How Do Setups Work On An F1 Car?

In this week’s F101 we discuss how F1 drivers setup their car. Front wings, ballast and transmission are a few of the elements that F1 drivers need to take into account when setting up a Formula 1 car, but how does changing a specific area of the car affect the handling?
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[@TheKincognito]

Really good animations. Simple, effective and good looking. Props to the person who made them

[@DJ-zp2di]

“It crashes too much” romain grojean

[@LamboWalker23]

"Lewis is faster, fix it" - Valteri

[@guigui70051]

LamboWalker put spikes on Lewis' pit ?

[@nicorosbergf1fan783]

DJ_6290 Solution: remove Ericsson

[@mastergamingnic1681]

Grosjean...

[@mynameisman1254]

"it appears that you've broken your legs, your tyres are worn, box, box, box"

[@LamboWalker23]

Yeah but how do you fix 'The car has GP2 engine'

[@dsr_2443]

LamboWalker 'GP2 Chassis'*

[@64cgfan]

LamboWalker Buy engines from Renault instead

[@Joey-el7ud]

LamboWalker renault has something for that

[@nandoboiii5215]

LamboWalker switch to mercedes

[@lukmanfirdaus8497]

LamboWalker with JB Weld

[@dynamo4582]

Let's be honest. Your "mystery engineer" doesn't happen to be the setup menu of F1 2017, does it??

[@wastefellow2569]

Dynamo458, Codies don’t have inertia camber

[@EpicGamer-kj1tj]

@@wastefellow2569 shut up

[@Hyperzz1337]

Let's be real, you just read F1 2017 setup settings explanation in setup menu :D

[@SamuelSantos_]

AOR Path The ‘mysterious engineer’ is probably the boss of Codemasters. 😂

[@alexwhitworth176]

I think the technical term is "paraphrased"

[@felixeur1276]

Actually some of these explainations are too basic and to some point inaccurate and use Unit free measures

[@kartracer127]

It looks like. ... he forgott a few important things...

[@vincentaxm8322]

He should read the setup manual from assetto corsa

[@hannesandersson4473]

For me that dont understand so much of F1 but think its so fun just love when you cna brake hings down and make it understandebul for all in so basic ways. Thank you for existing.

[@simonsnethen4162]

I’d love too see you guys explain how the blown diffusers work in past f1 seasons

[@sriramjce]

I am able to appreciate this video far more than in the past. I recently moved to gaming wheel from controller playing F1 game (used to play with some assists on like TC and Antilock). With all assists off, I need all the setup the way I want and learning the technicalities.

[@abhishekraut0802]

Please do an F101 session on racing strategies and analysis of data collected by cars through Practice sessions. Sometimes we see the engineers peering over lots of graphs and charts on their screens and so it would help knowing to some extent what all stuff they look at and how they make sense out of it. Thanks!

[@davik.v4845]

Check out the Chain Bear F1 channel. He has made a video on race strategy.

[@abhishekraut0802]

Davik .v Thanks!

[@TheEd1007]

Check out Marc Priestley's video on F1 data analysis (/watch?v=X8_8DYxoXdU) ;)

[@MaxTenenbaum]

Thank you very much I learned a lot !!

[@rocket009able]

Literally learnt all of this through my countless hours on F1 2017 and still learning how to get the perfect setup! Great video

[@arthurcurry]

Great information everyone!! These informations make me love F1 more

[@tangchakyan4453]

Mercedes Engineers 2019: (watching this video) Aha! Mercedes 2020: (DAS)

[@JagoBridgland]

This was a really great video!

[@moritzsauer1249]

If someone has ever played Project Cars he knows that the setup is crucial and fucking incomprehensible sometimes, everything has an effect on everything as it seems

[@nicholasdh_63]

Really useful keep it up matt and crew.... i love all of your videos

[@Mr.D34]

Great video! It's crazy how a minimal touch on the car completely changes everything!

[@jasonmvallance]

i once went to a comprehensive track weekend and learned how to judge the feel of a car. it was boring at the time but made me adapt a better understanding of what goes on. it sparked something in me, so i went back to school, got my leaving cert(o levels) and headed for college for a mechanical engineering degree. its fascinating, trust me, it looks boring, but its awesome

[@alexlamas6324]

The complexity and is amazing. Getting the balance right in all these factors is mind boggling because each minor adjustment in any one of these factors affects the whole balance. I have such new respect for F1 engineers and mechanics.

