Russia Setups F1 2020

F1 2020 setup guide overview – Russia

Russia is a very modern F1 track, featuring all of the typical features of a modern F1 track. Long straights, check. Wide track, check. Tarmac run off area, check. And so on.

Despite this stereotypical modern race track layout, Russia is very fun to drive with a lot of fast corners. You can race wheel to wheel with other drivers throughout a race and there are plenty of places to overtake.

Maintaining high mid corner speed is the key to success around Russia. So we will want our F1 2020 Russian setup to focus on producing a great front end. This will give us good corner entry, while ensuring your front end doesn’t wash out or understeer mid corner.

Aerodynamics

The way Russia’s corners are designed, you will need a car which has a great initial turn in. This is more important at most places than having a sticky rear end. Because of this we would recommend you setup with higher front wing than rear wing.

This style of aero setup is wierd, and not common, but works well around Sochi, Russia. Due to the fast nature of the track, you will want to run lower aerodynamics than usual. This will give you good straight line speed, allowing you to attack other drivers. The front end aero ensures you have enough downforce to throw your car in to every corner.

Transmission

The track at Russia has a combination of high and low speed corners through the lap. This means we should look to run a reasonably balanced differential setup. Tyre wear isn’t huge around this new track so you shouldn’t look to cater too heavily for this. Instead, set the on-throttle differential to as high as you can manage.

Test your differential at around 70, then see if you are spinning your rear wheels too much. If you are, then lower it a touch. If you aren’t getting any wheel spin at all, then you can look to raise it.

We would suggest increasing your off-throttle differential. You will be running through a lot of the corners at reasonably high speed. And a higher of-throttle differential will keep the rear wheels turning together. This will keep your minimum speed up and ensure your car remains stable.

Suspension Geometry

Due to the low tyre wear, we can look to run a more aggressive setup. You can take out some of the camber, but not all of it. If you take out all of it, yes your car will be more responsive, but you will struggle with tyre wear. Russia isn’t quite kind enough on tyres to enable this drastic setup.

You should find a good middle ground around -2.8 and -1.3, but can adjust a little either way. Take most of the toe out of the car as well. This will ensure you have the minimum drag possible down the straights. It will also help with responsiveness allowing you to throw the car at the Russian corners with confidence.

Suspension

You should look to run a slightly softer suspension setup than average. It will give your car a little more assistance in looking after its tyres throughout a long race.

Keep the anti-roll bars reasonably balanced, with an edge towards stiffness. The stiffer your anti-roll bars, the more responsive your car will be during a lap. Too stiff and you will suffer with tyre wear, and with a potentially skittish car.

With Russia being relatively flat, you can run a low ride height setup. We would recommend implementing the common trait of F1 2020 setups, a lower front ride height. By lowering the front a little more than the rear, your car will be more responsive when turning into corners.

Brakes

Russia is a mix of heavy braking zones and quick braking zones. Although due to the extremely long straight, and the ability to overtake, we would recommend a higher brake pressure. This will help you attack and defend with late braking. Russia is relatively smooth and flat, so front wheel lock-ups will be rare.

We can run the brake bias more forward than normal, around 58%. This maximises braking performance and gives us the best platform to attack other drivers. Most of your braking will be done in a straight line around Russia, so the rears don’t need to do as much of the work.

Tyres

We would recommend increasing the front pressures a little to aid with responsiveness. The more pressure at the fronts, the more turn-in ability your car will have. Again, this falls in line with our front grip heavy Russia setup.

We would do the opposite with the rears. Lower them just a touch to increase traction. This style setup will help you get the best traction on to the long straights, allowing you to line up an overtake.