Eric Côté's Setup Guide - Monza
Setups
QUAL:
 1 min 21 sec 278
RACE:
 1 min 23 sec 765
Qual standard menu
Qual advanced menu
Race standard menu
Race advanced menu
Introduction
Autodromo di Monza is a very long circuit, because of this you have to sacrifice the slower corners ( the first 2 chicanes ) to get maximum speed in the long straight. Some corners are hard to find the braking entry point ; the first 2 chicanes. The best place to pass other cars are at the exit of Parabolica, corner #9 and exit of Varirente Ascari. When lapping other slower cars, they will be almost too polite and open you the door at the entry of corner #8 ( Curva di Lesmo ). At the start of the race be carefull of not opening the door at the first chicanes, the CC are quiet aggressive, so keep your left.

Other corners are hard to master to get the maximum speed out of it (corner #8 and the last chicane ( Variante Ascari )). Once mastered though, it's very satisfying to get it "right". This page has been written for the purpose to understand the HOW and WHY of getting good lap times, and helping you making small changes to fit your driving style, and still get that CAR BALANCE.

Track Guide
Important note: If you have downloaded both setups for QUAL & RACE, you'll find a minor difference in the setups, after making multiple different configuration, i've found the perfect compromise for a setup equally good in RACE and QUAL. The minor difference is car height. Take a look at my qual & race advance setups menu (bottom pages), and you'll see these setups are pretty "conservative" in terms of my personal way to prepare a race car. You'll find the Springs setting very "tight" between front and rear (100 lbs) , compared to most of the other high speed tracks. I've adjusted with a fair amount of ARB, the ratio is for QUAL & RACE ; 1500 in Front and 300 in Rear = 5 : 1. I'll explain later why these settings. You'll see more and more of my comparison on the Anti-Roll Bar RATIO for a good reason, it gives us a good way to see how the car will tend to over/understeer with a similar car setup. I will use this (for some track) to help me reducing tire wear for raceday event. So by knowing the ratio, i can see how the chassis will either under or oversteer. For the purpose of reducing tire wear for a setup like this (fair SPRING RATE), i have to go for lower ARB numbers, if track layout permits it of course. One good reason to go for lower ARB , was found during all those practice, the CAR WILL SLIDE IN THE CHICANES BECAUSE OF USING TOO MUCH ARB, the layout of the track does not favor
high arb in front ( surprisingly! ). Also my choice of WING angle is determined by the track layout, which here at Monza, is definitly a high speed track ( long straight ).

I consistently ran in the mid to high 1 min 24's to high 1 min 23's range all the time, I even made a 1 min 24 sec 268 at my very last lap while R. Schumacher struggling behind at 43+ secs.

Note: this was done during the RACE starting with 19 FUEL LAP, the best i've done was 1 min 23 sec 765 after 5 laps If you go more aggresively than me, you should be able to beat that lap time, i was looking for consistency to see how good the car was for the last lap effort. Also i've done conclusive test with a 1 pitstop strategy, and car handling still predictable at the end.

 You have to be "gentle" enough on your tires to go for 1 pitstop strategy during a full race. If you find your setup thougher on tires, go for 2 pitstop, although, you might not be in 1st position after your first pit. The asphalt is abbrasive, and you can "burn" your tires if not carefull. Also there's a small difference in PRACTICE time compared to RACEDAY( 0.8 sec ),
I ran in the low 1 min 23's during pre-race warm-up.

Back to race times, if you're consistent, without mistakes, you'll pace at around 1.2 to 1.5 sec a lap faster than the top teams.And at that pace you'll have over 20 secs at your first pit, so even if the 2nd position car is on a 1 stop strategy, you're in control of the situation. I've notice the winning combination is either 1 or 2 pitstop strategy, my suggestion is using 49% race distance for 1st pit, the sim will give you 28 fuel lap, just remove some amount to finish the race with the minimum. For 2 pitstop try 32% and 67%, if you drive well, you can go to the bottom of the tank before pitting ( pit entry very forgiving ) ALSO I'VE NOTICED MOST TOP TEAMS USE 1 PITSTOP, so you're way ahead of the pack!

