Bahrain is the first location most people will experience in F1 23. If you have just started out your career, here is the perfect beginner friendly F1 23 Bahrain setup for you to use.

Image credit: Codemasters / EA

The Sakhir International Circuit has played host to the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix almost every year since 2004. At the moment, it is the location of F1’s pre-season testing and the opening round of the season.

While four long straights and several heavy braking zones dominate the circuit, the middle sector provides a different challenge. Therefore, it’s important to have a setup that allows you to navigate the tighter, twistier sections while still letting you fly down the straights. Here is my beginner friendly F1 23 Bahrain setup guide.

F1 23 Bahrain Grand Prix Aerodynamics

First and foremost in any F1 23 setup is the aerodynamics tab. Here, you can adjust the angles of your front and rear wing, adding or taking away downforce from your vehicle.

At Bahrain, I recommend running 20-30 wings. This should give you all the downforce you need in the braking zones and through the faster corners, without compromising your straight-line speed too much.

An image of the F1 23 Bahrain setup page for aerodynamics.

Additionally, running a higher rear wing setting plants the rear end of the car, making it more manageable in the traction zones. If you feel particularly comfortable controlling wheelspin at the rear, feel free to knock a bit of rear wing off.

F1 23 Bahrain Setup Transmission

As there are several low-speed corners in Bahrain, the transmission settings are quite important. Without the right differential setup, you will find yourself losing either time, the rear end, or tyre life.

An image of the F1 23 Bahrain setup page for transmission.

I’ve found that running 55% on-throttle and 75% off-throttle gave me the best results at Sakhir. If you find you have your tyre wear well in hand, you could potentially try raising the on-throttle percentage a little.

Suspension Geometry

Here we have the first section of the setup menu which differs significantly from what worked well in F1 22. For your F1 23 Bahrain Grand Prix setup, I suggest running a fair amount of camber. For me, -3.20 and -1.70 on the front and rear wheels respectively gave me great performance without stressing the tyres.

An image of the F1 23 Bahrain setup page for suspension geometry.

Then we have the toe settings. In F1 22, these didn’t have a huge impact on the overall feeling of the car. F1 23 seems to be the same way, at least to an extent. I found that 0.05 and 0.26 did the trick, but feel free to experiment here and see what feels best for you.

Suspension

The suspension menu has had a minor overhaul in F1 23 compared to F1 22. Now, there are far more points on each scale, so you can go into more minute detail when fine-tuning your setup.

Codemasters have done a good job with the handling model for F1 23, so it’s possible to run some reasonable suspension levels without your car becoming unbearably twitchy. 13 at the front and 16 at the rear gave me enough bite without stressing the tyres at all.

An image of the F1 23 Bahrain setup page for suspension.

Meanwhile, for the anti-roll bars, I recommend running 13-2. This should be enough to prevent your car from lazily washing out wide during the esses, as well as during turns 4 and 13.

Finally for this section, we have the ride height. There are some significant kerbs and a few bumps in Bahrain. However, the long straights reward a low drag profile. To strike the right balance, go with 34-38 ride height. This keeps your car stable over the kerbs without losing you too much on the straights.

Brakes

In the past, I have always recommended running a rearward bias with the maximum brake pressure setting. However, F1 23’s new handling model seems to have reintroduced the concept of rear-locking. Therefore, you shouldn’t just throw your brake bias all the way to the rear.

An image of the F1 23 Bahrain setup page for brakes.

For me, 100% brake pressure with 56% bias works just fine. However, if you find yourself struggling with front or rear locking, adjust the bias accordingly. Shifting the braking onus away from one end or the other will make it less susceptible to locking. Alternatively, you could lower your brake pressure a little.

Tyres

Last of all come the tyre pressures. Once again, traction is very important in Bahrain, so lower tyre pressures are useful. Another reason to run lower pressures is that tyre temperatures can be difficult to manage in the desert.

An image of the F1 23 Bahrain setup page for tyres.


I suggest 22.5psi on the fronts, with 20.3psi on the rears. This should give you the traction you need, and also prevent your tyres from overheating. If you still find temperature control to be an issue, try lowering these values even further.

Read more: F1 23 Driver Ratings

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Author: Jacob Hancox