section and all the high speed corners.

But on F1 25, running a high downforce setup is more possible and that’s what I’m leaning towards on tracks like this with twisty sections and only one major DRS zone to defend in. Therefore high downforce is the recommendation, although you can run medium-high downforce as well depending on preference.

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

• Wings – 42/44
• Diff – 10/45
• Camber/Toe – -3.50/-2.00/0.03/0.13
• Suspension – 41-3-1-10-22-49
• Brakes – 100% Pressure/53% Bias
• Tyre Pressures – Maximum all tyres

More Setup Info & Tips

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

Wing Levels – You can go a lower route with the aero – something like 34/36 wings – for stronger speed on the main straight. But it’ll make you weaker in all the infield section and higher downforce setups tend to work better over longer races on F1 25 anyway. I’m preferring 42/44 right now as it pulls you through sector 3 nicely and gives a good launch onto the pit straight which, when combined with good ERS use, can usually keep you out of reach of chasing cars in the DRS zone. The extra downforce also makes following cars through that final section of high speed corners easier (you’ll be less affected by dirty air).

Rotation – The traction is actually surprisingly good here from the testing and racing I’ve done, so I’ve gone more aggressive with the Off Throttle Diff and lowered it to 45 for better rotation when cornering (you can go even lower and try something like 40 or 35). I think it’s because most of the corners are medium or high speed with only one or two real traction zones when you’re accelerating from slower speeds. That plus the high wings I’m using means the handling is a bit easier this year and you can go for more rotation with the Diff and Suspension settings.

Intermediate Conditions – You’ll never encounter this in career mode, but if someone’s messing about turning on rain here in an online lobby, I’d just use maximum wings or close to it, but with 4 click spacing (46/50), plus 55 or 60 Off throttle Diff  to control rotation. And then be even more careful on throttle and steering inputs and save all your ERS for the pit straight alone.

Full Wet Conditions – For full wet, again max wings but 5 click spacing (so 45/50), plus 60 or 65 Off Diff and raise the ride height 3-5 clicks. Again, you’ll almost never encounter this unless someone’s being mischievous in an online lobby, but full wet generally isn’t too much fun on this game. Be super cautious on throttle and steering inputs, and try turning ERS down to None in heavy traction zones if you’re still struggling.

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 sprint 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.
• Because you can go different routes with the wing levels on F1 25, you can take advantage of the flexible parc ferme settings for sprint weekends to change course. Setups are locked before you drive out in Sprint Qualifying, but briefly unlocked again just before you drive out in Main Qualifying. Therefore if you realize you’ve gone too high/low on the wings for the sprint sessions, you can correct course and change your setup just before you go out in main qualifying (4th session).

ERS (Qualifying)

You’ve got a decent allowance of Overtake mode to use on flying laps here. Therefore you can use it all along the pit straight going onto your flying lap, finishing the lap, and on two of shorter straights as well (like exit turn 3 and turn 10). Aim to get the “deployment used” sign to come up just as you finish any flying lap.

Tyre Wear and Strategy

Wear is high at Qatar; here are the rates I found:

• Soft – 7% per lap
• Medium – 5.5% per lap
• Hard – 4% per lap
• Front left wear the most, both front and rear left sensitive to overheating on soft tyre especially.

The tyres wear out very quickly at Qatar but I think you can on the ’25 game just squeeze 5 laps out of the soft tyre using my setup (but not really any more). It’s the medium or hard you need to use in longer races (might even for 25% distance as well), and it’s the front left that wears much more than the other tyres. Keep an eye on tyre wear towards the end of longer stints – 70% or above wear and you’re in potential puncture territory.

ERS & Defending/Attacking (Race)

Your ERS allowance drains very quickly on F1 25, and unlike on ’24, it doesn’t recoup very quickly so you need to be very sparing with it. Therefore, it’s recommended to just use as much Overtake as is needed all along the pit straight to fend off any chasing cars, but don’t use anywhere else and just let it recharge.

Here’s a general strategy for defending:

• Using higher wing levels and getting used to nailing sector 3 flat or almost flat can get you far enough head exiting the final corner that defending is possible.
• Make sure you go onto the pit straight with your ERS bar at least 2/3 to 3/4 full.
• Deploy Overtake around halfway down the pit straight if the chasing car has DRS, to prevent them getting alongside (as long as you get the final few corners right, you should be far enough ahead that that’s all you need).
• 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, don’t use your ERS 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.
• For attacking, use the high downforce of my setup to stay close to cars in sector 3 (won’t be so affected by dirty air with high wings) and save all your ERS to use on the pit straight.
• For overtakes, your best chance is to wait for when the car in front has dropped out of DRS of the car in front of them. Save all your battery for a move here, and deploy all along the pit straight along with DRS (you can come from a long way back and get overtakes done into turn 1 if you save your ERS wisely).

(my setup has been working very well for me at Qatar both online and offline, delivering good stability and allowing me to move forward in races as well as defend. The high wings seem to work very well on F1 25)