Alright, so I jumped into F1 24 earlier today, decided it was time to get a feel for the Qatar circuit. Always find Losail a bit tricky, especially those fast, flowing sections. You really need a stable car there.
Fired up a time trial session first, just to see where I was at. Loaded up the default balanced setup, and man, it felt pretty rough straight out of the box. The rear end was way too loose on throttle out of the slower corners, and through those quick esses, the car just felt lazy, like it didn’t want to turn in.
So, back to the garage I went. First thing I messed with was the aero. The default felt like it had way too much rear wing for me. Knocked the rear wing down a few clicks and bumped the front wing up one, trying to get the nose to bite more.
Went back out. Okay, turn-in felt a little better, but now the rear was even more sketchy under power. Classic trade-off, right?
Back in again. Time to look at the transmission. I adjusted the on-throttle differential, locking it up quite a bit more. Figured that might help put the power down more evenly coming out of the corners. Also unlocked the off-throttle diff a touch, hoping it would help the car rotate better when lifting off into the turns.
Next up was suspension geometry. Didn’t go too crazy here. Added a bit more negative camber on the front and rear, trying to maximize the tyre contact patch during cornering. Reduced the front toe-out slightly, aiming for better stability on the straights.
Then the main suspension components. This track has some pretty aggressive kerbs you need to use, so I softened the front suspension and anti-roll bar a bit. Kept the rear a bit stiffer to maintain that rotation I was looking for. Dropped the ride height slightly, especially at the rear, to help with the aero balance.
Brakes – I usually like high pressure, so pushed that up near the max. Moved the brake bias slightly forward compared to the default, maybe around 56% or 57%. Felt more comfortable threshold braking like that.
Finally, tyre pressures. Started dropping them slightly all around from the default, trying to get more grip and manage the temperatures better over a run. Qatar can be tough on tyres.
After all that fiddling, I spent a good chunk of time just pounding laps. Felt much better. The car was more predictable, less snappy on throttle, and I could actually attack those fast corners with more confidence. It’s definitely not perfect, still think I could fine-tune the aero balance and maybe the rear suspension, but it’s a solid baseline for me now.
Here’s roughly where I ended up after the session, if anyone’s curious. Again, this worked for me, might need tweaking for your style.
Aerodynamics
- Front Wing Aero: Maybe around 38
- Rear Wing Aero: Settled near 32
Transmission
- Differential Adjustment On Throttle: Pushed this up to about 70%
- Differential Adjustment Off Throttle: Dropped it down to 52%
Suspension Geometry
- Front Camber: Close to max negative
- Rear Camber: Similar, maybe -1.50
- Front Toe-Out: Reduced it to maybe 0.02
- Rear Toe-In: Kept it fairly standard, around 0.15
Suspension
- Front Suspension: Softened to around 25
- Rear Suspension: Kept it higher, maybe 10
- Front Anti-Roll Bar: Softened this too, near 8
- Rear Anti-Roll Bar: Only a little stiffer, perhaps 3
- Front Ride Height: Around 33
- Rear Ride Height: Lowered to 36
Brakes
- Brake Pressure: High, like 98%
- Front Brake Bias: Around 56%
Tyre Pressures
- Front Tyre Pressures (Right & Left): Dropped to about 22.5 psi
- Rear Tyre Pressures (Right & Left): Also lowered, near 20.5 psi
So yeah, that was my afternoon figuring out Qatar. It’s a start. Probably jump back in tomorrow and see if I can shave off some more time by tweaking it further. Always a process!
