I tried it with low aero but was too skittish on the track. Then I remembered hearing that Spa, despite it's speed, was considered a moderate to high-downforce track so I set the DF as high as it would go then got the car comfortable. Once I was comfortable I started lowering the DF until my times became consistently slower. Then I raised the DF until I could turn consistent times while still pounding the corners.
Yea everyone has their methods. I tried that in the DO but couldn't even come close to beating my ghost. So I actually ran with ft splitter at 1, which actually made it much faster on straights, and it helped in the turns because with a low rear wing, and high splitter the car would snap really bad. That's why I made the comment about setting it up to drift. I could control the car when it was loose, and steer with throttle. So in my case I was faster everywhere this way. I made some last interchanges before the race, and gained even more time than my leaderboard lap. It was my magic bullet. I was able to run my race without pushing, and still have room in the tank if someone were to challenge.
I lost speed in the straights but made up a lot of my time in the twisties, and because I could put the hammer down sooner was able to put distance between me and the following car.