Portimão is the shiny new addition to F1 2021, and it’s certainly a lot of fun! With this setup guide, you can get the most out of it!
Photo credit: Codemasters / EA
After the release of the Algarve International Circuit in Portimão into F1 2021, many people have been taking to the Portuguese track. The general consensus on this particular strip of tarmac is a very positive one, with many players really enjoying the rollercoaster style elevation changes and fast corners.
However, it’s certainly not the easiest track in the world, so others have found it frustrating to get to grips with. If you want to get the most out of a race at Portimão, then you’ll need a setup to get your car firing on all cylinders. Thankfully for you, that’s exactly what this is.
Aerodynamics and Transmission
First and foremost with any F1 2021 setup is the aerodynamics section. There are quite a lot of downforce dependent corners at Portimao, and there are some very slippery traction zones as well. As such, it’s a good idea to run downforce as high as 7-9 for your front and rear wings. If you still find yourself struggling for rear-end grip, raising that rear wing angle even further should be your first port of call.
Next we come to the transmission page, which features the differential settings for your car. Running an unlocked differential will generally make the car easier to handle at the cost of some outright performance. With that in mind, try running 65% for both your on and and off throttle differential settings. This helps you in the traction-limited parts of the track, preventing wheelspin to a certain extent without sacrificing too much potential performance.
Suspension Geometry
Here is where things get a little bit trickier. The suspension geometry page allows you to adjust both the camber and toe of your wheels, each of which has a different effect on your car’s performance. For your camber settings, we recommend -2.90 for your fronts and -1.40 for your rears. A middle ground such as this provides some help with sustained cornering situations without over-stressing your tyres over the course of a race stint.
As for your toe settings, we’re going a little more unorthodox. Your front toe setting isn’t super impactful at Portimão, and a middling setting such as 0.10 does the job nicely. The rear toe is where things get interesting. A maximum rear toe setting of 0.50 helps a lot in corners such as turn four, where the rear of the car is always threatening to step out of line. It puts a little more stress on your rear tyres but it shouldn’t be an issue.
Suspension
Altering your suspension settings is perhaps the easiest way to make a car easier to drive in F1 2021, and that is what we’ve focused on here. A firm front suspension combined with a soft rear suspension further helps you to tame that wayward rear end, and as such we recommend running 9-1 for your suspension stiffness. If you find yourself chewing up your front tyres over a race distance, consider taking the front suspension stiffness down a notch or two.
In F1 2021, the anti roll bars work in a similar fashion to the suspension itself. As such, the same 9-1 settings ought to help you avoid too much ‘washing out’ or mid-corner understeer without either ruining your tyres or giving you a handful to contend with. In the name of keepin the car as drivable as possible, we’ve also gone for a rather high ride height setting of 4-8, which gives the car plenty of clearance over the bumps and kerbs present at Portimão.
Brakes and Tyres
As per usual, a brake pressure setting of 100% is optimal in Portugal. This gives you the most outright braking performance without making lock-ups unavoidable. That being said, if you are struggling with lockups on either the front of the rear brakes, you could try lowering your brake pressure by a little. As for the brake bias, 55% gives a good balance between the front and rear brakes. If anything, you may struggle a bit with front-locking using this bias, but that’s better than the rear-end alternative.
Finally we have the tyre pressures. When testing this setup, lowering the front tyre pressures a little, down to about 22.6psi was important for managing tyre temperatures. Such issues weren’t so keenly felt with the rears, which can make do with a pressure setting of 21.9psi each. If you find that your tyres are overheating a lot, lowering your tyre pressures should be your top priority.
There you have it! Using this setup should have you speeding around Portimão in no time! Not only that, but it should be a lot easier to avoid spinning out with these settings as well.
Which F1 2021 track would you like to see a setup guide for next? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
