F1 23: Traction Control Guide & How To Drive With No TC

Traction control in F1 23 is a fantastic assist to make accelerating without spinning your wheels easier. But it is also one of the hardest assists to drive without. However, if you can turn traction control off in F1 23, you will be able to find some extra lap time!

In this guide, I’ll look at exactly how traction control in this year’s Formula 1 game works, as well as look at some tips on how to drive without traction control in F1 23.

Is traction control faster or slower in F1 23?

While traction control will certainly help some drivers go faster by not having to manage wheelspin as much. Driving without traction control will almost always make you faster in F1 23.

Driving without traction control in F1 23 is faster as you have much more control over wheel slip and your acceleration. Traction control will limit how much power you can apply while accelerating out of corners, which will ultimately slow you down.

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How does traction control in F1 23 work?

In F1 23, we have multiple settings for the traction control assist. But let’s first look at how full traction control works in game.

Traction control in F1 23 is actually very similar to how it works in a road car. It detects when your rear wheels are about to lose traction, due to too much torque, or not enough grip, and it steps in to reduce the power being sent to the driven wheels.

Essentially, if you accelerate at 100% throttle pressure, traction control will kick in just before your wheels start to spin. It will then reduce the throttle pressure to a level which prevents the wheels from spinning. This could be anything from 10% to 100% and anywhere in between.

But while the traction control is reducing the throttle pressure, you won’t be accelerating at your car’s full potential, even if you still have the throttle pedal fully depressed.

If you change the traction control assist in F1 23 to medium or somewhere between off and full, the amount that the traction control intervenes will vary.

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How to turn off traction control in F1 23

Disabling traction control and turning it off in F1 23 is incredibly simple to do, and can be done from the assists menu in the main F1 23 settings.

1. Simply head over to the ‘Assists’ menu within the main F1 23 settings.
2. Scroll to the traction control option.
3. Change it from full to either medium or off.

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Learn how to drive without traction control in F1 23

Learning to drive without traction control in F1 23 can be one of the hardest things to master in this year’s Formula 1 game.

This is especially true since the new rule changes that were implemented last year have drastically altered the levels of grip available. This makes driving without traction control even harder than in previous generations of F1 game.

Below are our top tips on how to drive without traction control in F1 23.

Lower your traction control assist

F1 23 offers multiple levels of traction control. It isn’t just a case of enabling or disabling it. And you can use these incremental settings to lower the amount of traction control gradually.

Changing the traction control from full to medium has a big impact on your lap time, and how the cars in F1 23 behave.

You will immediately notice the rear of the car will start to oversteer a little bit more with traction control set to medium. Traction control will still be active, but it won’t intervene as much as full traction control would.

This is a great way to start to progressively learn how the rear of the car behaves with lower traction control settings. After a while with medium traction control, you can progress to disabling it completely and it won’t feel like such a big difference as it would if you went from full traction control to turning it off.

Car setup

A big influence on how your car behaves in F1 23 is your car setup. You can adjust your car setup to change how your car feels on track, and some changes can impact your car’s traction and oversteer.

While learning to drive F1 23 without traction control, you should look to create a car setup that makes your car as easy to drive as possible. This can be done with a few areas of your car setup.

Read our F1 23 setup guide for more detail on how to create the perfect car setup in F1 23.

• Higher rear wing aero: More rear wing aero will produce more downforce at the rear of the car, helping the rear tyres with traction.
• Suspension changes: A softer rear suspension or a stiffer front suspension will help to limit your car’s tendency to oversteer.
• On-throttle differential: Lowering your on-throttle differential is one of the best ways to limit wheelspin when accelerating from a lower speed.
• Rear camber setup: Minimising rear camber will allow more of your rear tyres to be in contact with the track increasing ultimate grip.
• Lower tyre pressures: Lower rear tyre pressures will increase your tyres contact patch with the track, increasing traction.

Throttle management

While a stable car setup can help with reducing wheelspin and oversteer, and a medium traction control setting will act as a good gateway to disabling traction control in F1 23. The real skill to driving without traction control is good throttle management.

This means, being able to modulate and change your throttle input when accelerating out of corners, especially slower corners.

If you have ever tried to accelerate at 100% out of a corner in F1 23 without traction control, you’ll know just how easy it is to spin your car.

Typically, you’ll need to apply a small amount of throttle pressure as you start to accelerate, and then gradually increase the amount of throttle pressure you apply. Then finally, you will be able to apply 100% throttle pressure at a point where the rear wheels will not break traction.

This is without a doubt the hardest part of learning to drive in F1 23 without traction control.

Short shifting

Short shifting is a technique that will help reduce the amount of power sent to the rear wheels when accelerating from slower speeds or lower gears.

This will help manage traction and eliminate some tendency for your car to wheelspin when accelerating.

Short shifting is the term given to changing up to the next gear earlier than you normally would.

Generally, you will shift at around 12,000 rpm as this is around the optimal rev range for a gear shift. However, when short shifting, you may shift up at 10,000 or 11,000 rpm.

What this does is prevents the engine from spinning at its full speed, which prevents it from producing the maximum amount of power and torque available.

This will reduce the amount of peak power from the engine, which will help you avoid wheelspin from too much power being sent to your rear wheels.

This technique is almost a requirement when driving F1 23 in wet weather conditions, but is also really helpful when accelerating from low gears such as first, second or third gear.

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How to stop spinning in F1 23

Utilising a combination of the techniques above will help you stop spinning without traction control in F1 23. It is easier than ever to spin your car in F1 23 when driving without traction control. But learning to control wheelspin and even use it to your advantage to improve your lap times is incredibly satisfying.

Below are our top tips on how to reduce wheelspin and stop spinning in F1 23.

Top tips to prevent spinning

• Accelerating at slower speeds results in a higher chance to spin your wheels.
• Ensure your car is straight when accelerating.
• You can still break traction and spin your wheels in 4th and 5th gear.
• Apply small throttle inputs when starting to accelerate.
• Gradually increase the throttle pressure as you accelerate.

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On-throttle differential to prevent wheel spinning

One part of your car setup that can have the biggest difference in how often your wheels spin is your on-throttle differential setup.

Your on-throttle differential controls how independently each of your rear wheels spin. At 100% both rear wheels are locked together and will spin at the exact same speed at all times.

This approach is great for high-speed corners giving you the best performance and acceleration out of a corner. However, when accelerating from slower speeds this approach will cause your wheels to break traction much easier.

The closer you set your on-throttle differential to 50%, the more independently each rear wheel will spin. This allows more flexibility for each wheel when accelerating from slower speeds, and will reduce the likelihood to break traction.

• Lower on-throttle diff = Less wheel spin at slow speeds
• Higher on-throttle diff = More wheel spin at slow speeds

How on-throttle differential works in F1 23

The reason that lowering your on-throttle differential setup will reduce your wheel spin is due to the different speeds that your rear wheels travel.

While turning through a corner, your inside rear wheel travels a shorter distance than your outside wheel. This requires your inside rear wheel to rotate slower than the outer wheel.

If you run your on-throttle diff close to 100%, it will force the inside wheel to spin faster than is required. This will cause it to break traction and result in wheel spin.

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Overview

Hopefully, this F1 23 guide to driving without traction control will help you reduce your traction control assist and have an easier time managing wheel spin. Follow the tips above to reduce wheel spin as much as possible with traction control disabled. And let us know in the comments below your top tips for reducing wheel spin.

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