The Circuit Paul Ricard produces surprisingly fiery racing in F1 2021. Maybe it shouldn't be that big a surprise, as the French Grand Prix finally produced a banger this season after all.
However, the flat strip of tarmac can be surprisingly difficult to get right thanks to the new handling model in F1 2021.
Which means you need the right setup to keep your car planted.
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F1 2021 France setup
Paul Ricard is a tricky little track to get right. With plenty of long radius corners and of course the long Mistral straight you need something of a compromised setup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziFP6uVOGlQ
There is also the tyre wear to consider, but F1 2021's wear is considerably lower than in real life so you should be ok as long as you aren't sliding the car too much through the corners.
Aerodynamics
This section sets your level of downforce for the car. Higher values means more downforce, and thus the ability to carry more speed through the corners, but at the cost of straight line speed.
Here we've gone with 5-8 for the wings. This will keep the front end turning into those annoying slow corners and the rear planted through the long corners.
It should also keep you pretty competitive down the Mistral straight.
Transmission
Transmission dictates how the power is directed through the rear wheels. There are several key traction zones around Paul Ricard, so we've bumped it up a bit.
On-throttle differential is set to 80%, which will give you some great drive out onto the pit straight and through some of the corners.
Off-throttle is set to 60%. This will keep the rotation in the car but stops the gap being too wide between diffs, which could cause some snappy moments.
Suspension Geometry
Suspension geometry hasn't changed much from F1 2020.
It's full right for the front camber and full left for the rears.
When it comes to front toe we've added a click to 0.06 to improve turn-in a bit. Rear toe is still fully left though.
Suspension
This is one of the most driver-specific parts of the setup, as through the suspension you can create understeer or oversteer to play to your tendencies.
We've gone with 3-4 for the suspension and 7-7 on the anti-roll bars. France requires a bit of a compromise here, as you need the car to be responsive for the chicanes in the first sector, but the long radius corners at the end of the lap can then really punish you if you set it too stiff.
The 3-7 ride height is much higher than in previous years, but will keep the car from bottoming out and also let you ride the kerbs.
Brakes
Brake pressure and brake bias are a little different too.
Pressure should still be as high as you can handle, but lockups are more common this year so we've dropped it a touch to 97%.
Brake bias is also moved forward to 56% so that you avoid rear locking.
Tyres
France can be harsh on tyres, but like we said this year wear is pretty low.
The fronts are set to 21.4psi with the rears 23.5psi. This keeps the fronts in better shape for longer, but also reduces some rolling resistance from the rears for help at the top end.
We are continually testing and updating our setups so be sure to bookmark this page and check back regularly!
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