Imola Setups F1 2021

Imola F1 2021 setup guide

Imola has had its second appearance in two years as a Formula 1 venue, but this is the first year it has featured in an F1 game in recent years.

Imola is always a tricky circuit to drive, as many sim racers know from its appearance in other sim racing platforms. It’s a track which features a few tricky corner sequences, a lot of undulation changes and very few overtaking zones. But all of these characteristics make for an extremely fun track to drive.

Aerodynamic setup

To achieve a fast lap time around Imola you need a few things in F1 2021. You need a car which is setup with good aerodynamics, a stable rear end, soft suspension and stable under braking.

On the aero front, you need a good amount of front and rear downforce to get your car turned in to the many corners at Imola. And you need enough downforce at the rear of the car to ensure the rear of the car stays balanced.

It is a balancing act though. Too little front aero and your car will understeer into a few of the slower corners. Too much front aero and you will be slow on the faster segments of the circuit.

You should look to keep your front aerodynamic setup reasonably balanced, with the rear aerodynamics a little higher. This will ensure the rear of the car stays planted to the track through the tricky faster corners.

Soft suspension is king around Imola in F1 2021

There are multiple reasons why you should soften your suspension at Imola. There are a whole host of height changes throughout the lap. Especially in the middle and last sectors of track. You certainly don’t want an overly stiff car through these sectors as it could affect stability.

There is also the issue of some larger kerbs throughout the lap. The first couple of chicanes are particularly tricky. You will want to place your car over the kerbs on both the way in and way out of each of these chicanes. Although you should look to avoid the larger sausage kerbs, unlike Hamilton on the first lap of this year’s race!

There is also the quick chicane of turns of 14 and 15 where you should look to shorten the track as much as possible. To achieve this you will need to drive over the rather large kerbs.

With all of this in mind, look to setup your car to be reasonably soft, with the front of the car softer than the rear.

Keep your anti-roll bars setup stiffer than your suspension. Stiffer anti-roll bars will help your car handle the quick direction changes required around Imola.

Traction is important but not as much as at other track in F1 2021

Most of the corners around Imola are classed as medium speed. A lot of these don’t necessarily require large amounts of traction. The corners that are hard on traction are the slower turns of turns 7 and 15. Both of these corners do lead on to longer straights so you should look to manage your traction at these places.

Although you shouldn’t need to lower your on-throttle differential too much to account for these two corners. Instead, keep your differential setup reasonably balanced. This approach will help maintain speed through the rest of the lap.

Suspension geometry setup

Imola is roughly average when it comes to tyre wear. You wont notice overly high tyre wear, but it wont be low enough to allow for an overly aggressive suspension geometry setup.

Increasing your camber setup will allow you to lean on your tyres more mid way through a corner. But try to keep your camber away from maximum, as this will ingrain too much tyre wear into your setup.

Toe is a similar story, keep this reasonably balanced. Lower toe angles will help with speed down the longer straights, while higher angles will help with a little responsiveness through the twistier segments.