F1 25: 5 Tips To Make You Faster

There is no doubt that EA Sports are veering more towards simulation and realism with the F1 game series. F1 25 improves upon the somewhat controversial handling from last year’s game, providing more realistic car physics, laser scanned tracks, and other improvements.

This means learning to be a faster driver in F1 25 is more heavily routed in real-world driving techniques. Mastering these heavy, ground-effect Formula 1 cars is a combination of smooth inputs, optimising your driving techniques, and a lot of practice.

In this F1 25 guide, I’m going to share my top 5 tips on how to speed up the process of improving your speed.

Master the Racing Line

First up, jumping right in at the beginning, mastering a track is all about learning the corners, braking zones and racing line. Knowing this for every track you’re racing at will give you an immediate advantage.

If you know which corner is next, you can approach it from the correct side of the track, which will allow for shallower steering angles, and faster minimum speeds. However, with over 20 tracks in F1 25, plus the new reverse tracks, learning the racing line can be a time consuming task.

That is where the racing line assist comes in to help out. This assist can be enabled at any time, and will display a dynamic line on the track showing you where to position your car and when to brake. This assist is so invaluable, that even a lot of experienced drivers use it.

I would however recommend using it solely to learn a track, as disabling it will make F1 25 that much more immersive. You can also usually be faster without the racing line enabled, as you can often brake later than the line shows, and use a more extreme racing line at many tracks.

Turn off unnecessary assists

And that leads me perfectly onto my second tip. Disable as many driving assists as you can right away. The assists in F1 25 are great, as they help drivers and sim racers of different skill levels enjoy the game. However, some assists such as the brake and steering assist in particular can really restrict your experience as they take over a big part of car control.

Even assists such as ABS and traction control will limit your optimal lap times, as they kick in before you reach the limits of your car. Although, for newer players in F1 25, these two assists can be a lifesaver while you get up to speed.

My advice would be to disable all assists that you aren’t actively relying on. Then when you feel comfortable, disable the ABS and lower the traction control and simply spend some time on track with these assists disabled. It’ll definitely take time to adjust to driving without assists, but you will become a more well-rounded sim racer without them.

Perfect Your Braking Technique

On the topic of ABS, mastering your braking in F1 25 is one of the key areas where you can improve your lap time. There is very little time to gain when accelerating as all cars will be doing the same thing. The real gains come in the corners. If you can get through a corner two tenths faster than another car, that can rack up to a couple of seconds of lap time gain across a whole lap.

Braking is where a lot of this lap time can be found. Braking later and using techniques such as trail braking can shorten the braking zone, and reduce the time you spend braking for a corner. If you’re lifting off the brake and throttle pedal and coasting through a corner, you aren’t optimising that braking zone.

There are some key tips when it comes to braking, which are especially useful when turning off the ABS assist.

1. Always brake in a straight line
   The first tip is to always brake in a straight line, or as straight as you can. This allows the tyres to focus all their energy and grip on slowing your car. As soon as you apply steering input while braking, some of the grip then goes towards steering, meaning you’ll be braking less efficiently.
2. Brake late, but not too late
   You will want to brake as late as possible to shorten the braking zone. However, if you brake too late, you’ll have to slow your car more to rotate into the corner which will lose you time. The old phrase, slow in, fast out does really apply. Aim to brake late enough so you aren’t lifting off the brake and coasting in to the apex.
3. Learn to trail brake
   Trail braking is one of the most commonly talked about techniques in sim racing when it comes to improving your corner speed. It is the art of combining steering and braking together, which I know I just said not to do. However, trail braking is all about how you combine the two inputs.

Trail braking explained

To trail brake you should follow these steps;

1. Brake in a straight line at 100% pressure like normal.
2. Gradually release the brake pedal as you reach the limit of grip, just before your tyres lock.
3. While releasing the brake input, start slowly applying steering input.
4. As you release more brake pressure, apply more steering input.
   • Aim to keep your combined input under 100%, so if you’re applying 40% of your maximum brake pressure, you shouldn’t exceed 55-60% of your maximum steering input.
5. Aim to be completely off the brake pedal as you reach 100% steering input, before the apex.
6. Open up the steering and accelerate out of the corner at or just before the corner apex.

Smooth Throttle Application

When you are accelerating out of a corner, you can apply my next tips, and that is to ensure you always modulate your throttle for smooth throttle application. The corner exit is just as important as the braking zone, as it can set you up for an overtake down the next straight, or make you vulnerable if you get it wrong.

One of the biggest hurdles for most players to progress towards racing without any assists, is disabling the traction control assist entirely. Formula 1 cars have an immense amount of power and torque, meaning if you hit the throttle hard out of a corner, you’ll pretty quickly end up facing the wrong way. And you certainly won’t find any lap time facing backwards.

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Driving without traction control is all about precise throttle management. You want to gradually apply the throttle while accelerating out of a corner. And the slower the corner, the more delicate you’ll need to be. The goal is to apply enough throttle to push you out of the corner without losing time, but not exceeding your tyres grip which will cause them to spin.

This tip really is about practice, and learning the limits of your car. when in doubt, apply slightly less throttle out of a corner than you’d think. Constantly applying too much and spinning over and over can cause frustration to build.

Gradually increasing the amount of throttle you apply each lap will allow you to first build confidence that you can drive without TC enabled. And secondly, you’ll quickly learn the limit when you do apply too much. When that happens, simply dial your throttle down again for the next lap.

Adjust Your Car Setup

My final tip is about the importance of using the right car setup. How you set up your car in F1 25 will greatly affect its characteristics. A good car setup can make your car easier to drive, and faster at the right track.

There are preset car setups in F1 25 for more or less aero. However we can create much better setups than these defaults. I do have a complete guide on how to create a car setup in F1 25 which is worth reading. That guide runs through the entire process of creating a setup, and what everything does.

Alternatively, we have a range of setups available for every track in F1 25. I’d recommend using our free F1 25 setups as a first step. These are designed to be a better than baseline setup, improving on what is already in the game, while focusing on stability.

If you want a faster car setup, you can check out our F1 25 pro car setup pack. This pack includes multiple car setups for every race, which have been created by some of the fastest league racing drivers in F1 25. This pack also includes optimal strategies for the race, qualifying and tyre strategy, for every single track.

Unlock lap time with our F1 25 pro car setup pack.

Conclusion

That will round out my 5 top tips for improving your speed in F1 25. Hopefully these quick tips will provide the foundation for improving your lap time over time. Remember, don’t push yourself too far, too early. If you are struggling with any area of F1 25, don’t hesitate to utilise the assists while working on a different part of your driving.

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Article written by Rich

Founder of SimRacingSetups.com

Rich is the founder, F1 car setup creator and content writer for SimRacingSetups. With over a decade of experience as a graphic designer, marketing director, competitive sim racer and avid motorsport fan, Rich founded SimRacingSetup.com to share his passion and knowledge of sim racing and Formula 1 with other sim racers. Regularly writes for sim racing website SimRaceReviews.com

View all articles written by Rich