F1 23 Portugal Car Setup: Best Race Setup

The final track in our car setup series is Portugal, and boy is this a fun track to end on. This circuit hasn’t been on the official calendar since 2021, and that is a huge shame. The track layout with all of the undulation and unique corners provides such an entertaining drive.

There are a good number of different corner styles as well, with fast turns through to much slower corners. Some corners such as turn 4 as well as most of the final sector combine huge elevation changes with fast corners making for some really entertaining and thrilling segments.

Much like Qatar, this is a circuit I could drive for a long time without getting board, but I’m going to stop raving on about how enjoyable this track is, and jump into the car setup for Portimao.

Watch our F1 23 Portimao car setup video

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Aerodynamic setup

For the aerodynamic setup, I’ve opted for a relatively low downforce approach of 27 at the front and 30 at the rear. This gives your car a huge boost in a straight line making this setup actually feel pretty OP compared to the AI.

I had to increase the AI quite substantially while testing this car setup as I could simply drive straight past them in some areas. The higher rear aero provides much-needed rear stability, which is really tested through some of the faster corners such as turn 4.

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Transmission setup

For the transmission, a pretty traditional approach of 52% on throttle and 51% off throttle diff is the order of the day. This gives good traction and good rotation into the slower corners making up for the lower front aero.

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Suspension Geometry

II have set the camber far right both front and back. Then I’ve tweaked the toe to really emphasise stability. The front toe at 0.02 reduces drag and stops the car from being too twitchy.

Then I’ve really increased the rear toe to 0.25. This provides excellent rear stability and we can get away with the excess drag as the aero setup is on the lower side.

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Suspension setup

The suspension setup for Portimao is much more traditional compared to our previous setup at Paul Ricard. Go with 19 and 5 on the suspension setup and 10 and 2 on the anti-roll bars.

These values are on the lower side to again help a little with stability. A stiffer approach could cause your car to really misbehave over the big bumps and elevations changes.

Then for the ride height, go with 35 and 39.

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Brake setup

I’m running our normal brake setup of 100% pressure and 55% brake bias, as this provides the most even braking setup.

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Tyre setup

Then much like Paul Ricard, I’ve set the tyre pressures individually. The left of the car gets really punished much more than the right. This means that the left tyres wear much faster.

We can help combat this a little by setting the front left tyre to 22.5psi while keeping the front right at 22.7psi. Then I’ve done the same at the rear with a rear left of 20.1psi and rear right of 20.2psi.

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Overview

And that completes not only our Portugal car setup, but also, our complete F1 23 car setup series. This is the final track in the game, and this setup now means that I’ve created a dry car setup for every single track.

For those who have followed these car setups and commented on each one, thank you for your support. And don’t worry, this isn’t me done with F1 23.

I’ll be continuing to release F1 23 tips and tricks videos, along with various other sim racing and F1 23 content. I’m also planning a wet car setup series, so for those who have asked about the setups, they’ll be coming shortly.

Enjoy this setup and I’ll see you on track.

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