The Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona has been solidly on the F1 calendar for around 35 years now. It’s had a good run, but looks set to be replaced by the new Madrid Street Circuit from 2026 onwards.

 

For a race setup, it does need to be dialled back somewhat from a TT setup, since tyre wear is quite high here and traction gets seriously tricky here towards the end of stints.

Here’s a stability focused pad setup that I’m using for Catalunya right now:

• Wings – 28/30 (now recommend 38/40)
• Diff – 10/50
• Camber/Toe – -3.50/-2.00/0.00/0.15
• Suspension – 41-3-12–16-22-49
• Brakes – 100% Pressure/55% Bias
• Tyre Pressures – Maximum all tyres.

This is definitely a more “under-steery” setup, but is designed to be easy to control once the tyres have worn, not just at the start of stints. And as an extra bonus, you can use the soft tyre for short stints using this setup. I’ll cover some options to make it more aggressive below.

(update – having discovered when doing my CoTA setup how effective using higher wings can be on this game for a number of reasons, I’d actually recommend using higher wings somewhere close to 40, and using this extra downforce to get a good exit out the last turn and using all your ERS to defend just on the pit straight. That’s what I’ll be trying next time; my linked CoTA guide goes into more details on the benefits of using higher wings on this game).

Hotlap With My Setup

 

Additional Setup Considerations

Wings – 28/30 is where I started at, but you might want to go even lower to 26/28 if you want to be stronger on the straights against the AI. Going above 30 can give better lap times but leaves you vulnerable in the main DRS zone.

(update – however, using higher wings also makes the traction easier on worn tyres, as well as making you less affected by dirty air. May be the better option round here).

Geometry (Camber/Toe) – For this track, I’m following my recent habit of adding some extra rear toe for more rear stability. You can do the LLLL configuration that’s proving popular online, and it can give you a bit more outright performance. But I want more stability, especially when the tyres start to wear on longer stints.

Anti-Roll Bars – I’m using 12/16 roll bars for decent cornering performance, but if you’re more concerned about controlling the traction on worn tyres or in the wet, it’s possible to flip the ARBs round to 14/10 like I did at Monaco, again to get a more stable and planted feel. Will come in handy once tyre wear kicks in. If you want something more aggressive, try something like or 12/21, which will give more cornering performance but be more unstable with worn tyres.

More Rotation/Turn In – If you’re wanting the car to rotate more sharply when using this setup, especially in Qualifying, you can: a) put raise the front wing to put it level with or even above the rear, or b) Reduce the Off Throttle Diff to 45, 40 or even 35. Will provide a sharper turning response but will also make the traction harder to control in the race on worn tyres.

Intermediate Conditions – When it’s light rain conditions, traction is king on this circuit. Set the rear wing 3 or even 4 clicks above the front for better stability, and perhaps add 1-2 clicks of wing to your dry setup, as well raising your Off Throttle Diff 5 or even 10 points to dial out rotation. I had a decent setup using 28/32 wings and 60 Off Throttle Diff in inter conditions here, but you have to be super cautious on the traction to prevent the rear tyres spinning up and overheating.

Full Wet Conditions – For heavy rain, add a bunch more wing, like 5-7 clicks to your dry setup, and space your wings 4-5 clicks apart. Increase your Off Throttle Diff to 60 or even 65, and raise ride height 3-5 clicks. It’s about dialing out the rotation on the pad until you reach the point where traction on corner exits becomes easy again because the car is not over-rotating. If you’ve still got the back end stepping out and those wheelspin moments, keep moving the settings in the direction I’ve suggested until the handling becomes comfortable again (being more cautious and patient on the throttle will also help). But in the full wet conditions I had here briefly, the car was hard to control and being super cautious and modulated on the throttle is a must.

Extra Racing & Strategy Tips

Races here can be interesting and more strategic than being full of overtaking, but here’s some extra tips for racing at Barcelona.

ERS Use (Qualifying) – You’ve got plenty of Overtake ERS to use to boost speed round Quali laps here; it actually seems hard to use it all up so deploy it along all the straights you can. Keep an eye on the yellow ERS meter and look to use it all up until you get the “Deployment Used” message comes up. I try to aim to drain it all the way down to around 10% coming to the end of the back straight (second DRS zone), and it then recharges through the twisty sector 3 and you can use one last burst coming onto the pit straight to finish a flying lap.

ERS Use/Defending (Race) – Your battery does drain faster here than other circuits, and unlike ’24 it’s hard to recoup this year. Therefore the racing defending strategy is simple – just save it to use along the pit straight as needed to hold position, and don’t use the rest of the lap to let it recharge. If it’s over-used in different parts of the lap, the level depletes very quickly on this game and is hard to recover. If you have over-used it, turning the ERS model down to None in sector 3 can help to recharge.

Tyre Temps, Wear and Strategy – It’s the front left you need to watch out for here. It both heats and wears much more than the other 3 tyres, which can make the handling weird towards the end of tyre stints. Here are the wear rates I found:

• Soft – 7.5% per lap
• Medium – 5.5% per lap
• Hard – 4.5% per lap

These are high wears rates for this game, but surprisingly I found the soft tyre WAS usable when using this setup – I got 5 solid laps out of a fresh set in practice, although I was sure to be careful and cautious on the traction. There you can do something like soft-hard in a 25% race if you’ve got a fresh set and you’re smooth on traction, but medium-hard will also be common even for 25% races. For 50% races, it’s a 2 stop with again with the medium and hard tyres being best to use.

Last 2 corners – Those two fast right handers that now finish the lap can be taken at really high speed – the penultimate one sometimes flat (take a wider entry and avoid the inside kerb) and the last one almost flat with a very slight lift with a good setup. Work on nailing these two to get a fast exit onto the pit straight, which helps with overtaking/defending when DRS is enabled. It’s more difficult on a controller than a wheel, but you can do them both with only a very slight lift of the throttle or flat with some practice.