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So you have been playing F1 2019 for a while now. But you just can’t seem to find the best force feedback settings to replicate a real F1 car. This is a situation that no sim racer likes to be in. If you attempt to drive in F1 2019 with incorrectly set force feedback settings it can ruin your whole perception of the game.
There are some common mistakes which people make when setting up their wheel’s force feedback. These range from setting the force feedback too strong, meaning you will be constantly clipping. Or turning the wheel dampening up too high which makes the car feel so heavy, and not the nimble F1 car it should be.
Below we will discuss what each force feedback setting does and how it affects your overall feel when driving. Then, further down we list the best force feedback settings for the most popular racing wheels by Fanatec, Thrustmaster and Logitech.
READ MORE – If you are struggling to decide on a wheel to buy read our recommended sim racing rig list.
When you connect your racing wheel of choice to your console and load up F1 2019, one of the first things you should do is configure your wheel. Your settings will drastically affect how your car feels on track and how the FFB is sent through the wheel. Getting this right from the outset will give you a solid base to start learning the game. From here you can build speed and consistency in how you drive.
The vibration and FFB strength affects the whole strength of every other setting. The higher you set this to, the stronger every aspect of the force feedback will be. We recommend lowering this generally below 90 to avoid any clipping or spiking issues.
The on track effects setting affects how strongly the bumps and marbles on the track are portrayed. If you set this too high you will notice every track feels particularly bumpy. This generally wont help your control of the car. Instead it serves the purpose of reflecting the realism of your tyres in contact with the track.
The rumble strip effects setting dictates how much FFB is sent through your racing wheel when driving over kerbs. In a real F1 car, the kerbs and rumble strips are scary. They make the whole car shake and are very difficult to manage. In game you will not want to replicate this effect fully as you will find it hard to control the throttle when exiting corners on a kerb. Generally we lower this setting to a lower-than-life setting.
This setting changes how much or how little control you have on the grass and other off track areas. Keep this low so you can recover when you go off track.
The wheel damper affects how heavy the wheel is. The higher the setting the heavier the wheel and harder it is to turn. In a real F1 car, the power steering is so good that it is similar to the wheel damper being set to very low. You will see we have very low wheel damper settings to emulate this.
Understeer enhance boosts the feeling of the car by removing feedback when your front wheels lose grip. It gives a strange feeling of no control when it kicks in and is very unnatural. If you struggle to feel understeer naturally, you can turn this on to give you a feeling for it, then once you understand understeer you can turn it back off. We always recommend it to be set to off so you have a natural feel through the wheel at all times.
All of the settings below are designed to be great baseline FFB settings. They give you a good starting point, making the car feel as balanced as possible. We suggest that you use these settings as your base and tune to meet your own requirements. For example you may prefer a heavier wheel or slightly elevated force feedback. You can tune directly off of these settings.
You will see that in almost all of the recommended FFB settings below, we have the force feedback strength set way below 100. Having been lucky enough to drive a Formula 1 car during a Renault press day, it is amazing how light the steering actually is. The power steering in an F1 car is incredible!
One area to note when comparing the steering feedback to a real F1 car is that the kerb strength is much lower than real life. In real life the kerbs can shake your teeth out, however in game it can be very difficult to control the car with realistic kerb FFB. So typically all of the settings below use a reduced rumble strip effect strength to give maximum drive-ability.
With wheels such as Fanatec and Thrustmaster you will have to adjust the tuning menus for the wheel directly. Then you will have to change the in-game F1 2019 force feedback settings. Only then will you have the correct force feedback.
If you want to learn more about how to setup a Fanatec wheel and what all of the tuning options for Fanatec wheels mean – Read our in-depth Fanatec setup guide.
For both of the Fanatec Podium series you have to adjust some of the settings using the torque key which is provided with the wheel base.
READ MORE – Read our Fanatec Podium review to see why this is possibly the best racing wheel you can buy!
Why We Love The Fanatec Podium
View more info about the excellent Podium Wheel Base DD2 – Shop now on Fanatec’s official store.
Our Favourite All Round Sim Racing Wheel
View more info about the ClubSport Wheel Base V2 – Shop now on Fanatec’s official store.
View more info about the CSL Elite Wheel Base V1.1 – Shop now on Fanatec’s official store.
View more info about the CSL Elite Wheel PS4 – Shop now on Fanatec’s official store.
Best Budget Fanatec Wheel Base
The Thrustmaster T300, more so than other wheels, suffers with a light feeling when driving Formula 1 cars. However the wheel itself becomes rather heavy when making large inputs, such as during slower hairpin corners. To combat this we recommend taking out all wheel damping. The below settings should allow for maximum force feedback detail to come through the wheel of the Thrustmaster.
The settings below are based on Force Feedback recommendations from David Greco. From there we tweaked these further to suit our preference. We would recommend increasing the throttle linearity to 20 to give a slightly softer initial input on the throttle. This helps to avoid wheel spin on corner exit, and lets you better manage the throttle Also we increased the brake saturation to 5 to give a little extra responsiveness to the pedal.
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[sc_fs_multi_faq headline-0=”h2″ question-0=”Should I run force feedback strength at 100%?” answer-0=”This depends on the wheel you are using. For example a Fanatec CSL Elite can be run at 100% FFB strength as it is a weaker wheel. However you would want to run a direct drive wheel at 100% FFB as it would be too strong. View our list for full settings.” image-0=”” headline-1=”h2″ question-1=”What is the purpose of the torque key for a Fanatec Podium wheel?” answer-1=”A torque key is provided with Fanatec direct drive wheels to allow you to unlock the full strength of the wheel. This is so you can lock the strength to a weaker setting to avoid people injuring themselves. The strength of direct drive wheels is so strong that it can really hurt someone younger.” image-1=”” headline-2=”h2″ question-2=”How do I change Thrustmaster wheel settings?” answer-2=”You can change your Thrustmaster wheel settings in the tuning menu in the Thrustmaster control panel. This is also where you calibrate your wheel.” image-2=”” count=”3″ html=”true” css_class=””]
Rich is the co-founder, and one of the main F1 setup creators and content writers 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.
View all articles written by Rich
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