F1 24: How To Drive Without Assists

Learning to drive faster in F1 24 comes with time and practice. However, there are some ways to speed up your progression to becoming a more competitive sim racer. One of those ways is to disable the assists and learn to drive F1 24 without any assists.

This may seem pretty daunting at first. Driving without traction control or ABS may be incredibly tough to learn. However, once you do, you’ll have the potential to be faster in F1 24, and you’ll be a more well-rounded sim racer.

In this guide, I will show you how to start racing F1 24 without any assists and how you can be a faster driver. I’ll run through all assists including traction control, the racing line, ERS management and more.

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Do assists make you slower?

First, the answer to one of the most commonly asked questions. Yes, driving with assists enabled in F1 24 does make you slower. Almost all assists are designed to make the car easier to drive, and with this, the game restricts the maximum potential.

The assists in F1 24, including steering and braking assistance, traction control, automatic gears, and ABS, all limit your pace to some degree. Disabling these may be a challenge, but once mastered, you’ll have the full potential of the car’s pace at your disposal.

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Which F1 24 assists are the first to be disabled

When booting up F1 24 for the first time, as a part of your initial setup, alongside setting up your controller or racing wheel. I would head right into the assists menu and disable a few assists immediately.

Assists such as steering and braking assist are designed for players with little to no experience of racing games. If that is you, don’t stress. Participate in a few practice sessions with these assists enabled. Once you’re feeling comfortable, go ahead and disable them.

For the majority of sim racers or returning F1 24 players, these assists will only cause frustration as they slow the car down significantly and take away a lot of control.

I’m talking mainly about the steering and braking assists. These take over almost complete control of your car and won’t let you push hard at all.

I would also recommend disabling the pit and pit release assist and the DRS and ERS assist. These options are there to help take over some aspects of racing. While they don’t affect your performance. However, disabling them at the start of your F1 24 journey will allow each system to become second nature to you as you progress.

The F1 24 assists that should be turned off first are;

• Steering assist: Takes control of your cars steering.
• Braking assist: Takes control over your cars braking.
• Pit assist: Takes control of your car on the entry to the pit lane.
• Pit release assist: Handles the acceleration out of your pit box for you.
• DRS assist: Enables DRS automatically when available.
• ERS assist: Manages your ERS deployment during all sessions.

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Learning the racing line

One of my favourite assists in F1 24 is the dynamic racing line. This assist doesn’t affect your control over the car at all. Instead, it highlights the correct racing line on the track and changes colour, indicating when to brake and accelerate.

This assist is fantastic as it lets players learn new tracks and the correct racing line incredibly quickly. I would suggest using it for many players, even seasoned players as it is essentially a learning device.

However, after a while, I recommend players disable the racing line, as this will increase immersion. It also emphasizes genuinely learning a circuit rather than following the on-screen line.

One of the best ways to start to race without the racing line is to replace the dynamic racing line with markers and landmarks around the circuit. Instead of braking when the line turns red, use a specific marker around the track as your braking point.

This could be a braking marker board, a kerb, or something on screen like a specific tree or barrier. Spotting and learning these landmarks allows you to brake at the right point every lap consistently as they’ll always be in the same spot. That is unless you or someone else does a Pierre Gasly and take out the marker you were using!

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Driving with manual gears

One of the next driving assists to disable would be the automatic gears. This is another assist that can help increase the realism and immersion. Shifting manually every lap replicates the process a real-world driver goes through and makes F1 24 much more realistic.

Learning to change gear manually in F1 24 is also an assist that isn’t too hard to adapt to. That isn’t to say it’s easy, but over time, it will become second nature.

Some key tips on learning to change gear manually are;

• Listen to your engine sound
  Listening to your engine to time your upshifts is an excellent tactic. You will hear the engine become louder and the pitch change as your car revs. When the engine starts screaming at you, it’s time to change gear. You’ll want to do this just before you hit the rev limiter which can sound like a horrible bouncing noise.
• Keep an eye on your rev lights
  Using the rev lights on the HUD is a handy way to see when it’s the best time to change gear. The lights light up as your engine revs more, and they will start to flash when it’s the perfect time to shift up. Some physical steering wheels also incorporate rev lights, making them even easier to watch.
• Use the suggested gear assist
  In the assists menu, you can enable the suggested gear alongside the manual gearbox. This will show the recommended gear on screen giving you a good idea of what gear you should be in.
• Enabling the audio beep
  You can also enable an audible beep to trigger every time you reach the perfect RPM. Shifting as soon as you hear this beep will ensure you change gear perfectly every time.

