How to set up your car for Silverstone in F1 2021

How to set up your car for Silverstone in F1 2021

F1 2021

This setup will help you to tame the beast that is Silverstone in F1 2021.

Photo credit: Codemasters / EA

Whether you’ve been inspired by the real-world F1 action this weekend, or you’ve simply blitzed your way through the My Team calendar so far, there will be many people racing at Silverstone in F1 2021. It’s a wonderful historic circuit, but it can feel like a drag unless you have the right setup. This guide will provide you with an easy-to-use and manageable setup, with a focus on drivability and comfort.

If you want to see more F1 2021 guides, take a look at our hub.

Aerodynamics and Transmission

AERODYNAMICS AND TRANSMISSION
Silverstone calls for a good amount of downforce. Photo credit: Codemasters / EA

The front and rear wing angles are the cornerstone of any F1 2021 setup. For Silverstone, you’ll want to run some pretty significant levels of downforce to cope with the high-speed corners such as the infamous Maggots and Becketts complex. As such, we recommend running 7-8 wings. This will give you enough stability and downforce to throw the car into any and all corners, but you won’t be a slouch on the straights either.

transmission setup
An open transmission setup helps to manage tyre wear. Photo credit: Codemasters / EA

As for the transmission, feel free to play around with this a fair amount. The levels of transmission you use aren’t massively impactful, and as such we tend to favour a more open setup to counteract tyre wear as much as possible. 70% on throttle and 55% off should be enough to give you a good combination of traction and a stable rear end without stressing the tyres too much.

Suspension Geometry

The suspension geometry aspects of the setup can be a little bit more confusing, but they are also very important. For your camber settings, we recommend -2.70 degrees on the front with -1.60 degrees on the ear. Some negative camber on the front is necessary so as to help the car around the longer corners such as Stowe and Luffield, but -2.70 is enough and using much more will start to over-stress the tyres. The rear setting is less impactful, but we’ve found -1.60 to work well.

SUSPENSION GEOMETRY
Suspension geometry is complex but crucial! Photo credit: Codemasters / EA

Toe settings here is a matter of finding a balance, and one way to do that is to move the front and rear toe to opposite ends of the spectrum! A maximum front toe of 0.15 forces the front end of the car to respond sharply to your inputs, giving you better overall control and combatting understeer. As for the rear toe, you shouldn’t need to add any more than the minimum of 0.20 as the rear end of the car is made stable enough by the rest of the setup. However, if you find yourself struggling to control the rear under traction, adding some rear toe angle will help you.

Suspension

A firm front suspension is useful to maintain a stable yet responsive nose on your car, while running a softer rear suspension helps to prevent the rear end from taking over. As such, 10-1 is our recommendation for your suspension stiffness.

SUSPENSION Setup
A strong front end can help you drag your car around fast corners. Photo credit: Codemasters / EA

We’ve applied a similar philosophy to the anti-roll bars, 9-1 works nicely. A stiff rear anti-roll bar will make the car very difficult to control on the exits of high-speed corners. As for the ride height, you want to run the car as low as you can get away with to maximise aerodynamic efficiency. For us, the minimum is 2-6.

Brakes and Tyres

brake setup
Having a brake setup you’re comfortable with is very important. Photo credit: Codemasters / EA

Compared to F1 2020, you’ll want to run a brake bias setting which uses the front brakes a little more. A brake pressure setting of 100% allows you to get the maximum stopping power in your car, while 56% brake bias will stop you from locking the rear wheels in the braking zone and spinning out.

Tyre pressures
Tyre pressures are worth consideration again in F1 2021! Photo credit: Codemasters / EA

The tyre pressure situation has also changed a lot since F1 2020. No longer should you simply run the minimum settings no matter what. Now, we would suggest using 21.8psi front tyres. This keeps tyre temperature down which can be critical on the front tyres at Silverstone. For the rears, we’ve found 22.3psi hits a sweet spot. If you find yourself overheating your tyres over a race stint, lowering your tyres pressures is always the first place to look.

What do you think of this setup? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments below!

My name is Jacob and I have been writing for OverTake since November of 2020. I come from the UK, but I'm now living in Berlin. I love to watch, write about and sometimes shout about all forms of racing.