Fixing Handling Issues On F1 24 (Understeer, Oversteer etc.)

It’s fair to say the handling on the release build of F1 24 wasn’t met with popular support among the fans. It was extremely sensitive and pointy to the point where many players did not find it enjoyable to drive.

It has been patched into an easier and largely stable state during the first few weeks after release. But the handling can still be tricky when you first turn the game on out the box, especially if you’re new to these games with the ’24 edition.

Therefore, I wanted to put together a guide on fixing common handling issues with F1 24, including key setup tweaks you can make to fix them and drive more consistently.

Let’s get started.

Identifying & Fixing Understeer (Not Turning Enough)

This is possibly the most common complaint among advanced players looking for more speed, or players who just prefer a responsive front end. Understeer is where the car doesn’t turn as much as the player wants, and is generally sluggish in the corners. Or put differently, the car doesn’t rotate as much or as quickly as the player wants when cornering.

If you’re applying steering input but just find the car is drifting wide or past your ideal line, not turning into the apex properly, it’s understeering.

One of the very first things to check if you’re getting this is the front tyre temperatures. Overheating is a real problem on F1 24 if you set pressures too low, and it will cause understeer once your tyres get to 110 C and beyond. Therefore be sure to raise front tyre pressures to maximum or close to it if they’re glowing yellow on your tyre temps MFD.

However, assuming this isn’t the issue, here’s some setup changes to make to fix this issue.

Change Wing Levels

This is a double edged sword, since using a pad I’ve personally preferred setting the rear wing higher than the front wing on the ’23 and ’24 games for more stability and easier traction, but this can produce some understeer. To minimize this and create more oversteer in the setup, it’s best to set the rear wing LOWER than the front wing, to produce a stronger, sharper turn to corners.

As a starting point, try setting the rear wing 2 clicks lower than the front wing if you want to reduce general understeer. For example, if you’re using 25 front wing, try a rear wing at 23. But if you’re new to the game, be prepared for harder to control traction, since the car might turn in too sharply and be easier to lose control of once you try and get back on the throttle out of corners (especially when on worn tyres). Try experimenting with different wing settings to see what works for you, but there’s always going to be a trade-off.

Differential Settings

Regarding understeer, the most important setting is the Off Throttle Differential, which controls how sharply the car turns when NOT on the throttle (in slow corners). A lower value produces sharper turn in, whereas a higher value produces a slower, more sluggish turn in off throttle. Therefore lower this value to reduce understeer in corners.

Check Tyre Temperatures

This is a less common cause, but can still happen especially when using the white hard tyre. Sometimes if your tyre pressures are set too high, the harder tyres cannot get up to temperature properly and this can generate horrible understeer in more prolonged corners.

I recently had this in an online race at Zandvoort. I noticed cornering grip was horribly off, and sure enough when I checked my tyre temps on the MFD, the front right tyre was glowing blue (indicating a lack of proper temperature). Green is ideal and yellow is too hot, whereas blue is too cold for a tyre.

If you see this there isn’t much you can do since you can’t change tyre pressures on the fly, but you can try switching onto a softer tyre if it makes sense strategically. Otherwise it’s about lowering the PSI on the relevant tyre(s) by 1-3 PSI in your setup to allow more temperature to get into them.

Identifying & Fixing Oversteer (Too Sensitive/Nervous)

The release handling model of F1 24 tended to have this complaint as the most common one. Players complained that the front end of the car was too nervous/pointy/sensitive. In other words, the car was turning too much/too sharply in corners, which is generally oversteer or the opposite of understeer.

If you’re having this issue with the handling, here’s some things to try.

Adjust Controller Calibration

Firstly, you can pull up your Controller settings by going to Options/Settings panel in game from the Pause menu, then go to Controls, Vibrations & Force Feedback. Select the control scheme you’re currently using, then go to Edit, Calibration settings, and modify the steering settings as needed.

Then for getting started with the F1 24 handling on a pad, you can increase the Linearity setting of all 3 inputs:

Steering Linearity to 50
Throttle Linearity to 50
Braking Linearity to 50

For oversteer, it’s the steering input that’s most key. Raising the linearity “deadens” the input slightly, so whatever you do on the joystick of your pad registers less in the game, for less acute/sharp steering.

Keep Wings Close Together

A lot of wheel setups for this game are using really crazy wing spacing, like 30/20 wings or something. This is going to create a very “over-steery” handling model with sharp turn in. If this is too much for you, bring the wings closer together so they’re level, or the rear wing is only 1-2 clicks below the front wing, to reduce this over-responsiveness.

For the ’24 game, I’m even setting the rear wing 2 clicks ABOVE the front wing to dial out more oversteer and create a stable handling model. And it seems to be working fine on a pad.

Fixing Traction Issues (Keep Spinning Out)

To be fair, the traction on the ’24 and ’23 games has been among the easiest on all the modern F1 games. Medium Traction control for example is really forgiving and still allows you to stamp on the throttle pretty aggressively out of corners.

But if you’re trying to move down to No Traction Control, throttle control can be tricky and can cause the back end to step out on corner exits, or even spins if you massively over-apply the throttle.

Here’s some tips to fix this issue:

Controller Settings – Firstly, try raising the Throttle Linearity (and possibly the Dead-zone) from the Calibration settings we described above, to soften the accelerator input slightly for easier traction.

Diff Settings – Secondly, reducing your On Throttle Differential setting deliver potentially less optimal overall traction, but makes that traction easier to apply, preventing spins. On F1 24, move this setting down to the minimum of 10 for the easiest traction.

Wing Spacing – Thirdly, again try setting the rear wing equal to, or even ABOVE the front wing, for a more stable handling model that prevents over-rotation, which in turn allows you to get back on the throttle more easily out of slow corners.

Here are some baselines in this regard:

Dry conditions – Set the rear wing 2 clicks above the front wing and adjust as needed
Wet conditions – Set the rear wing 3 clicks above the front wing and adjust as needed.

Modulate Inputs – Finally, driving with Traction Control completely disabled does require some practice to get used to. Try to be patient, progressive and smooth on the throttle input out of small corners. If you’re spinning out, it’s because you’re applying too much throttle too soon on corner exit. Apply the power more gradually to prevent this, although in fairness you can get on the full power pretty quickly on F1 24 (and ’23) compared to some more difficult previous games.

Summary Of Settings/Setup Changes For Easier Handling

Let’s assume you’re starting with the problem of the handling on ’24 being too nervous or sensitive, or too much oversteer (most common complaint on this game).

Here’s a summary of what to change to make it easier to control:

Wings – Set rear wing 2 clicks higher than the front on all tracks in the dry (3 click gap in the wet)
On Throttle Diff – 10 all tracks (increase to allow potentially better but harder to control traction)
Off Throttle Diff – 50 all tracks (increase to generate understeer, reduce to generate oversteer)
Steering Linearity – 50 (move down to 40 or 30 to generate more responsiveness).

If your main problem is too much understeer in the handling, you’d basically do the opposite of these changes for the steering and wings.

Sim Racing Configs