F1 Manager 22 Setup Guide – How To Create The Perfect Car Setup!

F1 Manager 22 has arrived, and it's the first game in the F1 Manager series, meaning there is a lot to learn. Here I run through car setups and how to create the perfect setup.

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F1 Manager Car Setup Guide

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F1 Manager 22 is here, and it marks the first game in the new F1 Manager series. This game is a huge jump away from the seat-of-the-pants action that is found in F1 22. And it brings a completely different set of skill requirements to really master it.

But that said, this is the first time most of us have played an F1 Manager game, so we’re all learning from the same point.

We have been playing the game for a little while now, allowing us to try out the different mechanics in-game, including car setups.

Car setups in F1 Manager 22 work pretty different to how they work in F1 22. But they are still a very important aspect to get right when really trying to maximise your driver’s speed and strategy.

In this guide, I’m going to run through how car setups work in F1 Manager 22. I’ll also show you how to maximise your setup and create the best setups for your drivers every race weekend.

Watch our F1 Manager 22 setup guide video

We have created a video of this whole guide, so if you’d prefer you can watch the video below to learn how to best setup your car in F1 Manager 22. If you’d rather read this guide, scroll down to view the guide instead.


How car setups work in F1 Manager 22

Car setups in F1 Manager 22 take a different approach to F1 22. You have much fewer options to tweak in F1 Manager, and each setup is really individualised to each driver and team.

You certainly won’t be able to download a fast car setup, bolt it onto both of your cars and away you go. Instead, you have to work to fine-tune your car setup for each driver across all 3 practice sessions.

F1 Manager 22 Car setup options

In F1 Manager 22, there are 5 individual aspects that you can change. These are;

  • Front wing angle
  • Rear wing angle
  • Anti-Roll distribution
  • Tyre camber
  • Toe-out

Each of these car setup options affects different areas of your driver set-up confidence.

What is driver set-up confidence?

Each driver has a set-up confidence every weekend. This is their confidence in the car. If their confidence is high, they’ll receive attribute boosts heading into qualifying and the race.

This means that the main goal with the car setups in F1 Manager 22 is to increase the set-up confidence for both drivers.

F1 Manager 22 how to create the best setup

There are 5 main areas that make up your driver’s confidence. They are;

  • Oversteer
  • Braking stability
  • Cornering
  • Traction
  • Straights

How to increase set-up confidence

Your set-up confidence is directly affected by the car setup choices that you make. You can adjust certain parts of the car setup, and this will adjust the confidence on the right-hand side of the screen.

The best way to increase confidence is to keep the white bar within the blue range. As you adjust each setup option, you will notice the white bars on the right of the screen move, and each individual setup change can affect multiple parts of your driver’s confidence.

F1 Manager driver confidence

When you start the race weekend, the blue bars will be pretty large, giving you a large setup window. As your driver puts in laps on track throughout the practice sessions, these bars will decrease. This points you towards the perfect car setup.

What setup changes affect your car’s balance?

  • Front Wing Angle – Affects Oversteer, Braking Stability, Cornering, Traction, Straights
  • Rear Wing Angle – Affects Oversteer, Braking Stability, Cornering, Traction, Straights
  • Anti-Roll Distribution – Affects Oversteer, Braking Stability, Cornering, Traction
  • Tyre Camber – Affects Oversteer, Braking Stability, Cornering, Traction
  • Toe-Out – Affects Braking Stability, Cornering

Why car setups are important

F1 Manager 22 really is about the finer details compared to EA’s F1 22. In F1 22, being a fast driver is much more important than choosing the right strategy and car setup. Yes, in F1 22 the little things do matter. Car development in MyTeam matters a lot, and the right car setup can help you find seconds of lap time.

But F1 Manager 22 strips away the ability to influence the result based on your own driving ability. Instead, little decisions and strategy calls across a race weekend are the most important elements.

F1 Manager 22 Optimal Car Setup

Car setups are one of those important decisions, as they can boost your driver’s attributes in the race itself. Across the practice sessions, of which there are three every weekend, you can rack up attribute boosts for both of your drivers.

These can be achieved by completing specific goals such as learning the track and fine-tuning their setup.