[@siidooracing7136]

Absolutely what I needed. I'm so bad with this and it came up at the right time for me🙏. It will help me in my F1 2017 career.

[@Angryeddie14]

Love this channel so much, keep it up!

[@TheLpd1]

I would love more technical videos like this. However, i think there is a mistake, you say that if the tire pressure is greater, tires will heat up faster, but actually is the opposite!

[@nicholascharles4399]

Great video guys! 👍 I'd love to see a video on how different track surfaces and characteristics affect tyre choice.

[@deepawarrier9491]

Thank you so much for uploading this video

[@SCYN0]

Im such a sim freak that this is basic knowledge for me :D But this should usefull for people who dont want to read lectures about that like me. Great Video!

[@stefanoamsterdam7655]

rF2! xD

[@z33tanner]

Philipp Wilmer same here but the animations were nice haha. I always thought there was a third spring up front in F1 but instead they have that inertia damper.

[@z33tanner]

Stefano Amsterdam Assetto!

[@hamzterix]

-iRacing- Assetto Corsa

[@NishantDash]

Same hahaha!

[@dannymartin6794]

The amount of helpful information in this video alone covered more than most entire channels do and did a honest job 5 stars love the channel and I don’t watch f1 regularly so great job keeping it interesting keep it up!

[@enzoma7253]

wow! such a nice summary!

[@jasonkay194]

Speaking as someone who races at an amateur level, the brake bias is a lot more important than you make it out to be, yes what you said is true about the locking up, however front brake bias has a major affect the weight transfer through corners. When you brake hard, try this in your road car, alot of the weight goes to the front, which forces the tyres into the ground producing more grip.

[@SCYN0]

Sorry but more pressure in tyres doesnt mean they get hotter. The inner part of the Tyre does but the outer part who doesnt come in contact with the track on straights cools down due to the camber. Low pressure causes way more overheating than high pressure because obviously there is more friction with the track surface on straights and in corners. No hate guys. Everyone does mistakes :)

[@Abdul-pv1qt]

Philipp Wilmer They just read off the F1 2017 game descriptions for setup

[@kwx1374]

Yup Everyone “does” mistakes

[@powerfuel297]

That's seem strange as well when he say that

[@mace1367]

I thought the same

[@RWoody1995]

But you care mostly about the temperature of the contact patch don't you? if the inner part of the tyre gets hotter, and that's the part of the tyre being used to generate grip, then it's practically correct to say the tyre is hotter even though technically the average temperature throughout the whole tyre body might be lower. Depends on what you are measuring the temperature for I guess, i'm not too knowledgeable on the subject but i'm pretty sure there are times you care more about the whole body temperature but also times where you care more about the contact patch temperature.

[@joelmiller9481]

Being a beginner in sim racing this video is so extremely helpful and so much easier to understand and grasp with the class commentary and animations!! Thanks very much keep it up!!!

[@z33tanner]

Awesome video! Id like to see what future technologies being evolved in Formula 1 could apply to our daily drivers like engergy recovery and other hybrid features

[@aaaaaa7955]

1:05 Kimi basicly like drifting

[@potjan3dubbeltjes]

An idea for f101 is what do the mechanics an other team members while a driver is racing

[@TheCoBBus]

the cycle of F1 including all of the accommodations for the drivers the lounge areas, pit and garage and those sort of stuff and how they get everything from 1 track to another in 1 week

[@jordanhoeben6583]

Hello from South Africa. ·Can you make a video on all the tracks this season and in the coming seasons. ·Can you also talk about the tracks and what makes them different. ·And finally, all the tracks from back in the day and there history and stories etc. Thank you, have a great day! 👌👍👏

[@marcokacicracing2126]

Just one pretty big thing you missed on was brake bias affecting the weight transfer having brake bias to the front will make a HUGE difference on turning in and understeer/oversteer through the corner versus having The brake bias to the rear. Besides that though awesome video :)))

[@daanstam6697]

Incredible, i knew it was hard but this is so intricate

[@speeeding]

Could you do an episode on how F1 teams do wheel alignments? Do they use strings, lasers, or something entirely different? And, do they use different methods to perform an alignment at the track vs. in the works factory?

