A Complete Guide To Traction Control In F1 22

Traction control is without a doubt one of the hardest assists to turn off in F1 22. It dramatically affects how your car handles under acceleration, and it can be tricky to learn to drive without it. However, you will have greater potential for faster lap times if you do drive without traction control.

In this guide, I’ll run through the best tips to help you drive without traction control in F1 22.

Are you faster without traction control?

The simple answer to whether you can be faster without traction control is yes! When you aren’t driving with traction control in F1 22, you have much greater control over how you apply the throttle on the corner exit.

You can utilise tyre slip to help rotate your car better as well as modulate your traction and wheel spin manually. This will almost always be faster than driving with traction control enabled.

Watch our F1 22 traction control video

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How does traction control work?

Traction control is extremely helpful for those who aren’t as experienced or confident driving Formula 1 cars. F1 cars have a lot of power, and when you accelerate out of a corner, the sheer amount of power can cause your rear wheels to spin under acceleration.

This wheel spin will cause the rear of your car to become unstable and force you to release some throttle pressure. This can result in losing control of the car and spinning.

Traction control is designed to kick in just before any of this happens. It will detect the amount of potential wheel spin in your rear tyres. And when it thinks your rear tyres will start to spin, it automatically reduces the amount of power being sent to the wheels.

This reduction of power prevents your wheels from spinning, allowing you to maintain control of your F1 car much easier. However, the reduction in power that traction control causes will slow your corner exit.

Real-world Formula 1 cars don’t have traction control. Instead, the drivers have to manage the amount of wheel spin manually by modulating the amount of throttle they apply.

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How to turn off traction control in F1 22

Turning off traction control in F1 22 is extremely easy to do.

• Simply head over to the ‘Assists’ menu within the main settings.
• Scroll down to the traction control option.
• Change it from full to either medium or off.

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How to Drive Without Traction Control in F1 22

So now we’ve looked at how traction control works and why you should disable it, let’s take a look at some tips on how to drive without traction control.

Lower your traction control assist gradually

When learning F1 22, you don’t need to disable your traction control setting entirely. If you want to gradually learn how to drive without traction control, you can lower the setting from full to medium.

The medium traction control assist will still prevent your tyres from spinning completely when the game detects they’re about to. But it won’t reduce the power as much as the full TC setting would.

This is a sort of middle ground. You will be able to oversteer and wheelspin with the traction control setting at medium. But the wheelspin won’t be as strong as it would with the setting off.

Essentially, it will help ease you away from using traction control. Utilise the medium setting if you are finding turning it off too difficult. Run a few sessions and races in F1 22 with it on medium to start to learn how to manage your throttle application. Then when you feel more confident, turn it all the way off.

Car setup adjustments

The next thing you can do to help manage traction control is to look at your car setup. There are many options within your car setup that will affect your car’s balance, and in-turn how likely it is to oversteer.

You should try and opt for a car setup that is well-balanced and easy to drive as well as focusing on speed. If you can hit all of these things, you’ll have a very competitive car.

Read our ultimate car setup guide for F1 22

A few setup options that can help improve your rear stability and help you drive without traction control are;

• Additional rear wing aerodynamics – This can help improve rear downforce. This will however decrease your straight-line speed.
• Suspension changes – Adjusting your rear suspension to be softer, or your front suspension to be stiffer will help manage wheel spin. This works by helping to keep your rear wheels in contact with the track. A stiff rear suspension setup can cause them to break contact over bumps and kerbs which will induce wheel spin.
• On-throttle differential – You’re on-throttle diff setup will directly affect how much power your rear wheels receive when cornering. Lowering this setup option will help limit wheelspin.
• Rear camber setup – Adjusting your rear camber to a more neutral setup will help more of your tyres be in contact with the track. This will increase overall grip.
• Tyre pressure changes – Lower tyre pressures will increase your tyre contact patch with the road giving more grip under acceleration.

Throttle control

The real key to driving without traction control is to learn how to manage your throttle input. Greater levels of throttle control will allow you to have a much easier time accelerating out of corners.

Throttle control describes modulating how much throttle you apply during different scenarios. This is ever so important, as you simply can’t apply 100% throttle when accelerating and expect the rear of the car to grip to the track.