And the car setup is the single biggest influencer on how many attribute boosts your driver can earn. In total, they can earn 15 point boosts, and 9 of those are linked to their car setup.


How to create the perfect F1 Manager 22 setup

Creating the perfect car setup for both of your drivers each race weekend is a much different task compared to F1 22. In F1 22, you can find universal car setups created by other drivers that are generally looked upon as good. These can be used with almost any car, and most drivers will benefit from them.

In F1 Manager 22, car setups will be individually specific to each driver and team. You will have to work with each of your drivers during the 3 practice sessions before qualifying to fine-tune their car setups. This can lead to both drivers having different setups heading into qualifying and the race.

Even though car setups are much more individual in F1 Manager 22, there are still some ways you can optimise the process. Follow our F1 Manager 22 setup guide below for our tips.

F1 Manager 22 Setup guide

Step 1 – Make any initial adjustments

When you first jump into a practice session, you will see on the setup screen that there are a range of blue bars. These indicate the optimal setup range.

At the start of practice 1, the white bar indicating your driver’s current confidence will be slap bang in the middle.

If any of the blue bars are off to one side of this bar, you may want to adjust the car setup a little so each bar sits relatively central to the blue bar.

You don’t have to take this step, and can simply send your drivers out on track to gauge their thoughts on the setup and leave all adjustments until after the first practice run.

F1 hard tyre setup

Step 2 – First practice run

Once you have made any initial adjustments to the setup, you should look to send your driver out on a medium-length run.

Ensure they have fuel in the car for around 20 or so laps, and put on some hard tyres. Send them out to get both acclimatised with the track and work on the initial setup window.

After a while, you’ll notice the top right of the driver box turn blue. This is the icon with the comment box which reads 0/5 when you first send a driver out on track. It will turn blue once you reach 5/5 comments.

At this point, you should call your driver into the garage to work on the car setup based on their feedback.

Driver car setup feedback

Step 3 – Make some adjustments

The next step, once your driver is in the garage is to click the reconfigure button. This will take you back to the car setup screen and allow you to make some changes.

You will see that the blue bars will shrink, indicating that you’re getting closer to the ideal car setup. The range is essentially getting smaller.

You will see that next to the blue bars are some driver comments. These show you the driver’s thoughts on the setup and can be positive or negative.

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  • ★★★★★
    "Great setups to go fast!"
  • ★★★★★
    "Thanks this helped tremendously"
  • ★★★★★
    "Very nice & well balanced setup"

If a comment is bad, then you should look to focus on that part of the setup, trying to fine-tune it a little more. If the comments are positive, you won’t want to move the white bar too much from where it is.

Making adjustments here really is a bit of a guessing game, and is a game of deduction. Try playing with the car setup options before getting ready for your second run.

F1 manager 22 driver confidence

Step 4 – Second practice run

Once you have made some changes, head over and check your tyres to see how much rubber they have left. If they are looking pretty worn, change tyres and set up another run plan.

If they still have a lot of life left, you can use the same tyres and head back out onto the track. Generally, soft tyres will only be able to do one stint, while medium and hard tyres may be able to do more.

Before you go out for the next run, the engineers will need to make the setup changes which can take a little bit of time. This time will differ depending on how drastically you change the setup.

Once ready, simulate the second stint again, much like the first until your driver reaches 5/5 in the comments box, or close to it.

F1 Manager 22

Step 5 – Rinse and repeat

After the second run, you’ll find that the blue set-up range bars are even smaller, and you should be getting close to the ideal car setup.

You will have to repeat the previous step a few times to really get 100% driver confidence. So make some adjustments and send your drivers back out again.

This process can stretch across all 3 practice sessions, so don’t worry if you run out of time in the first session.

F1 manager 22 driver setup feedback


How are car setups different to F1 22?

In F1 22, car setups are much more in-depth, and this is because they really affect how your car handles. F1 Manager 22 handles car setups differently, turning them into a mini-game throughout practice sessions.

Rather than having specific car setups that work well with every car, in F1 Manager 22 each driver has a confidence level in their setup. This will mean that the car setup for one of your drivers may differ from the setup with your second driver.

In F1 Manager 22, you only have limited car setup changes you can make, whereas, in F1 22, you can have a much more in-depth setup.


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Article written by Rich

Founder of SimRacingSetups.com

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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