The F1 24 game didn’t get the best reception on release, but the handling has been made easier with a number of patches. But as with all F1 games, there’s still a learning curve and not many players will find themselves being quick immediately playing the game “out the box”.

The handing is quite different to other recent F1 games and takes some getting used to. As a result, you might find yourself a little bit slow in relative terms playing the game early on. How can you get faster on F1 24?

That’s what we’re going to cover in this guide, offering some simple general tips to get faster on F1 24. A lot of the tips are geared towards newer F1 gamers, but there’s some car setup and controller calibration tips that can be useful to all players to get quicker on F1 24, plus a video with some more advanced tips at the end.

Let’s get started with some things you can try to get faster on this year’s game.

Tip #1 – Don’t Use Full Traction Control

Most established F1 players already know this, but if you’re new to the games and still using the Full Traction Control (TC) assist, know that it’s really slowing you down. Full TC really bogs down the revs coming out of corners, and will make you a lot slower than players using Medium or no TC. This will be even more noticeable on tracks with a lot of slow corners.

You can adjust the traction control from the Assists menu from the Pause menu or main menu. Traction is really easy on F1 24, as it was on the ’23 game, so there’s never been an easier game since 2017 to successfully shift down from Full TC to Medium TC.

You just need the make sure the car is pointing somewhat straight out of a corner, and from there you can pretty much smash on full throttle out of corners when using Medium TC. No TC requires a bit more care and throttle modulation, but is still very easy on this year’s game versus previous games.

Tip #2 – Space Your Wings For Optimal Traction Out Of Corners

Carrying on with the traction issue, it’s clear to me that on this year’s game, a HUGE amount of lap time gains come from getting a smooth exit out of corners, without wheelspin.

Of course, this is true on all F1 games, but watching deltas it’s especially noticeable on F1 23 how much time you gain on corner exit when your throttle application and exit is smooth.

Being analytical about this, it’s about getting the optimal amount of turn in to corners – not too much, but not too little either. This allows you to get the car pointing straight and not twisted out of corners, so you can get back on the throttle smoothly.

Taking this back a step further, the key setting you need to nail for this is wing spacing. Space your wings apart for an optimal level of turn-in for corners, so you can get back on the throttle as quickly and smoothly as possible on corner exit.

You’re needing to find a happy medium between two extremes:

• Too much turn in (oversteer) – Car over-rotates and means you can’t get back on the traction without wheelspin.
• Too little turn in (understeer) – Car doesn’t rotate enough and it takes too long to get back on the throttle out of corners.

This will be different depending on input device, controller settings, personal preference and driving style. Pad handling is also very sensitive out the box on F1 24 and can lead to over-rotation, but here’s what works for me using a controller:

• Dry conditions – space the rear wing 2 clicks above the front wing for optimal turn in.
• Wet conditions – Space the rear wing 3 clicks above the front wing for optimal turn in.
• On Throttle Diff – Start with 10 for easiest traction and adjust as you gain experience
• Off Throttle Diff – Start with 50 and lower as needed once you get used to the handling.
• Engine Braking – Start with 50 as a baseline and increase as needed once you get used to it.

And then some ideal controller settings to get started with, and tweak to your preference, if you’re finding the handling too nervous and twitchy:

• Increase Steering Linearity to 40 or 50
• Increase Throttle Linearity to 40 or 50
• Increase Braking Linearity to 40 or 50

Tip #3 – Use A Custom Car Setup

As well as using custom wing spacing, it’s generally better to use a custom car setup overall as well. It does vary in terms of the advantage it gives you versus using a default of “preset” setup – on some tracks it might only a be a few tenths advantage. On other tracks though, it can improve your pace by 0.5 to 1 seconds using a custom setup, which is a big advantage.

Also, as a general rule, using lower wing levels is proving to work better in races on many tracks on F1 24, with the overpowered speed on the straights and very powerful ERS/DRS/slipstream effect. Using a balanced default setup won’t give you enough straight line speed to properly attack/defend on many tracks on this game. It’s better to use custom setups.

See our generic car setup article with starting setups for different track types, plus links to customised car race setups for pad users for every single track on the F1 24 game. There are also lots of other setup resources online we link to, so you can find a setup style that suits you, since there’s a a huge variety in setups and driving styles among players.

Using a custom car setup also allows you set your tyre pressures appropriately on a track by track basis to avoid overheating, which is a HUGE problem on F1 24 and will cost you a lot of time. Keep pressures on the higher side on most tracks to avoid over-heating. Our custom setups provide good pressures to use for all tracks.

Tip #4 – Use Manual Gears

This is another assist that can gain you a lot of time if you turn it off. I haven’t managed to do this yet – I’ve always used automatic gears. But I’ll freely admit it hinders your pace and learning to use manual gears gains you quite a lot of lap time.