[@nicolafox9452]

This vid will really help people who are just getting in to F1 😎👍

[@d14lonewolf]

This was great, I never knew what people meant by oversteer or understeer but I sorta get it now.

[@renegerritsen6178]

I'd love to see something about the seamless shift gearboxes they use. According to F1 technical they engage two gears at once a fraction of a second. That is really amazing!

[@CoolAwesomness]

At 1:20, you are saying that the wing angle is increased, but the graphic shows the wing angle being decreased.

[@marcokacicracing2126]

Lucas Poppelaars not wrong lol

[@ze_rubenator]

Brake bias is also important in some corners on the calendar where you have to turn under breaking. Front bias = Worse steering under breaking. Rear bias = Better stearing under breaking.

[@lannadelcray]

Finally watching this series after becoming an F1 fan last year. I'm going to need to watch this again and take notes, because my brain hurts 😅

[@abilucksanvijeyakumaran891]

I would suggest every 'Drive to Survive' viewers to watch this channel, so that the sport will spread way more

[@saniuca9691]

Seems like a standard Bullet to Apfsds comparison analogy on Racecars to F1s Technical superiority runs the show

[@americanpride9733]

0:40 Thats a beautiful picture

[@viniciuscastro7397]

Thou I really liked the explanation in all the systems I found the explanation on the diff lacking information is not just lock or unlocked like in a 4x4 SUV, but a limited slip diff, so when a diff is completely open it can send 100% of the power to just one wheel, but when you have a limited slip diff you can limit the maximum power to one wheel to just 80 or 70% that specially important in surfaces with difference in traction between wheels like when the track is damp or wet, but apart from that really great video congrats

[@MashiatCOD99]

I may be wrong, but I'm fairly certain increasing the ride height actually decreases drag and downforce, whilst a car that is lwoer to the ground will have more drag as less air is able to pass underneath the car, but the car will have a lower centre of gravity and the underfloor can produce more downforce.

[@waltersenglish5778]

I’d love to see a video analyzing and explaining what the bells and whistles on the steering wheel do during a hot lap!

[@filipniemkiewicz1026]

Moving weight to the rear would actually cause more understeer because there will be less weight on the front tires, pushing it down onto the track. Like with downforce, the more front wing angle you have on the front, the more it will be pushed into the ground, giving you better grip in the front. So moving the weight back would actually give you better grip in the back, which could help with accelerating out of corners, and generally give you a little bit more grip in the rear.

[@jamesupton6325]

It would in a road car or a car with no aero but a lighter front end means downforce is more effective on it. It's also to do with weight transfer, as the car brakes the weight shifts to the front so having more at the back spreads it out under braking giving it a false 50:50 (or as close as you can get) weight distribution

[@FARISEO25]

5:21 I’d like to see How you get tha drink???

[@mattdelaney9418]

Thanks WTF1 and also thanks Marc Priestley :)

[@allenqueen]

hey, I knew some of these terms and their uses from back when I played NFS:MW(2005 edition)

[@pellemad5557]

Awesome video!!!!! I have a idea for an another f101: explained how a fw works and how to make it

[@crossandshoot796]

more front brake bias could cause over steer as well because it could transfer more weight to the front thus lighting the rear under braking and more rear brake bias could cause understeer as well

[@ClaytonMacleod]

crossandshoot No, you have more oversteer under braking when you have more rear bias. When someone is losing control of the rear of the car under braking one of the first things you will do is simply move the brake bias forward. The more forward it is, the more understeer you have under braking. But since the rears are doing less work you get worse overall stopping power. You want to find the point with it rearward as possible but where you can still control the car. You ever drive around in a parking lot or dirt road and pull the handbrake? What happens? Maximum oversteer. Same thing causing more oversteer when you move the brake bias rearward.

[@SilverScarletSpider]

Do we have a list of the car set ups each driver currently on the grid prefer? I know that Hamilton likes Understeer while Vettel, Kimi Raikonion, and Verstappen prefer Oversteer. Any others?

