F1 2021 has been graced at long last with a new track, Portimao. The Portuguese track debuted on the F1 calendar in 2020, and returned in 2021 as a last-minute replacement for covid cancellations.
Full of elevation changes, sweeping corners, and gorgeous driving challenges, the track has been a hit with F1 drivers and now is a hit with the F1 gaming community.
It needs a unique setup, and as a brand new track to many of us that can be hard to find. Fortunately, we've got you covered.
CLICK HERE FOR OUR F1 22 PORTUGAL SETUP
F1 2021 Portugal setup
Portimao is a track that looks like it should race like Spain or Hungary, but thanks to the constant elevation change and unique corner combinations it doesn't race like them.
Sure, there aren't that many obvious overtaking points around the lap, especially as turn 1 is a mid-speed aggressive corner rather than a big braking zone, but you can go wheel to wheel and fight it out at basically every corner in this track.
Aerodynamics
Let's start with the aerodynamics. Thanks to a lot of long-radius mid-speed corners and some aggressive swings of the wheel, we've loaded up the rear wing.
This 4-11 setting gives you a super-stable rear end to give you some faith getting the power down before the wheel is straight. If you have an excellent feel for the throttle pedal you could probably take a click of rear wing off, but this is a great foundation for the car.
Transmission
This part of the setup describes how power goes to the rear wheels and into the tarmac.
We've gone with 80% on-throttle differential for this track. It should give you good traction out of the slow T5 hairpin and the last braking point at T14.
60% off-throttle differential should provide decent rotation in the corners without making you feel like the car is too out of control.
Suspension Geometry
This part of the setup describes how the wheels are aligned to the body of the car.
We've pushed front camber all the way right at -2.50, and rear camber all the way left at -2.00 as usual with these cars.
Front toe is set to 0.07 and rear toe is 0.20.
Suspension
This part of the setup is the most personal, as you can create a lot of oversteer or understeer using the suspension settings.
We've gone with 3-6 for the suspension and 3-7 for the anti-roll bars. This gives a very stable platform that doesn't snap on exit or do anything too surprising. You can create more rotation by softening up the front values, but that creates a car that is extremely twitchy.
Ride height is set to 2-8 to give space for the rear wing to push the car down.
Brakes
Brakes are pretty standard here.
With few massive stops we can run 100% brake pressure and 56% brake bias without too much worry of lockups or problems. If you are locking up into the T5 hairpin then lower the pressure a touch.
Tyres
The Pirelli rubber needs some specific pressures to work well.
We've gone with 23.4 psi on the front tyres and 23.5 psi on the rears. This should help you get the best grip from the rubber without wearing out too quickly.
We are continually testing and updating our setups so be sure to bookmark this page and check back regularly!