Too much throttle when accelerating at certain points of the track can cause the rear of your car to become unstable. This is especially true during slower corners and in low grip scenarios such as driving in the rain.

When you accelerate from slow speeds in low gears, your wheels are much more sensitive to the amount of power you’re applying. If you apply too much throttle too early, your wheels can break traction and spin.

Ideally, you should gradually apply the throttle when accelerating from low speeds. Gradually increase your input from 0% through to 100% throttle as you move up through the gears.

Once you feel your car can handle the full amount of power available, you can then apply 100% throttle pressure.

Short shifting

Short shifting is a technique where you change gears earlier than normal. By upshifting before you reach the optimal RPM, you will limit the overall RPM. This will stop the full amount of power from being sent to your rear wheels under acceleration. This in turn will reduce the risk of wheel spin.

Short shifting from lower gears will increase the amount of throttle you can apply. While you won’t be unleashing the full power of the engine, you can apply more throttle earlier. This can result in faster acceleration compared to more engine power and potential wheelspin.

Use this technique when accelerating from very low speeds in low gears such as second and third. This is also a good technique to use in wet conditions where traction is really limited.

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How to stop spinning in F1 22

When turning traction control off in F1 22, the first time you go out on track, you will be very likely to spin. Don’t worry about this, as adjusting from using the traction control to driving without it is a big leap.

You will need to re-learn how to modulate and gradually apply the throttle in certain scenarios. Using the tips above will help limit how often your car oversteers, and potentially spins.

Even with all of the above tips implemented, such as adjusting your car setup and short shifting, you may still find it hard to not spin in F1 22. The best way to stop spinning is to learn to gradually apply throttle.

Follow the tips below when exiting a corner to help learn how to gradually apply throttle to prevent spins.

Top tips to stop spinning

• At slower speeds, you are much more likely to spin your wheels if you apply full throttle.
• At higher speeds, you can apply full throttle much easier.
• It is still possible to spin when accelerating through 4th and 5th gear.
• Gradually apply throttle while you are turning.
• Try to only apply full throttle when travelling in a straight line.

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Use your on-throttle differential to stop spinning

A top tip for making driving easier without traction control is utilising your on-throttle differential. Your on-throttle differential is a car setup option that can be changed in both the car setup screen and while driving from your MFD.

The on-throttle differential setup option will affect how power is delivered to your rear wheels. The closer to 100 you set this, the more your rear wheels will spin at the same speed. Setting it to 100 will force your rear wheels to spin at the exact same speed in all scenarios. This is called a locked differential.

The benefit of this style of setup is that you will get superior acceleration out of medium speed and faster speed corners. Forcing both rear wheels to spin at closer speeds will ensure they are both pushing you along the road with greater efficiency.

However, the downside of setting a high on-throttle diff setup, is that by forcing your tyres to spin at closer speeds, you’re increasing the chance of wheelspin.

How on-throttle differential works

As you turn through and accelerate out of tighter, slower corners, your inside rear wheel will be travelling a shorter distance than your outside wheel. This requires your inside wheel to rotate slower than your outside wheel.

If your on-throttle diff setup is forcing both wheels to turn at almost the same speed, the inside rear wheel will start to spin. This will break traction, and cause your car to oversteer. You’ll then have to compensate by lifting off the throttle to prevent a spin.

By having a lower on-throttle diff setup, you are allowing the rear wheels to spin more independently of each other. This reduces the risk of excess wheelspin. Lowering this setting will help you better manage wheel spin under acceleration, which is key to driving without traction control.

This is an incredibly useful setting for low grip scenarios such as racing in wet weather or driving on worn tyres. You can manually change this setting in your car while driving via your MFD.

So I’d recommend experimenting with this setting throughout a practice session. Adjust it up and down to see how it affects the rear of your car under acceleration. If you’re struggling with oversteering, reducing this setting will help.

View the best racing wheels for F1 22

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Overview

Hopefully, this guide will help you become more confident driving F1 22 without traction control. Utilising these tips including the setup tips can really help you manage your wheel spin when accelerating, especially out of slower corners.

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