[@someguyontheinternet5944]

Me: *has never watched F1 racing* Also me at 2 AM: *watches this*

[@KDN_]

Nathaniel Lovewell cant relate

[@incesteagle1212]

Can't relate

[@RaikiriHades]

i can relate lolol

[@ghshrksidhc5460]

Can't relate

[@PortugueseMapping69]

Can't relate

[@muhammaduzair8959]

Difference between different chassis

[@GTChucker86]

iron boy thats classified F1 information

[@Ivan6280]

All we know is that Mercedes have the longest car and Ferrari have the shortest car of the grid.

[@muhammaduzair8959]

Thomas John Solidum ohh i see

[@guilhermejales]

I guess I never learned that much from an F1 video before. Great job

[@harold_Shitmum]

Your videos are cool, very informative and yet easy to understand. Thank you and well done.

[@nirameganirg4738]

This info was very helpful. Aides you and help give me a more full idea of what the driver's and engineers go threw to get the most out of the car!😁

[@chickenmon]

Wow, excellent video! Super concise, but loaded with great information!

[@nagendra-bg1mt]

How to Make the proper a-arms set for making a good vehicle for the student formulae race... What are constain points we have to take and what are the things we have to consider regarding the arms...

[@stephanwiechmann6716]

Absolutely a great video that captures the guts of the topic!

[@theracingroo6885]

Next f101 cover how teams go from weekend to weekend and how the are able to transport things in a week as well as replace broken Honda engines

[@mattmarlborough3607]

How does moving the ballast to the rear reduce understeer? Aren’t you taking away front grip by making it lighter in the front?

[@justindryden8383]

Matt Marlborough A vehicle with a higher polar moment of inertia will be more prone to oversteer(ballast in the rear) or understeer(ballast in the front); simply because the extra mass does not want to change direction. By moving the ballast rearward the front end is able to change direction more quickly, effectively reducing understeer.

[@mattmarlborough3607]

Justin Dryden that makes sense, thank you so much

[@SCYN0]

When its lighter in the front the downforce has more impact on that part of the car because the air doesnt have to work the against that weight and can for example put the car faster back to the ground after hopping over little bumps. It works together with the suspension that soaks up those bumps. When the suspension on the front has less weight to carry trough corners it is more reactive because the centrifugally forces of the frontweight dont push the nose too much to the outside. The opposite on the rear.

[@mattmarlborough3607]

Philipp Wilmer thank you, that makes perfect sense

[@heavylton5099]

wow maybe i'll change my f1 17 setups better from now on ^^ very very good video :)

[@shivrajkarthik.3293]

This video was very informative... Loved it.. You are doing a great job by spreading such knowledge about the sport... Can you also add a video about the rules for a circuit to comply as an f1 circuit and also how the teams work around the track and connect with the drivers and engineers.. The A to Z about a weekend in the circuit....

[@Venator74]

Damn this helped me clear my doubts for F1 2017. Thank you so much

[@TheJaspeerr]

Parc fermé rules in effect would be a good subject for an f101 vid

[@nacho74]

Well. It is all about balance. Very informative

[@constantinosmallios]

Next F101 should be about how different tyre compounds are more effective on different tracks (i.e hypersofts at Monaco, etc.)

[@josephiousbrosif]

F1 2017 taught me well. Great video!

[@Greenday4537]

What's are they changing when they have different "modes" for the car? Like I saw Renault is now offering a new qualifying mode this weekend in Austria.

[@leonardantal6333]

Greenday4537 It's the engine. In qualifying mode they let the engine rev at full speed to get the best qualifying laps, whereas in race mode they are limited at a certain amount to reduce wear

[@KOSMO_Official]

The qualifying mode only has to do with the engine. It gives more power for a little time (like a quali lap). The Setup of the car however is fixed once qualifying starts. So there are no set up modes. Only the parameters of the engine can be changed on the steering wheel. In quali mode, they have maximum fule injection, ignition angle, rpm and so on. Hope it helped :)

[@kallo182]

Remember back in the Days of Schumacher...and co. When you had to Set up the Car for the Qualli, and than change the complete Set up for the Race. That was the badass Days.

