The Circuit of the Americas, or COTA, often produces some great racing but stay clear of the pack with our F1 23 setup. Here’s our advice for speed in Texas.
Fantastic switchbacks of Sector 3, sweeping esses of Sector 1 and long straights, perfect for racing. No, we’re not describing every racer’s dream circuit that will never become reality. This is the basic, on-paper description of COTA, the Circuit of the Americas.
This Texan venue has held a place on the Formula One calendar since 2012 and it’s fair to say that each visit is special. The circuit makes for fantastic racing in any class of car, both in real life and in-sim. But the key to winning races is not battling side-by-side race-long. So here is how to speed away from the competition thanks to our F1 23 COTA setup guide.
Aerodynamics at Circuit of the Americas
Take a brief look at a track map of the Circuit of the Americas and you will soon figure out that downforce is important. The entire first sector is full of high-speed sweepers. The third sector also features a number of aero-dependant turns. But to break that all up, the middle sector is essentially one long straight.
Therefore, it’s important to not go all-in on the downforce unless you want to race like McLaren at Spa. Finding the right balance is important and we thing we’ve found it. For the Front and Rear Wing Aero, we chose to run 33-32. This makes for a reactive car that still powers down the straights with ease.
COTA Transmission Setup
In the latest iteration of Formula One game, the transmission setup is an easy element to get right. The handling model offers very few downsides to running a wide open differential, which is why we do just that.
Indeed, setting the On-Throttle Differential Adjustment to 53% means snappy oversteer is a thing of the past. Furthermore, single-tyre fire rarely happens in F1 23, which is why we can run this so low. The same is true for Off-Throttle Adjustment which we slam to 50% for all tracks.
Suspension Geometry Guide
Perfecting one’s alignment for each circuit is crucial to maximising mechanical grip. Indeed, depending on the style of corner, a car uses more or less camber and toe.
For the longer switchbacks that feature heavily at COTA, especially in the final sector, you’ll want good amounts of Front Camber. We went for -3.30°. However, this does come at the compromise of grip in the shorter turns like the T1 hairpin. If you prefer a balanced setup, try reducing the angle by a click or two. As for the Rear Camber, the many traction zones require less angle so our setup features -1.50°.
Toe has a major effect on a car’s stability through pretty much any change of direction. Toeing the line between an on-edge setup and a reactive car comes down to the toe angles. For the Front Toe Out, we felt it best to go aggressive with 0.08° for nice reactivity through the flowing sequences. Our Rear Toe In value is 0.20° as this helps reduce rolling resistance on the straights and helps kick the rear end around.
F1 23 COTA Suspension
Whilst the Suspension Geometry makes its effect felt at almost all areas of a layout, the Suspension screen is most catered to a car’s low-speed handling. That being said, the Ride Height value does play a role in downforce generation which is why we run a nice and low 34-35 on the unrealistically smooth version of the Circuit of the Americas.
The rest of this page however is all about how a tyre glides over the track surface when air isn’t pushing the car into the ground. For the Suspension settings, one wants to induce rotation thanks to a stiff front and soft rear. This explains our 33-10 settings for the Front and Rear Suspension respectively.
Finally for this page are the Anti-Roll Bars. These control a car’s movement side to side and allow the tyre to grip into the ground when under lateral load. As is the case for most setups in F1 23, we want soft ARBs at COTA. For the Front Anti-Roll Bar, we run 8 and for the Rear ARB, we went for 4.
F1 23 COTA Setup: Brakes
Much like the Transmission sliders, we rarely touch the Brakes page in F1 23. Indeed, the Brake Pressure slider must always be set to 100% to avoid losing out on critical high-speed braking performance. Pedal modulation is the best way for avoiding lock-ups.
As for the Brake Bias number, it often comes down to one’s driving style and the type of corner you’re coming up to. In fact, some turns will want more rear bias whilst others will require you to set this forward. As a good starting point, we set it to 60%. But don’t be afraid to experiment corner-to-corner.
F1 23 settings for Tyres
In motorsport, tyre pressures are critical to ensuring one’s tyres are operating at their full potential. Run your pressures too low and your tyres will struggle to heat up and make for lazy handling. Run them too high and prepare for aggressive tyre wear and a lack of surface grip.
Setting pressures depend greatly on the weather conditions. But in general, lower pressures work well in F1 23. For the Front Tyre Pressures, we run a slightly higher number of 22.5psi to ensure good reactivity. But for the Rear Tyre Pressures, drop to 20.3psi for ultimate corner exit traction.
What do you make of our setup for the Circuit of the Americas in F1 23? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