Race Setup
So let's go for a better undertanding of my setup and WHY and WHERE it's important to keep some "parameter rock solid". 1st I'll start with one of the major parameter for MECHANICAL GRIP : Anti-Roll Bars. Contrary of Hockenheim and Monaco, even if there's some ressemblance for those chicanes I've found ( to my surprise ) that using too much doesn't help at all, per example if i used more than 2000 lbs in front, the car was sliding in the first chicanes, making it very unstable and understeer occured ( independant of my choice of SPRINGS ) This track doesn't have much slow corners like Hockenheim, so most of the grip will be achieved by springs and of course the right amount of Anti-Roll Bar. This car setup as all the parameters "interconnected" : even changing either the differential of CAR HEIGHT or PACKERS between front and rear will definitly change car handling ( mostly at high speed ). I'VE NOTICE that by raising the REAR HEIGHT, it has the same effect has using more wings in FRONT ( i always like to find the perfect mechanical grip ).

As you know, CAR BALANCE is important, in accordance with the ARB, my best compromise for WINGS is 6 deg difference between F/R. Exactly 7 deg in FRONT and 1 deg in REAR. I've noticed that if you go for a higher differential, the car will start to loose traction in the Parabolica, and if you change the RATIO of ARB (F/R) to correct the problem, then you'll have a car sliding at other portion of the track. Now, HOW i removed the chassis reaction to understeer at low speed corners entry, and at the same time oversteer at the exit, by having the right amount of SPRING LOAD ; 1300lbs in FRONT and 1200 in REAR, i've tried higher #, but the REAR end gets loose too easily in slow portion.

A BIG NOTE: Like i've explained above, SPRING LOAD has a very important roll in high speed cornering and at the same time having a car handling neutral in these chicanes. Before opting for this setup, i was struggling with constant understeer in the chicanes, so i've tried changing ARB, didn't work, changing wing angle won't work as car height. After multiple session and pausing to think of what was wrong, i decided to go for "tighter" springs between rear & front. I was stuck with the idea of 1400 lbs in front and 1200 lbs in rear, i've tried higher numbers, it was not better, and the rear was loose at the exit of those chicanes, so eventually i've found that "perfect compromise". It may sound redundant, but it has a BIG ROLL in the handling. 

Also another big factor is car height and packers height, don't use too much packers to try lowering the car, you'll run on the packers in the fast corners making your car acting like a KART. Also one way of changing the handling of the car is RAISING the REAR, and this will definitly reduce understeer in those long curves. This racetrack doesn't permit to follow "my normal pattern" of ARB vs SPRING. Also review the packers vs car height to know when your running packers If you never saw that section ( Performance telemetry guide ).        * Link : /setupguide/perfdata.html = missing site

 The overall sensation of this race setup ( between pitstop), At the start of the race, the overall chassis
reaction is understeer, mid-course it's neutral, and at the end a slight oversteer.

Now to finish this page, i have tried different dampers setting, and my best solution was what you see here. Most cerbstones are high, be very carefull going over those. My last advise is, if you find these setup too close of oversteering, just lower car height in rear. Also you can decrease the front wing angle by 1 degrees, it's going to understeer a little in all portion of the track. Conclusion, with analysis from tire wear, i've got a pretty even car, tire wear are equal all the time ( apart front right), don't try to brake too hard at some corner entry to prevent FRONT TIRE WEAR. The first 2 chicanes are prone to this. At last, but not least with these setups, i'm confident to see you on POLE POSITION, DON'T MISS YOUR START!

 NOTE: this setup and the qualification setup are not symetrical.

Just look at the difference of setups ( only car height ), also the wing angles, brake ratio, gearing are the same. As you see the difference is small, that was a big surprise when i've started doing longer practice session, my main goal was looking for a very predictable car handling, low tire wear, and fast enough to "blast the field" . Also no changes has been done to dampers. The reason why i kept the REAR Anti-Roll Bar at high levels, is to keep good traction in the fastest corners. I have tried different settings, and it was the most conclusive. Also in some section ( fast cormers ) the best REAR SPRING setting would have been 1300 lbs, but i was suffering from too much oversteer in the slowest section after 10 laps (rear getting too loose). This setup is good in the way that, as fuel loads goes down (even when tire wears out) my LAP TIME stayed even! (That's the way it should be, like real F1) 

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These track guides & pictures are copyright © Eric Côté