Abu Dhabi Setups F1 2020

F1 2020 setup guide overview – Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi is a track which can be tricky to decide which direction to take your car setup. The Yas Marina circuit has a couple of extremely long straights meaning too much downforce would cause a lot of excess drag. Whereas if you go for too little aero in your car setup, you will be slow around the tricky final sector.

This essentially results in requiring a perfectly balanced setup for maximum grip where you need it, and as much top speed as possible. Ultimately this Abu Dhabi setup is very similar to our Australian setup, as both tracks have a lot of similarities. The main difference with this Yas Marina setup, is you will be running the front end suspension a little softer.

Track position around Yas Marina is incredibly important, as with many tracks. So you need to run high enough downforce to maximise your performance through the first and last sectors in qualifying. Ultimately, the best way to maximise your lap time is your performance through these two sectors. When it comes to the race, if you do qualify high up the grid or on pole, you will still require as little drag as possible to be able to defend your position along the two long straights.

You should look to run a lower downforce front wing, and an average setup for the rear wing. This will give you the best trade off of front end grip through the slower sectors and low enough drag down the long straights.

With Yas Marina being a rear limited track, you will need to setup the differential to compensate for excess wheel spin on corner exit. Run your throttle differential low to give you the maximum traction out of out the slower corners. This will allow you to accelerate harder and earlier to maximise your speed down the long back straights.

You can run an aggressive suspension geometry setup around Yas Marina. The new surface doesn’t cause excess tyre wear, although it is abrasive enough to stop us from running a time trial style setup. You should look to set the camber and toe to their most aggressive setup, then dial it back by 1 or 2 clicks. If you run maximum aggression on your camber and toe, you will run in to tyre overheating issues during a long race stint.

Early on we compared this setup to the perfect Australian setup. And around Yas Marina you will be taking a lot of kerb to minimise corner angles, just as you do around Melbourne. Because of this you will want to have a soft suspension setup. Running a softer setup will allow you to ride over kerbs much easier and allow you to accelerate whilst exploring track limits.

You will still want some rigidity on the rear of the car to account for the quick direction changes present in the last section, so run a slightly stiffer rear suspension setup for Yas Marina. Setting the front suspension softer than the rear will help limit tyre wear on the front tyres.

Again, similar to our Aus setup, there are some heavy braking zones around Abu Dhabi, esspecially at the end of the two very long straights. This means you can crank up the brake pressure to help slow the car down quicker. The high brake pressure, teamed with an average brake bias will give you the best combination of stopping power.

You should look to increase tyre pressures a little, but not too much otherwise you will start to run in to tyre wear issues. Following all of the above advice should give you a very good Abu Dhabi setup for F1 2020. Click through some of the setups above to see how certain players have implemented their own car setups.

How To Best Drive The Yas Marina Grand Prix Circuit F1 2020

As mentioned above, you will want to qualify as high up as possible around Yas Marina, as there are only two real opportunities to overtake. You can’t really overtake through the first and last sectors as the circuit is very tight. However there are two very long straights, and both have DRS zones.

This means you will want to maximise your exit from the slow hairpin and on to the back straight. If you are lining up an overtake down this straight, you may want to brake a little late in to the hairpin and run a wider racing line. This will allow you to straighten up the car quicker and get a great run on to the straight.

The second long straight follows the first immediately so you don’t want to go too aggressive in to the first chicane and compromise your exit on to the second straight. If you do pull an aggressive overtake in to this first chicane, you can often be left vulnerable down the next long straight. If you then get re-overtaken down this second straight, you will have to sit behind the opposition driver throughout the entirety of the lap, until you get back to these two straights.

If you are faster than the car ahead, a good tactic is to sometimes hold back on overtaking down the first long straight. Make sure you hit your braking point for the chicane perfectly and get a good exit on to the second straight. This will give you a great DRS overtaking opportunity in to the second chicane. If you successfully make this overtake you can then start to pull away from your fellow driver throughout the lap.

When it comes to braking around Abu Dhabi in F1 2020, you might want to manually adjust the brake bias at different points of the lap to maximise performance. If you are feeling confident enough in the car during a lap, you should look to adjust your brake bias forward and back throughout various sectors of the lap. You can set it slightly more front biased when approaching the heavy braking zones. Then move it further rearward throughout the last sector to give the best balance under braking.

If you want to make a brave overtaking move at the end of either straight you can adjust your brake bias forward to allow for maximum stopping power. This will shorten your braking distance and allow you to start braking slightly later than the other driver.