Setup Guide Part 7Adjusting Toe Alignment in F1 2011

Click for enlarging

Hi Guys,
I have updated the last tutorial about Adjusting the Toe Alignment.
The reason is that I got some things wrong in the last tutorial. I twittered with TheLeeMather who is one of the game designers of F1 2011 at codemasters, as I had already a feeling that I got some things wrong. TheLeeMather was a great help to get things sorted. Thx for that!
So forget about Toe out in F1. In F1 the cars have Toe in (positive Toe), on rear and front axes. So when you adjust the front toe slider in F12011 to the left you will have more toe in and maximal front toe in adjustable is 0.15. When you adjust the front toe slider to the right you will have less toe in and minimal adjustable front toe in is 0.05. You realize no matter what you adjust, it will be more or less toe in, never toe out.
The same for the rear toe. Its everytime Toe in, more when slider is set to the left and less when slider is set to the right. If you don't know what toe in is, check the previous tutorial about alignment on this blog.
Now have a short look at the picture above before going on with reading, it will make the stuff much easier to understand.
So we are flying down the start/finish straight on Albert Park Circuit.On the left side we have maximum toe in (0.15) and on the right side we have minimal toe in (0.05).
As you can see in the picture both front tyres point inwards and they create an equally big opposing force. That results in a slip angle and costs some highspeed. The more slip angle we have, the more tyre wear, the less topspeed. Imagine a bump would occur one on side, resulting in more load on one of the front tyres. One tyre would be a little bit less toe in than it was before, but not enough to really turn the car as they are pointing inwards (toe in). So the more toe in the more straight line stability. In a F1 car thats especially important for the rear toe setting. The more rear toe in you have, the more stable your rear will be, especially when turning on the gas out of a corner.
Now Imagine you go for a corner (initial turn in), like shown in the picture. Now the toe in leads to a special effect. The inner wheel must go for a bigger angle than the outer wheel during the same timeframe. Under high front toe in (e.g. 0.15) that wouldn't be the case, resulting in the inner wheel counterworking the outer front wheel. Now look at the right car in the picture. The lower your front toe in is (nearly 0 degrees) the turn in will be more immediate and more aggressive, as the innerwheel isn't counterworking the outer front wheel so much anymore. So we have better turn in now. Some people might argument now, that they can have the same effect with a high sensitive steering wheel setting. The answer is we are talking about getting a slip angle with optimal grip. So with less/lower toe in you will have not only immediate and more aggressive turn in, you will also have simple more front grip for turn in!
What happens now when the car is in the middle of the corner? The magic word weight transfer comes into the game. During corner entry, the more you come to the middle of the corner, the more the weight is transferred to the outer wheels, meaning more load on the outer wheels. So in the middle of the corner and afterwards the front toe in has no countable effect anymore as the outer wheels have the most load and grip to realize. Thats the simple reason while less front toe in has much influence on initial turn in but less in the middle/end of the corner. So to sum up, more toe in means more front grip in corner entry, but doesn't mean more cornering grip in general. In fact to less toe in results in oversteer during corner entry cause the front has so much grip that the rear can't build up enough grip to follow, and the car is feeling unbalanced, resulting in loosing middle corner speed.
Imagine a sharp corner with a small radius like in monaco. Immediate and initial turn in is a good thing here to „throw“ the car into the turns, so give it less/low toe in.
When you like Smooth and conservative turn in with a balanced car during the whole long fast corner, more/higher toe in will be faster.You see high and less toe in value has there right to exist. But not only the corners dictate the toe settings, also the individuell driving style.
Here are some words from Rubens Barichello about his first days in maranello with schumacher:
When I came to Maranello, they told me that Schumacher drive with nearly 0 degree toe in. I answered them that I couldn't drive with nearly 0 degree toe in because the Car then too abruptly turns in."


We haven't spoken about rear toe in. But as you can imagine its simple when you get the idea. More rear toe in stabilizes the rear end of the car. Look at the corner exit on the picture we studied.
The weight balance will be at the rear outer wheel during turning on the gas in corner exit. So with high rear toe in, the outer rear wheel counterworks the oversteer momentum. With less rear toe in it doesn't counterworks so much the oversteer.
Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Keep Racing


DarkPSI