[@AlbertoFeoli]

Awesome, thx this video helped a ton with the set ups in the f1 19 game

[@Cipher422]

Great Video!!! I’ve always wanted to know how the different settings affect an F1 car. At least now I have an idea on how to tinker with the various settings when I play a sim racing game... 👍👍

[@wcrfish7233]

Well this definitely will help me in the game

[@omartarique7090]

do a video on strategy and the main 2 types (under/over cut) and explain at what times it is appropriate to use them, since im struggling in my f1 game to get both of those right

[@SRX875]

Simplified to the max 😀 good job

[@WireSniffer]

Would have liked to have seen more details on this, cause and effect, dampers wasn't really explained. More please.

[@b3hulk]

Awesome video! Awesome graphics!

[@DaDyne]

Topic suggestion: Carrying on after a crash I‘ve been asking myself since the Red Bulls have clashed in Baku: Why did neither of them even try to turn the damaged car around and finish the race? I remember a Schumacher that banged into a Coulthard in the mist of Spa and both being able to drive to the garage at least. Are todays cars more sensitive to damage?

[@xvd7196]

Flags, safety car and VSC, how to start from safety car or vsc etc :)

[@santosh.k2297]

I Want to Know about the DRS Benefits & it's Origin , Effects , Causes and Disadvantages of it...

[@jap6664]

When the car bottoms out producing sparks there is no change to the downforce throughout the car. There is not a huge drop in downforce. It’s confusing but it’s true.. it just seems more logical because you would think that the lack of air means it’s not possible. But in reality the pressure is maintained

[@Tj930]

Great video, Matty..and team

[@abhisheksridhar287]

Good content guys. Keep uploading

[@JoHnSapla7LordSapla9]

Wow.. didn't expect it to be sooo complicated. 😮

[@JoHnSapla7LordSapla9]

Jason Schmid Whatever dude...

[@3-lias]

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how they didn’t make bottas complain about his setup on a video uploaded on June 29th and bottas took pole and sait that he was super happy with his setup on June 30th 😱😱😱

[@evan8tor21]

I was waiting for a video like this!

[@elsprivate]

Great Video! Wrt the tire pressure, I think it would rather get hotter if the tires are under deflated as opposed to over inflated? Also under deflated tires would make the contact patch longer instead of wider.

[@nicorosbergf1fan783]

You could do a video on older F1 technologies like FRIC, TC, groundeffect etc.

[@daivikprintools5532]

Brilliant video💯 Cheers!!

[@DirtTrackDave]

Ok so you left quite a lot out. Camber is used to maintain contact patch of tire through corners. As a car corners the tire deforms causing the tire to roll under the rim, not literally but in specific amounts. More camber used with lower air pressures on slower circuits as more tire deformation occurs. Camber is most effective on entry and center of corners and most front loads are seen. Dampers are mot just for bumps they are the timing of weight transfer during first cut in of cornering, center and exit. Either keeping a car rolled over on a specific corner or allowing one corner to drop in unison with anti roll bars.

[@LogieT2K]

pretty eyeopening. F1 car setup is a true science

[@kevinwithak04111]

This may sound like a stupid suggestion but I feel like I am in the right spot if this is F101. But what are the basic rules of F1? Odd rules of the past and new rules for the next season? I grew up a nascar fan but respect the heck out of F1 what is the path into F1 look like? Love the videos keep up the good work

[@SpringOffensiveCat]

The best example of how it works in my opinion were the 80's, when you had 2 purespeed drivers (Senna and Mansell) who could win races even when they had considerably slower cars (specially Senna, who could win driving a toaster) and 2 excellent car setup drivers (Piquet and Prost), the consequences are that drivers able to adjust the car better will eventually be more successful on longterm, with both Prost and Piquet being champions for 2 different teams each, 'cause they didn't wanted to win races, they wanted to win championships, while purespeed drivers are able to give us excellent races to watch and break more records. In my opinion the best driver on the grid will always be somewhere in the middle between excellent car setup skills and purespeed ability, in my opinion, the one driver in history who was exactly like that was Juan Manuel Fangio.

[@suprashank]

Awesome video.

[@rayhansiregar5209]

This could be an awesome guide for someone who plays sim racing games. Especially for those who are playing F1 2017.