After the summer break, Formula One will complete its European leg, starting with Holland. Here’s a guide to the perfect setup at Zandvoort in F1 23.
The Formula One calendar is approaching the summer break. But once the racing returns, the grid will flock to the home of the current championship leader, Holland. The Dutch Grand Prix returned to Zandvoort in 2021 with its modified track including banked corners and makes for a fantastic driving challenge.
Simply driving around the circuit in a Formula One car is great fun. But to make it even more fun of an experience, you can optimise your setup and go for quick laps. Here is a guide on how to get the perfect setup at Zandvoort in F1 23 for both races and Time Trial.
F1 23 Zandvoort Aerodynamics
With many high-speed sweeping corners and very few straights, Zandvoort is a circuit that requires a lot of downforce. In this respect, it’s similar to venues like Monaco and Hungary. Drag is not much of a factor, and downforce is king.
With that in mind, one must pile on the Front and Rear Wing angle for good grip in the turns. We went for 40-40 as this gave a good balance to the car. But if you fancy going faster through the technical sections and aren’t worried about poor balance, you can add a few clicks to the front for better turn-in.
Transmission
At many circuits in F1 23, a locked differential provides little advantage. Single-tyre fire isn’t a major issue as long as you know when to change gear despite having one wheel spinning. Zandvoort is one of these circuits as it allows you to get on the gas as early as possible out of the banked turns.
For the On-Throttle Adjustment, go for a cool 50%. In seemingly all of our previous setup guides, we have left the Off-Throttle Adjustment untouched at 50%. And that is true here and it allows good turn-in through the narrow, twisty Sector 2.
Suspension Geometry
The Suspension Geometry panel in F1 23 is fundamental for your mechanical grip. With Zandvoort being comprised of many slow speed hairpins and chicanes, this is a vital part of one’s setup. You want to maximise grip without overheating your tyres.
When it comes to Camber, we found that -3.00° on the Front was a good start providing good mid-corner grip. The Rear Camber feels best at the -1.50° mark providing good traction on corner exit.
Depending on your aero balance choices, you may or may not want to copy our Toe setup. Our higher Front Toe-Out of 0.07° helps turn-in at all speed at the cost of slightly higher tyre temps. Go for a click or two extra front wing and a lower Front Toe figure to alleviate this. However, it won’t be quite as snappy in slower corners. For the Rear Toe-In, 0.15° was seemingly the most stable option.
Suspension
Thanks to its recent overhaul, the Zandvoort circuit isn’t quite as bumpy as other ‘vintage’ locations on the F1 calendar. As a result, one can get away with a low Ride Height making the most of the new cars’ ground effect. We went with 34-34 Front and Rear as this doesn’t seem to suffer from scraping or bottoming out anywhere.
As with many F1 23 setups, a slightly stiffer front than the rear makes for good rotation and traction. However, this can cause excessive wear on longer runs so it is worth looking out for that during races. We went for 35-15 for the Front and Rear Suspension settings respectively. The Anti-Roll Bars sit much closer in our Zandvoort setup for F1 23 at 10-5 front-rear.
Brakes
One message we consistently push in these F1 23 setup guides is that the Brake Pressure slider must not be changed, especially in the dry. Reducing the potential braking power will only harm your stopping speed at the end of straights requiring you to hit the brakes earlier. Therefore, leave your Brake Pressure at a maximal 100%.
As for the Brake Bias – meaning the balance of braking done by the front and rear axles respectively – it is very much up to personal preference. If you’re suffering with locking from one axle or another, move the bias accordingly. However, Zandvoort features many tightening radius corners in its middle sector which increase the risk of front lock-ups. With that in mind, we went for a Brake Bias of 59%.
Tyres
In F1 23, tyre pressures are very much dependant on their compound, the length of a stint and track conditions. In fact, warmer weather and a longer race stint will require far lower pressures than a cold qualifying run.
Zandvoort with its twisty sections however does require good grip on the front end, so it is best to run slightly lower pressures there. At the rear, it’s a trade off between good traction from lower pressures or better high-speed nimbleness from higher figures. We chose 22.7psi on the Front Tyres and 21psi at the Rear.
Has this F1 23 Zandvoort Setup Guide helped you? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
