If you want to learn how to manage your tyres on F1 22, here’s our F1 22 tyre management guide to help you out!
Image credit: Codemasters/EA
Being able to manage your tyres on the F1 game can be the difference between getting a good result and losing it right at the end. There are always three types of dry weather tyres, with each one trading durability for performance.
The red-marked soft tyres are the quickest for a single lap but will wear out the quickest. The white-marked hard tyres last the longest but perform the worst, whilst the yellow-marked medium tyre is smack bang in the middle. So how do you get the best performance out of your tyres on F1 22?
F1 22 Tyre Management Guide – Setup
For many a casual player, setups are a bit of an anomaly. All too often, players will default to searching for a setup that is based around hotlapping, with little to no regard for tyre wear or temperature. What good is rushing off into the distance in the first three laps if for the rest of the stint, you’re losing time because of the tyres dropping off dramatically?
When it comes to tyre performance, there are two key elements within the setup to focus on. Those are the suspension geometry and the tyre pressures.
For the camber and toe settings in suspension geometry, running the settings as close to 0 as possible will reduce tyre wear and overheating significantly. It will cost some performance but it’s way better for a race of any sizeable distance than sacrificing durability for only a few laps of outright speed.
Make sure the adjuster in the setup menu is going to the right for camber settings and left for toe settings. It’s not very intuitive.
Then for tyre pressures, you want them low. Especially on this year’s game with the handling model encouraging more slip, you simply cannot let the surface temperature get too high as you will be in a self-fulfilling cycle of spinning and having tyres get too hot. Keep a look at the MFD and monitor tyre temperatures, if they regularly exceed 100 degrees then you need to lower pressures.
Driving Style
Adjusting your settings is half the battle. Everything else is down to how you actually drive, which should come as no surprise. So what would we recommend?
With F1 22‘s driving physics being vastly different to those of F1 2021, the cars have less mechanical grip and are more nervous at the limit. This results in it being relatively easy to use up the tyres in an effort to compensate for outright performance.
Some simple things you can do to help include smoother movements of the wheel, not just on the initial turn in but throughout the corner. This can work wonders.
For the front tyres, it’s inevitable that when heading into long fast corners that they will get really hot and wear out. This is especially true at the start when the fuel tanks are full. Turn gradually into the corner initially but slowly open up the steering as you exit. This will put less strain on the tyres.
Then for the rear tyres, the key is short shifting and throttle modulation. Even in a relatively fast corner, the wheels can over-rotate regardless of having traction control on or off, so always ease your foot or trigger finger onto the throttle pedal/button. Shifting into higher gears early can result in the power delivery being smoother and slower, as a result not spinning the wheels.
Maximising Strategy
In a race where tyre wear is a factor, the strategy can influence the outcome to an immense degree. The shortest race in which the strategy plays a part is a 50% distance race. The 5-lap races or a 25% distance race require very little to no strategy at all. Whilst Sprints have no mandatory pitstops so pick the right tyre and manage them all the way through.
But a 50% distance race and obviously a full length Grand Prix are long enough to have tyre wear play a factor. Open up the Edit Strategy option when on the grid to see the options.
More often than not, a one-stop will always be quicker in a 50% race. Since the time to perform a stop will never be made up, unless there’s potentially a Safety Car or VSC to bunch the field back up or neutralise it.
Fuel Loads
Another thing that is worth noting is that when you open up the Edit Strategy menu, there’s also a slider for fuel load. Since there are no longer any fuel mix changes, there’s all the more incentive to lower the fuel. More fuel in the car makes it heavier and thus puts more strain on the tyres. Don’t under fuel it too much though of course, unless it’s rainy or there’s a high chance for a safety car. If you do run the risk of running out of fuel, lift and coast towards the end of a straight.
Since you want to be doing less stops, it’s important to be light on your tyres. But also be mindful of whether an undercut or overcut is preferred. Historically, an undercut was beneficial but since the tyres on this year’s game aren’t preheated, it’s now more favourable to stay out as long as possible.
However, on tracks with many corners, these tyres will often get up to temperature very quickly. Couple that with the tyres being more worn due to the increased amount of corners, and the undercut becomes very powerful. So, to prevent an undercut, pit as soon as possible so that for at least half of the lap, your opponent has been having to get their tyres up to temperature.
You still could end up getting passed by them, but you at least decrease the likelihood of it happening by reacting to their undercut attempt. But don’t go off strategy too much, keep the MFD open to see when your pit window is.
Did you find our F1 22 tyre management guide helpful? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
