F1 22 can be enjoyed using a variety of controllers, from console controllers, through to racing wheels. Here is the complete guide of the best controllers for F1 22 on all consoles.
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Racing F1 22 with a controller is a go-to for many gamers. Controllers are small and portable making them extremely convenient. If you prefer picking up F1 22 and competing in a race from the comfort of your sofa, a controller is fantastic for this. If you are after the most immersive F1 22 experience you can get, a racing wheel delivers this in abundance.
This guide runs through the best controllers for F1 22. I’ll include the best picks for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and PC. This guide will focus entirely on controllers, but if you fancy picking up a racing wheel for F1 22. Check out our recommended racing wheels for F1 22 guide.
When it comes to racing F1 22 with a controller, many might simply use the standard controller that comes with their console. There isn’t anything wrong with that, especially as the PlayStation 5 Dualsense controller is amazing for racing games!
There are a wide variety of controllers for Xbox, PS4, PS5 and PC that work fantastically with F1 22. Racing with these controllers could increase the amount of fun you have with F1 22. And finding the right controller for you could even improve your lap times!
In the categories below, I have separated the best controllers for each console. I’ve included a segment for the best Xbox controller, the best PS4/PS5 controller and the best PC controller for F1 22.
Within each category, I’ve included my top 3 picks. Each pick is worthy of consideration for F1 22, and each brings its own perks.
Best Xbox Controller Xbox Elite Series 2 | Best PS5 Controller PS5 Dualsense Controller | Best Premium Controller SCUF Instinct Pro |
 |  |  |
SWAPPABLE PARTS Yes | SWAPPABLE PARTS No | SWAPPABLE PARTS Yes |
COMPATIBILITY Xbox, PC | COMPATIBILITY PS5, PC | COMPATIBILITY Xbox, PC |
PRICE From £/$140 | PRICE From £/$55.95 | PRICE From £/$200 |
Below are the best controllers for F1 22 when racing on an Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One. All of the controllers below are compatible with both last-gen and current-generation Xbox consoles. And each one brings a host of additional features that aren’t found in the standard Xbox controller.
For a long time, Xbox gamers looking for the best controller have had the Xbox Elite controller to look at. The original Elite controller really brought another level of customisation and quality to the Xbox controller space.
The Series 2 controller was released a few years ago, and it picked up exactly where the original Elite left off. It is perfectly compatible with Xbox consoles as well as PCs and is ready to use out of the box.
The Xbox Elite Series 2 is a perfect fit for F1 22. You have a lot of customisation allowing you to really find the perfect balance on track.
You can change the resistance of bumpers and the stiffness of the analogue sticks. This helps you find the sweet spot when accelerating and braking, as well as giving you finer levels of control using the analogue sticks to steer.
Around the back are also additional paddles that can be configured to a range of inputs in F1 22. One of the best functions for the additional paddles is to configure them to become your shifters. This will make them act like paddle shifters on a racing wheel, allowing you to shift up and down with ease.
Overall, the Xbox Elite Series 2 is the best controller for F1 22 on Xbox. Other controllers implement some of the same functionality. But this first-party Xbox controller steals the show.
Scuf is one of the best premium controller builders, especially when it comes to high-end competitive controllers. While they aren’t cheap, they bring a wide range of features which can’t be found on many other controllers.
When it comes to our favourite premium controller to race F1 22 with. The SCUF Instinct Pro has to be top of the list. It comes with a rather hefty price tag when compared to the Xbox Elite Series 2. But you get a lot of functionality for the price.
The Instinct Pro takes the same form factor as Microsoft’s Xbox controller but features an enhanced grip. The performance grip is a slightly different shape from the original Xbox controller. It’s specifically designed to offer the most comfortable grip for long play sessions.
Much like the Xbox Elite Series 2, the SCUF Instinct Pro features paddles on the rear of the controller. These can be mapped to any input, but work perfectly as paddle shifters.
There are four paddles in total on the rear of the controller, allowing you to easily control your DRS activation and ERS Overtake mode. It’s almost as though this controller was designed to control a Formula 1 car!
Unfortunately, the SCUF Instinct Pro is only Xbox and PC compatible, however, the SCUF Reflex Pro for PS5 is equally as impressive.
The Razer Wolverine Ultimate brings a unique button layout in an attempt to deliver the best gaming and racing experience on Xbox. Much like the two controllers above this on the best Xbox controller list, the Wolverine features a wide range of customisation.
There are a set of paddles on the rear of the controller, which is pretty standard for premium Xbox controllers. However, Razer has introduced two additional shoulder buttons. These can be useful for features such as controlling the camera.