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Disabling ABS

The ABS assist in F1 24 makes braking easier by preventing lockups from braking too hard. This assist removes the pressure of locking a wheel, allowing you to brake as hard as you want on the entry to a corner.

This isn’t realistic, as real-world Formula 1 drivers don’t have access to anti-lock brakes. Instead, they modulate the brake pressure by releasing it as the car slows, which prevents the wheels from locking.

Disabling ABS can make you faster as you have much more control over your braking, allowing you to brake later, and trail brake more effectively.

There are a few good tips that can help you start driving without ABS. These are;

• Always try to brake in a straight line
  You should always try to ensure your car is as straight as possible when braking. Any steering input will reduce your tyres’ maximum potential to slow you down, which can lead to your brakes locking more easily than if your car was travelling straight.
• Modulate your brake pressure as your car slows
  At almost every corner in F1 24, you will want to modulate your brake pressure to some degree. If you keep your brake input at 100% all the way through the braking zone, your brakes will almost certainly lock up every time. As your car slows down, you should start to release the brake pressure gradually.
• Don’t brake too late
  Braking late may seem the right way to be faster through a corner. However, the opposite can very often be true. If you brake late, you’ll often have to slow your car more to make the corner’s apex. This will reduce your minimum speed and make you slower through a corner. It can also make you slower on the exit of the turn.
• Learn to trail brake
  Trail braking is an advanced technique in F1 24 that involves combining brake and steering inputs. The idea is to start applying steering input in relation to how much you reduce your braking input. When done correctly this technique can reduce your braking point, allow you to carry a higher minimum corner speed and help rotate the car better into the turn.

How to trail brake in F1 24

You may find that you are already trail braking naturally to some degree. Really focusing on it and perfecting the technique at most corners in F1 24 can really help you optimise your braking.

The correct way to trail brake is;

• Brake at maximum pressure as you approach a corner like normal.
• Before the brakes start to lock, start releasing the brake pressure.
• As you release brake pressure, start to apply steering input.
  • Don’t apply too much steering input whilst still braking heavily, as this can result in a locked wheel.
• Keep applying more steering whilst continuing to release the brake pressure.
• At the apex of the corner you should be completely off the brake pedal and have the maximum steering lock applied for that corner.
• Then, switch your focus to the corner exit by opening up your steering and gradually applying the throttle.

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Learning to drive without traction control

One of the toughest assists to learn to drive without in F1 24 is undoubtedly traction control. This assist affects how much wheel spin you encounter while accelerating. Without it enabled, you will find that it is very easy to break traction and spin your rear wheels or even spin your car when accelerating.

There are some key tips you can follow to help make driving without traction control easier to manage. It is important to first know the conditions when wheel spin is most likely.

These include low traction areas such as slow corners, corners with bumpy surfaces or a wet track. In each of these conditions, you are much more likely to spin your wheels, so be extra cautious when encountering them.

Below are our top tips for driving without traction control in F1 24.

• Accelerate in a straight line
  The number one thing to try to do is always accelerate in a straight line or as straight as possible. If you are applying any steering input whilst accelerating, you increase your chance of spinning your rear wheels. When it isn’t possible to accelerate in a straight line, modulate your throttle input.
• Accelerate gradually
  Modulating how much throttle you apply when accelerating is key to not breaking traction. If you accelerate hard at a slow speed, you’ll increase your chance of wheel spin. Try to slowly apply throttle as you exit a corner, only accelerating fully when travelling straight and in a higher gear.
• Short shift where needed
  Short shifting is the technique of changing up a gear before the optimal rev range. This will dull the engine power slightly, making it less likely to over rev and spin your rear wheels. When accelerating from slow speeds or in wet weather, short shifting is very important in limiting wheel spin.
• Adjusting your car setup
  You can make changes to your car setup to make it easier to accelerate without wheel spin. Lowering your on-throttle differential is one of the biggest changes to make, as this frees up your rear wheels and makes it easier to maintain traction at slower speed. You can also increase your rear downforce, soften your rear suspension and lower your tyre pressures.

Applying any or all of these techniques will make it much easier to drive without traction control. If you are racing F1 24 on a controller, fulling disabling traction control can be harder than if using a racing wheel. I would recommend using our recommended F1 24 controller settings which are designed to give you better throttle control.

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Overview

Disabling all assists in F1 24 may take some time and practice. I certainly wouldn’t recommend rushing and disabling everything at once unless you are a returning player. Instead, work through our tips in this guide, disabling one assist at a time.

With enough time in F1 24, and by following our tips, you will soon find yourself racing with fewer assists enabled.

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