Silverstone set-up and lap tutorial (1st sector)

Hi racers, Shaggy here again. I'm here to take you through my qualifying lap of the F1 Nations League race at Silverstone, organised by f1setupblog.com.

My fastest lap was a 1:23.389. As always, all driving aids were banned and rules were set to full simulation. Firstly, i'll share with you the setup (a variation of our initial start setup) I used both for qualifying and the race:

Aerodynamics:

Front wing - 10
Rear wing - 11

Braking:

Balance - 40% front, 60% rearwards
Pressure - High
Brake size - Small

Balance:

Front anti-roll bar - 2
Rear anti-roll bar - 11

Suspension:

Front ride height - 1
Rear ride height - 1
Front spring stiffness - 11
Rear spring stiffness - 10

Alignment:

Camber front - 3.50
Camber rear - 1.50
Toe front - 0.05
Toe rear - 0.20


This set-up felt like the most consistent and driveable trade-off between high speed and low speed grip to me. If I went in one direction to improve the handling in one corner, it would worsen my grip in another and vice versa. So I settled with this compromise.

picture by Stephen Hill Photography - CC BY 2.0

Now I will take you through the first sector of the lap, and you can watch the video after at the bottom of the post:

The following in game screenshots were taken by Codemasters F12011 - PS3 Version. Thanks to Codemasters for getting permissions to show ingame sequences.

Turn 1- Abbey:

Turn one, approach in 7th gear

The key for turn one is to turn in early and hug the inside of the corner to avoid understeering wide. With the above setup you should be able to take it flat if you disengage DRS at about half way between the 50 and 100 metre boards (75 metres) and turn in sharply and confidently:

Kiss that apex

You must connect with the apex, and can afford to cut it a little as this is much more preferable to missing it and running wide, resulting in a lift.

Flat out

Keep your foot planted on the throttle and gradually turn out of the corner to straighten the car for best acceleration. I put it back into 6th gear when I felt the revs singing too low in 7th but still kept my foot flat, using all the track but staying away from the grass.



Turn 2 - Farm Curve:

Still flat out....

In the race this is a bit of a nothing corner so long as you've hooked up well with turn one, but in qualifying you need to straighten the car up to get on the DRS as early as possible, so don't take it lightly, find as straight a line as you can.

Approaching turn 3

Now we have the DRS engaged again as we approach turn three, following the rubbered in racing line around the bend, gently bearing right and then left, keeping the lateral load on the car at a minimum.




Turn 3 - Village

Braking hard for Village

The first braking point of the lap, brake hard initially at around the 100 metre board, banging through the gears down to 2nd and sweep into the corner, gradually coming off the brakes by the time you're at the apex:

Right front on the inside kerb

You must connect with the apex - that's where the grip is, not to mention it being the best geometric line through the corner. You must resist carrying too much speed into the corner - although it is wide, you need to get back over to the right of the track ASAP for the next slow corner:


Turn 4 - The Loop:

Not using all the track on the left deliberately, keeping right for the next corner

So now i've got turn 3 out of the way, I want the car nice and straight and on the grippy line again for the approach to turn 4:

Braking again, wheels already pointed left

Brake again briefly when you're level with the kerb on the right and turn in with quite a lot of steering arm, using 1st gear to kill the understeer:

Try to make the apex, unlike me!

I turned in fractionally too late for the speed I was carrying and consequently never made the apex, but no problem - I'm still on the grippy racing line and most importantly I am now able to pick up the throttle very early. The consequences of turning in too early to this corner are much worse than that of turning in too late, so it's best erring on the side of caution.

DRS open already

Taking the correct line through The Loop should allow you to get on the throttle early and enable you to use all the road available to you on the right, so that the car is as straight as possible, the load is removed and the DRS is wide open as early as 2nd gear. Once you reach 3rd gear, deploy a decent helping of KERS, I used about 2/5 of it.


Turn 5 - Aintree

Easily flat, only with DRS and KERS

Make sure you keep your steering angle as straight as possible through Aintree, taking plenty of the inside kerb but not so much as to cut the corner and invalidate the lap. I partly chose the 10/11 wing balance in order to keep the DRS open through Aintree, and stop the back end from stepping out of line:

Wheels nice and straight

Still in the corner, not only is it important not to turn in too early and cut the corner, but turning in too early also puts excess lateral load on the car and hurts acceleration through the exit (also meaning needless DRS disengagement). Even in the race without DRS, it's the little details like this, beyond basic braking, turning and accelerating that shave off the hundredths.Watching the lap, you will see that I had acres of track available but used one prescribed, smooth arc. With this gradual and deliberate steering arc, I was able to keep the DRS open the whole way through.


Wellington Straight:

Not a lot to do here other than take a breath

I used a little bit of kerb on the right so as to use the line of least resistance. If you take Aintree too sharply, you have all the green run off on the right there to use if you need. Keep your eyes ahead now, concentrate for the next braking point.


Turn 6 - Brooklands:

Don't brake too late

Brooklands is a corner that many struggle with and there's a simple reason for this - since it's a medium speed corner with a wide entry they get greedy, brake too late and therefore understeer wide, which then ruins their line for the next corner as well. I found setting the brake balance fully rearwards for maximum turn-in really helped in this regard. Brake just before the 100 metre board, turn in early and progressively come off the brakes to guide the car through:

Keep it tight, but avoid the bollards

Without the aforementioned brake balance, I might have gone straight on at this corner judging by this picture........

Hug the inside like it's your favourite granny

But not so, I make the corner and my front left is well over onto the kerb, shortening the track and carrying good speed through the apex. This corner is taken in 3rd gear.

Turn 7 - Luffield:

Take a narrow approach to Luffield

You can afford to go deep through the exit of Brooklands, so as to set up a tight line into Luffield as you see here. Even though it's a right hander approaching, I don't want to get over to the left as I normally would, here's why:

Aim the right front tyre at the inside kerb

Since Luffield is such a long and deep corner, you want an extremely late apex. The best way to do this is to take the narrow approach, and simply throw the car into the corner in 2nd gear with plenty of steering lock, letting the tyre scrub slow the car down without killing too much speed, only gently touching the brakes to kill any understeer, and then simply waiting for the moment to unleash your 750 bhp again. This technique is not only superior over one lap, but more consistent lap after lap rather than hugging the inside line which would require very patient and careful throttle application with a slower exit speed.

waiting almost over....

The lateral load, or tyre scrub on the car in this case is your friend as it slows the car down for you. You can afford to go fairly deep into this corner as it will give a later apex and therefore a straighter and faster car on exit. Either way, it's about feeling when to put the power down again without running wide on the exit. This is down to feeling and practice, I cannot say exactly how this must be done but I can say you should have one smooth steering motion through the corner, without many corrections. If you're correcting the steering constantly then you know you haven't found the best line.

Using ALL the kerb

I judged it pretty well, and got onto the DRS even before I reached this run off. You shouldn't be aiming for this run off kerb as such however, the car should just naturally drive towards it. If you find yourself consciously aiming for it rather than it conveniently coming at you as you're straightening up the car, then you're not taking enough speed out of Luffield. Remember, don't go chasing run off areas, focus on corner speed and early throttle and the track boundaries will come to you rather than you going to them.

And that is the first sector done. You can watch it in full flow by clicking this link - My onboard lap.

Next time, I will tackle the middle sector with the famous high-speed corners of Copse, Maggots and Becketts. Please give my tutorial a go and see how you get on. We appreciate the feedback and would be keen to hear how everyone does :)