When racing with the Wolverine Ultimate in F1 22, I programmed these to look left and right, allowing me to see other cars around me. This worked well, giving me more control over what I could see on track. The position of these two triggers allowed me to easily push them without releasing the throttle or brake triggers.
Along with the additional triggers, Razer has done a fantastic job of upgrading the face buttons. These feel much more responsive compared to the base Xbox controller.
You also get access to a lot of customisation. You can completely swap out the analogue sticks, much like you can on the Xbox Elite controller.
The Razer Wolverine Ultimate is a completely wired controller. This can be positive and negative depending on how you look at it. While you don’t get the freedom of a wireless controller, you do get zero input lag and don’t need to worry about charging batteries.
Buy the Razer Wolverine Ultimate
It was incredibly hard to try and find a PlayStation controller that was better suited to racing F1 22 than the PS5 Dualsense Controller. And to be honest, all other controllers that we’ve tested couldn’t quite compete.
The PS5 Dualsense is without a doubt the most suited controller for racing F1 22 on PlayStation. There was a lot of hype and praise for the haptic triggers when the PS5 first launched. And it’s safe to say the hype wasn’t misplaced.
The haptic triggers work incredibly well with F1 22. The resistance in each trigger grows as you apply the throttle and brake pedal. And in certain situations such as oversteer or locking a wheel, the triggers rumble and adapt their resistance.
This change in resistance throughout a race is the perfect feedback you need to know how your car is reacting to the track surface.
It is often said that you can’t properly feel how your car is behaving using a controller. Instead, many point to force feedback in racing wheels as the only way you can really feel your car on the track. The PS5 Dualsense Controller does away with this misconception.
The PS5 Dualsense is quite simply one of the best controllers on the market in 2023. And it works flawlessly with F1 22 on PS5.
Buy the PS5 Dualsense Controller
If you want to look away from the PS5 Dualsense Controller for whatever reason, you should seriously consider the Nacon Revolution Unlimited Pro. It’s a third-party controller that offers all of the functionality of a PlayStation controller including the touchpad. But it brings a lot of additional features.
This Nacon controller has won a lot of praise, and it’s easy to see why. It features incredibly precise upgraded thumb sticks, as well as four additional shortcut buttons that are located on the rear of the hand grips.
These buttons can control a variety of aspects of your car in F1 22, from shifting to enabling your DRS or pit limiter. Much like I did with the Razer controller above, I mapped two of these buttons to allow me to look left and right.
The Revolution Unlimited Pro also comes with features such as in-built headset controls for those who like to race online. And you can adjust your controller with precision.
Nacon includes their own software that allows you to completely tailor how your analogue sticks and triggers react. This software allows you to adjust your controller in much the same way as you would control a racing wheel’s linearity and sensitivity.
Buy the Nacon Revolution Unlimited Pro
I mentioned the SCUF Reflex Pro earlier when talking about the Instinct Pro. And that was because both of these controllers are incredibly impressive. They offer a lot of the same functionality, with the Reflex Pro being the PS5 compatible controller.
Much like the Instinct Pro above, the Reflex Pro is incredibly expensive. But it offers one of the most premium controllers to race F1 22 with on PS5.
This premium price tag brings a lot of functionality and customisation. You can create multiple profiles which include button configurations and functionality. These allow you to quickly switch profiles directly from the controller itself.
You could have one profile for F1 cars in F1 22, and a second for supercars. Or you could keep a separate profile for playing shooter games, allowing you to switch between racing and FPS games instantly.
There are the standard additional buttons on the rear of the controller. These have been carefully designed to wrap around the rear hand grips creating a seamless design. The Reflex Pro also comes with interchangeable analogue sticks and faceplates for ultimate customisation.
When it comes to the best controllers for PC, I have to lean into the best picks for Xbox and PS5. Most controllers are designed with one of these consoles in mind, with few controllers being created specifically for PC.
The first pick for the best PC controller for F1 22 is one which allows plug-and-play compatibility. The Xbox Elite Series 2 is perfectly compatible with PCs. You can configure it to connect via Bluetooth, or wire allowing you to easily switch between playing on Xbox and PC.
I won’t talk too much about the features of this controller, as I’ve already given it enough praise in the Xbox guide above. But this controller is essentially a first-party Windows controller, giving you the perfect tool to race F1 22 with on PC.
The second controller in our best PC controller guide is one that hasn’t been featured in either of our other lists. The Recon controller is designed for Xbox Series X and leans heavily on the design of an Xbox pad.
This lends it perfectly to PC racing. It is a much more budget-friendly option compared to other controllers on this list. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t pack the same feature set.