The pace advantage can come from upshifts, where you can move up through the gears manually to control wheel-spin for better traction out of certain corners.

But also downshifts or lack of them when using manual gears. When on auto, the gears will often shift up unnecessarily in higher gears, which you have greater control of on manual gears. There’s often no need to shift to 8th gear at the end of some straights – it’s better to stay in 7th and you can control this better on manual gears.

Tip #5 – Switch To Using A Wheel

This is kind of a cheat tip, since a lot of readers want to stay on a pad like I have. But like turning off some or all assists, it’s another step up you can take that will give you a huge pace advantage if you put the hours in and are prepared to take one step back to take two or three steps forward in time.

Although if you’re a pad user and switch to using wheel, you’ll be slower to begin with, once you get used to it, you’ll usually be faster in the long run.

Some advantages of using a wheel include:

• Being able to control the steering and throttle more much more precision and nuance
• Making it easier to control traction and move to No traction control
• Making it easier to use manual gears (shift paddles)
• Allowing you to run MUCH more aggressive and faster over one lap car setups versus pad users, with the rear wing much lower than the front wing (I find this impossible using a pad).

See our article on using a wheel for F1 24 for more on these benefits, plus some wheel suggestions.

Tip #6 – Practice & Be Patient

Finally, a more over-arching point to get faster on any of the F1 games is just to practice. The F1 games in general are about developing muscle memory through repetition, consistency and patience.

For newer players though, the handling can be intimidating, so I advise building up confidence in stages.

Find controller calibration settings and car setups that allow you to drive comfortably and confidently with a stable feel, and then build up pace and try slightly more aggressive setups as your confidence with the handling grows.

Here’s some other tips on how to practice to get better.

• When on Time Trial, don’t restart laps where you invalidate – keep going to keep building that muscle memory on that particular track (where to brake, where to turn, where you can carry more speed, etc).
• Another Time Trial tactic is to leave rival ghosts on if you can stand it (I hate this myself) and keep selecting rival laps that are just a bit faster than the best time you can manage. And just observe which corners they are faster on so you know where you can find time.
• Race in online lobbies with drivers a little bit faster than you. When playing against better players, you can’t help but learn from them and see where they’re faster and how to drive certain tracks.
• Watch F1 YouTubers online to see how they race, how consistent they are, setups they use, etc. Again, by watching fast players, you’ll soak up info on how to get faster yourself. I learned most of my skills from this channel, but there’s many others as well (here’s another good channel).

Advanced Tips

See also the good video below for some more advanced and nuanced suggestions on getting faster on F1 24:

 

Here’s a quick summary of some ninja tips or hacks for getting faster from the video:

1. Get your controller calibration settings right, with a level of responsiveness that’s just right (not too much, not too little). We have a guide on this for pad users. Raising the linearity on all 3 inputs seems to be key for players struggling on a controller.
2. Have a baseline/template setup you start off with on all tracks just to get used to the handling. I’ve got you covered with that on this blog, and I agree with this point 100%. On quite a few tracks, the baseline I use just with the wings adjusted for the track, works great and I don’t need to look any further for a setup.
3. Trail-braking – A crucial advanced braking method that goes beyond the simpler “brake–release brake—-turn in—hit apex–back on power” routine. Involves going into a corner on full brake, and then maintaining some braking pressure but gradually releasing it as you rotate through the corner. Allows you to carry more speed in corners, but takes some practice and only really works on ’24 if you turn ABS off.
4. Use ERS smartly – Firstly, if you’re new to these games, move away from using the “Auto” ERS mode as soon as possible, as it’s not very efficient in the way it deploys. Normally, just leaving it on Medium and occasionally using Overtake is fine, but sometimes you might want to strategically switch to “None” in slower corners to recoup some battery.
5. Racing IQ – Excellent point raised, and I put is simply a being forward thinking during races and not just thinking about the very next corner/lap, but the next few corners/laps after that and playing the longer game strategically. How can you “set up” your racing lines and braking points to overtake a car more cleverly over the space of a few corners rather than going for a risky divebomb at one single corner? Trying to anticipate what other drivers are going to do. Also, constantly running over strategy in your head sector by sector – would it be wise to pit a few laps early and jump some cars? What would I do if a safety car came out right now? Trying to think dynamically to get an advantage over other players.
6. “Opposite side” cornering – Hard to explain in words, but it basically means almost pointing the car very slightly AWAY from the apex before turning into it, to create an optimal (wider) cornering angle and get a better exit. Best shown visually but basically means turning very slightly away from the direction of a corner before turning (sharply) into it, to create more of a “V” shape in terms of the car’s trajectory through a corner.
7. Super advanced tip – Do the braking, downshifting and turning-in all at the same time, not separately. Only applies if you’re using manual gears, but gains you time if you can merge the inputs all together instead of doing them sequentially.