ABS in F1 22 is designed to make braking easier. Those who fancy a challenge, or want to be faster should turn ABS off. Follow these top tips to learn to drive without ABS in F1 22.
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Like all other assists, ABS in F1 22 is designed to make the game more enjoyable. If you struggle to brake without locking your wheels, try turning ABS on. This will make braking easier, but it will make your lap times slightly slower. Follow our guide to learn how to drive in F1 22 without ABS.
ABS in F1 22 is an extremely helpful and widely used assist. It allows the game to completely look after the brakes to avoid any lockups, allowing you to focus on the racing.
However, ABS will cause your lap times to be slower than your maximum potential. This is because the ABS will kick in when you’re braking too heavily. In affect, this will elongate your braking zones, forcing you to brake earlier than you ideally would.
Disabling ABS in F1 22 can be a tricky assist to overcome. It is tricky to almost re-learn how to brake to avoid locking your wheels. In this guide, I’m going to run through the best methods of driving without ABS in F1 22.
ABS (Anti-lock braking system) is a helpful assist which makes braking in F1 22 easier. Its sole purpose is to avoid your wheels from locking as you brake into corners.
Without ABS enabled, if you brake too heavily into a corner for too long, you run the risk of locking a wheel. This will make you skid across the track, causing excess tyre wear and elongated braking zones. It’s fair to say, locking a wheel should be avoided in F1 22 if you’re after super-fast lap times!
ABS monitors your brakes and kicks in just before your wheel locks. The ABS will temporarily lower the amount of brake pressure applied (even if you keep your brake pedal completely pressed). As soon as the ABS detects that locking is no longer an issue, it will then reapply full brake pressure.
The moderation of your brake pressure is what makes driving with ABS slower than without it. As your car is releasing the amount of pressure applied to your brakes your car is going to take longer to slow down.
If you can learn to drive without using ABS, and control the brake pressure manually, your lap times will be faster.
Learning to drive in F1 22 without ABS is one of the trickier elements to learn. However, with a little practice, it should start to come naturally. Then over time, you can introduce a variety of more advanced techniques to improve your lap times.
The first thing to remember about braking is that your brakes are much more sensitive at lower speeds.
If you apply the same amount of braking force at 100mph compared to at 180mph, the chances of locking a wheel are much higher. This is why both drivers and the ABS itself, modulate the brake pressure as the car slows.
Think of braking as a curve that falls away.
This is normally always the quickest way to brake in F1 22.
The next thing to remember when learning to drive without ABS in F1 22 is that your brake pressure and steering input are heavily linked.
Your tyres can only provide so much grip. As you brake in a straight line all of the grip is focused on slowing your car down. As you turn into a corner, the grip is then focused on turning.
If you do both at the same time you will overload your tyre. If you exceed the maximum amount of grip your tyre can provide, one of two things will happen.
You’ll either lock a wheel, normally your inside front wheel as that will be the tyre with the least load in it. Or you will understeer into the corner making you miss the apex and run wide.
To really understand this, think of your tyre as having 100% grip to provide. As you brake, 100% of that grip is focused on slowing your car. If you then turn into a corner, you will need to release the brake pedal to free up some grip for cornering.
This is called trail braking. I’ll talk more about trail braking in my advanced braking techniques below, as it’s a fantastic way of improving lap times.
Braking in F1 22 without ABS is all about avoiding locking your wheels. There are a few things you can do to ensure that your chances of locking a wheel are as low as possible.
The first thing you should always try to do when braking in F1 22, is to brake in as straight of a line as possible. As I mentioned above, if you apply any steering input while braking, this will take away from the maximum tyre grip that can be used to brake.
Steering while braking will not only increase the likelihood of locking a wheel. It’ll also make your braking zones longer, even if you don’t lock up. This is because your braking isn’t using 100% of your tyre’s available grip if you’re steering.
Locking up normally happens for two reasons. The first is that you’re simply asking too much of the tyres, such as braking and steering at the same time. And the second is when drivers brake slightly too late.
In the second scenario, drivers tend to panic and apply more brake pressure for longer than they normally would to try and compensate for braking too late. This will put more strain on your tyres and could potentially cause a lockup. Especially, if you were already driving close to the limit.
This can be much less of an issue if you always look for your braking zones as you approach them. Keep your eyes focused as far in front of you as you can to spot your brake reference points. Try not to be too distracted by other things around you.
Even when you are battling with other cars in F1 22, try to keep one eye on the braking point for the corner ahead.
As I mentioned above, as you slow down you need to start releasing the brake pressure. If you keep 100% brake pressure applied while you are slowing, there will be the point at which your tyres lock.
You should aim to try and find the point where you’re likely to lock a wheel through force feedback or vibration in your controller and through previous experience. And then start to release the brake pedal just before you reach it.
Continue to release the brake pedal as you slow further until you’ve slowed enough to take the corner.
With the basics of braking without ABS covered. Now is the time to cover a few more advanced braking techniques. These can be used during various corners or in different scenarios. And when used effectively, they can give you better lap times.
As mentioned, trail braking is the art of modulating the brake pressure along with your steering input. You will start to apply steering lock before you’ve fully released the brake pedal. This will reduce your overall time in a corner, and should improve your lap times.
Cadence braking is another advanced braking technique that is extremely helpful during low grip scenarios. For example, cadence braking is extremely useful in heavy rain or when your tyres are incredibly worn out.
Essentially, cadence braking involves you pumping the brake pedal reasonably quickly during the braking zone. This involves pushing and releasing the brake pedal over and over while you’re slowing down.
While it may seem counterintuitive to release the brake pedal while slowing. During extreme low grip scenarios, any sustained heavy braking pressure can cause your wheels to lock.
By constantly releasing and re-applying the brake pedal, you are almost resetting the brakes each time. You brake heavily to slow the car, then release the brakes just before the wheels lock, and repeat.
You won’t use cadence braking overly much during regular F1 22 races. However, it is extremely effective during extreme wet races or times when your tyres are extremely worn.
Hopefully, these tips on how to brake without ABS in F1 22 will help you improve your braking technique. Remember that ABS is one of the harder assists to turn off. So when you do, don’t be disheartened if it takes a little while to adjust to braking without it.
Over time, braking without ABS will become second nature, and you’ll be able to focus more on improving lap time, along with other techniques.
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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
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