The Home of the British Grand Prix is one of the best tracks on the Formula One calendar. But how do you get round the circuit quickly? Here’s our guide to the best F1 23 Silverstone setup.
Ever since the 1950s, the Silverstone circuit has held a prominent place on the Formula One calendar. In fact, it was host to the first ever Formula One race back in 1950 and is still to this day one of the favourite venues of fans and drivers alike.
In fact, it’s a very fast layout that produces epic hot laps all whilst making for some of the most thrilling races in any F1 season. But how does one get the most out of their car on this track? With this setup guide, you will find buckets of time around Silverstone in F1 23.
In the new F1 game, Silverstone is a particular venue. With so many street circuits jumping out of the wood work, the flat airfield-based circuit is an outlier in its smoothness. As a result, one can get away with a stiffer and lower car than most other tracks. Here are my suggestions for the ultimate F1 23 British Grand Prix setup.
Aerodynamics
Top speed dominates much of the Silverstone circuit despite several high speed corners peppered throughout the layout. With that in mind, one must dramatically reduce wing angles to avoid losing out on top-end pace in race conditions. A higher downforce setup will do well in qualifying and in Time Trial however.
With racing in mind, I chose to go for a lower downforce specification. This will facilitate overtakes and defence. I found that a Front Wing of 24 and Rear Wing of 22 makes for a decent balance across the car. Furthermore, these mid-range figures make for enough downforce to get round the faster sections without compromising straight line speed.
| Front Wing | 24 |
| Rear Wing | 22 |
Transmission
Given the high-speed nature of many corners at Silverstone, I felt like an open differential wasn’t giving to overall traction I wanted. That’s why I decided to go for more of a locked setup. For the On-Throttle Differential, I went for 63% but drivers with more commitment may want it further towards the locked end of the spectrum.
Turns like Becketts, Stowe and Brooklands require great initial turn-in whilst slowing down. For this, I went chose to raise the Off-Throttle Differential towards the locked end as well. 65% provided enough turn-in without making the rear end unstable.
| Differential Adjustment On-Throttle | 63% |
| Differential Adjustment Off-Throttle | 65 |
Suspension Geometry
Whilst a Qualifying Setup Guide for Silverstone in F1 23 would advise to push front toe and camber angles to absurd values, the race is a different story. In fact, tyre wear and top-speed are important factors when it comes to racing wheel-to-wheel.
With that in mind, the Suspension Geometry part of this guide is far from dramatic. It’s all about keeping the wheels nice and straight so as not to produce drag and tyre temperature. Camber-wise, my Front Camber value feels right at around -2.70° whilst I raised the Rear Camber a bit more to -1.50° for more corner exit grip.
Toe is a great way to get the car turned in as the more a tyre points to the outside when looking from above, the more responsive the car will be. However, this introduces heat into the tyre. For the Front Toe-Out, I went for a healthy compromise of 0.04°. For the Rear Toe-In, I felt that 0.12° was a good fit.
| Front Camber | -2.70 |
| Rear Camber | -1.50° |
| Front Toe-Out | 0.04° |
| Rear Toe-In | 0.12° |
Suspension
Barring the first sector and Club Chicane, Silverstone is entirely made up of high speed corners requiring stable downforce. Furthermore, the straights mean a low-drag specification is required.
To keep the car as low to the ground as possible, in turn reducing drag, I went for an all-round Ride Height of 35. One can run this low thanks to the circuit’s lack of kerbs and bumps. This also helps to set a stiff suspension setup.
In fact, for the Front Suspension, I pushed my luck to 28 which keeps air on the front wing. For the Rear Suspension, dropping it down to 11 provides more grip on the power. A similar story for the Anti-Roll Bars and I went for 10 and 7 for the Front and Rear respectively.
| Front Suspension | 28 |
| Rear Suspension | 11 |
| Front Anti-Roll Bar | 10 |
| Rear Anti-Roll Bar | 7 |
| Front Ride Height | 35 |
| Rear Ride Height | 35 |
Brakes
As already stated, Silverstone features many turns that require good turn-in whilst losing speed. A great low-speed example of this is Luffield where one can be lightly braking all the way through to the exit.
To avoid locking the front wheels whilst doing so, it’s best to send the Brake Bias rearwards. In my case, I went for 56% in the setup screen. But throughout a stint, you may want to move that forward to avoid wearing out the rear tyres. As ever in an F1 car, there is little reason to reduce the Brake Pressure so 100% is best here.
| Brake Pressure | 100% |
| Front Brake Bias | 56% |
Tyres
The last thing you want to do in a Grand Prix is over-wear the tyres. This is exactly what happens when you set the tyre pressures too high. But set them too low and you’ll find the additional flex in the tyre wall to be having an impact on your agility.
As Silverstone requires a responsive front end, this is always a difficult line to tread. However, for this setup, I decided to run slightly higher pressures to give more responsiveness through turns like Copse as well as Abbey and Farm. For the Front Pressures, I would run 23psi and 20.5psi for the Rear Tyre Pressures.
| Front Right Tyre Pressure | 23 psi |
| Front Left Tyre Pressure | 23 psi |
| Rear Right Tyre Pressure | 20.5 psi |
| Rear Left Tyre Pressure | 20.5 psi |
Has this F1 23 Silverstone Setup Guide helped you out? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