This Turtle Beach controller comes with additional rear buttons for additional control. You can save multiple configuration profiles to the controller itself and have additional precision with the Pro-Aim thumbstick.
This controller is one for those who don’t fancy using an Xbox controller. But don’t necessarily have the budget for some of the premium options on this list.
Buy the Turtle Beach Recon Controller
Our third recommendation for the best PC controller for F1 22 is once again a controller that’s already been featured. The SCUF Instinct Pro is perfect for those willing to purchase a premium controller to race with.
It is another Xbox-compatible controller that offers additional functionality. As I mentioned above, the additional functionality that this controller offers allows you to personalise your F1 22 experience.
This is a controller for serious sim racers who fancy a break from their racing wheel.
Whichever controller you opt for, ensuring your F1 22 controller settings are set up correctly can really help. Creating your own button configuration can help you access features such as DRS or the pit limiter.
All of the controllers on this list offer additional buttons that allow you to create a unique button layout.
To create your own button layout, you can head into the controller calibration menu. This is found in the game settings, under “Controls, Vibration & Force Feedback”. Simply click on one of the preset profiles and click edit to start creating your own button layout.
Scroll up and down the list and find the function that you wish to remap. Simply click on it once, and then click the button that you wish to map it to.
I would recommend mapping elements such as shifting gears to the rear paddles. This emulates a similar feeling to shifting with a racing wheel. That frees up face buttons or shoulder buttons to control functions such as DRS and your pit speed limiter.
Once you’re happy with your button layout, head into the calibration settings to start adjusting how your controller feels.
Here, the first thing you should do is select “Test Buttons”. This will allow you to move your analogue sticks and push buttons to ensure everything is working s it should.
As you push the analogue sticks to the side and the triggers down, you should see your steering, acceleration and brake inputs changing. You can see this on the right of the screen, and should go from 0 to 100.
If the right of the screen doesn’t show your input going to 100 even when you push the triggers and joystick fully, you’ll need to adjust some settings.
The first setting you should change is saturation. Increasing this option will reduce the amount of input you need to apply to reach 100. If you increase the throttle saturation for example, you wont need to fully press on your trigger to fully accelerate.
This is useful if you are struggling to reach 100 with your inputs.
If any of the bars on the right show numbers other than zero when you aren’t pressing any inputs, then adjust your deadzone. This is how much you need to apply input to your joystick or triggers before any input is registered.
This can be helpful if you find your car drifts to one side when driving in a straight line. Try to keep this at zero if you can, or as close to zero as possible.
Finally, your linearity affects how sensitive your joystick and triggers are when you first apply any input. If you increase this setting, the joystick and triggers won’t apply as much input when you first start to move them. This will give you more detailed control over small inputs.
Try not to increase your linearity too much. But a little linearity is OK to help with your steering precision in particular.
The final settings you should look to change are the vibration settings. These will affect how strong the rumbling and vibration is while you’re driving in F1 22.
The higher these settings, the more vibration you’ll feel. If you don’t like as much vibration in your controller when on track, lower these settings. I’d recommend keeping these all set to around 100 for the best experience.
One setting that can drastically affect your ability to finely control your car at speed in F1 22, is the maximum wheel rotation setting.
When using a racing wheel, this should almost always be set to 360 degrees. However, when using a controller, lowering this setting will allow for more precision when steering with an analogue stick.
A value between 270 and 300 degrees should help free up some extra control with a controller in F1 22.
Many controllers on this list cost over £100/$100. And that is around standard for a premium gaming controller. A regular licensed controller for Xbox or PlayStation costs around £50/$50.
A budget of just over £100/$100 will give you a lot of options for a very good gaming controller. Controllers such as those from SCUF can cost up to and over £200/$200. This is an extremely premium price tag.
Wired controllers offer a few benefits over wireless. The main one being zero latency. Although most wireless controllers in 2023 don’t suffer from lag or latency issues. The other benefit is that you don’t need to worry about charging your controller or the battery running out mid race.
Wireless controllers give you the benefit of not having a wired going from you to your console. This is much tidier and is the standard for most gaming controllers.
Controllers are fantastic for those looking to play F1 22 from the comfort of their sofa, or if you don’t have room for a racing wheel. If you are looking for greater immersion or more fine levels of control over your car, a racing wheel is definitely a step up.
You will need somewhere to mount your racing wheel too, although this can be your desk or a table.
If you’re interested in a racing wheel, check out our best racing wheels for F1 22 picks.
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Rich is the co-founder, and one of the main F1 setup creators and content writers 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
View all articles written by Rich
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