The new F1 22 from Codemasters and EA is thrilling the masses. The new driving experience is better than ever before.
Formula 1 is currently in the midst of a mega-hype. The sport is becoming more and more popular, which is partly due to the new generation of F1 cars, but the successful Netflix series "Drive to Survive" is also making a big contribution. Of course, Electronic Arts has not escaped this hype; the North Americans bought Codemasters, the game developer of the official Formula 1 racing game, for 1.2 billion dollars last year.
There will be many gamers who buy F1 22 and have never played an F1 or a racing game before. This article will be about how you, as a noob, can quickly develop pace in F1 22. We'll give you ultimate tips based on eight years of gaming experience. We've spent hours playing F1 22 and exploring the meta. So, what are we waiting for? Lights out and away we go!
How Do I Get Quicker In F1 22?
We have to make one thing clear straight away: practice makes perfect. If you think that you can participate directly in a league with just a few hours of playing, you've got another thing coming. We will give you the best tips and tricks, but YOU have to put them into practice. Here's what we'll cover:
- Assists
- Time trial
- Build setups
- Offline modes
- League racing
- Follow eSports
F1 22 has implemented the new generation of F1 cars really well. The driving experience is top-notch, and the gameplay is more fun than in F1 21. But to the increased ground effect, the driver is faced with new challenges. Traction in particular has become more difficult, and it is so much realistic! So, be careful on the gas when accelerating out of a slow corner. As soon as the ground effect takes hold, the car literally flies around the track.
F1 22 Tips & Tricks: Turn Off Assists
This may sound strange to any beginner, but please turn off as many driving assists as possible. Driving aids slow you down (with one very sad exception). First get to know the game with driving aids in order to understand the car. But then turn everything off.
The brake assistant is a lot of nonsense, so forget it. You'll probably be able to brake before a bend, won't you?
There are three different settings for the traction control: Full, medium and off. Traction control prevents wheelspin when accelerating. If you push the accelerator without traction control, you will always spin away. You have to gradually increase the power so that the tires don't spin. We can guarantee you: Driving WITHOUT traction control makes you about one second faster per lap.
The next big topic is the gear shift. Here you can choose between automatic and manual. I also thought at the time that I would never be able to change gears myself, but it is the opposite. We assure you that you only have to drive one race with a manual gearbox to get used to it. With an optimal manual gear change, you can gain half a second per lap, depending on the track.
The dynamic racing line is the driving aid that is very difficult to say goodbye to. If you drive without a line, you have to remember the braking and turn-in points on every track. It takes time until you have internalized this and become faster. But you are definitely faster without an ideal line than with one, because the ideal line restricts your freedom, and it's sometimes incorrect. Find your own line, and you will find several tenths per lap that you didn't find before.
Last but not least, we have ABS, the anti-lock braking system. If you drive without ABS and you slam on the brakes, the front wheels lock up. It is also difficult to steer and brake at the same time without the wheels stopping. It's a shame that ABS has been OP for a few years now, it's such a mess, honestly, and we have no idea why Codemasters does it this way. Normally, a driving ASSIST should affect the pace. Well, it doesn't with ABS. We don't blame you if you leave that driving assist on because it's just a tad faster.
F1 22: Time Trial
Before you jump into the mix, you should first get to know all the tracks in time trial. This way you can familiarize yourself with the tracks in a low-pressure environment. You can get to know the new Miami track and the changed layouts of Spain, Australia and Abu Dhabi. In time trials you can also copy the setups of the best drivers in the world. The setups are too aggressive for a race, but they make you faster for a lap.
F1 22: Building Setups
A good setup can make you several seconds faster per lap. As already mentioned, you can download the setups of the best time trial drivers. However, make sure that you tone down the settings a bit, for example, set the tire pressure or the suspension a bit lower in order to protect your car in the race. If you do so, you can also race online with these setups. Setups are a question of taste and style, so there never is the one perfect setup for everybody.
Roughly speaking, the higher you set the wing, the more downforce (cornering speed) you have. Here you can find a video in which an F1 setup is explained in detail by Limitless, one of the fastest F1 players in the game.
Please do me a favor and leave the standard setups alone. They are stable and solid, but at least one second slower per lap than a modified time trial setup.
F1 22: Practice In The Offline Modes
If you want to drive competitively in an online lobby, then you should practice offline beforehand. Otherwise, you will be beaten mercilessly. Start a career, there you can run through programs in the free practice sessions that explain how to drive a track, this way you can save your tires, save fuel and simply become faster.
F1 22: Join An Online League And Follow eSports
The ultimate fun is not found in the game, but in the community. Racing offline against the AI gets boring at some point, you want to fight against your buddies for victory, don't you? Then it's best to do this in an F1 league that starts on a fixed date every week with a full field of drivers. You can find F1 leagues in abundance on social media. Here's a link to a league as an example.
The races in the F1 eSport scene are much more exciting and thrilling than the races in the "real" Formula 1. Have a look, it's really fun! Here's the link to the F1 Twitch channel.
Now you have all the basics to constantly improve your lap times in F1 2022. Turn off all driving aids (except ABS) as soon as possible, download a good setup, adjust tire pressure and suspension down a bit, practice in offline mode and then sign up for an F1 league. This is the way.
Check out the launch trailer for F1 22: