Sebring International Setup Guide

Priorities

As usual we begin by focusing on the priority corners. As usual again, the most important corner on the entire track is the corner leading onto the longest straight. The longest straight is the back straight, leading to the final corner of the track This makes the corner leading onto that back straight the most important corner on the track.

Priority corner #1: Turn 16 (1:30 in above video) is that most important corner on the track. Not only does it lead onto the longest straight, the end of that straight is also a primary passing zone on the track. Your setup must be able to launch off turn 16 at maximum throttle application without understeer or oversteer. Focus first on the entry of the corner… it all starts here.
Your car must rotate under braking and point the nose to the apex without struggle. With help from VRCE’s Corner Wizard tool, this can be accomplished pretty easily with springs, anti-roll bars, toe, and the differential – with fine tuning coming from the slow damping on the left-front and right-rear. A late corner-entry now will reward you with an easier corner-exit in a moment.
Now that you got your setup turning in to the apex, your next goal is to be at full throttle as soon as possible. A great setup will allow you to be at full throttle before the corner apex. “He who is full throttle first, is fastest down the straight” – I just made that up, but it has probably been said by every great driver across all time. Weight, springs, and anti-roll bars will help achieve your mid-corner handling characteristics you need to be on the throttle as early as possible.
Lastly, and most importantly, is the corner exit. Your setup must allow you to maintain that full throttle all the way out of the corner. One of the most common places to spin is the exit of this corner. Most people are fighting understeer which either causes them to run off track or spin to the right from throttle release while the car is being heavily steered to the right. Your car will likely want to understeer right off track too, but this too can be resolved using VRCE’s Corner Wizard tool. The car’s differential and slow damping are your friends here. They are secret weapons that most other setup tuners will overlook.

Priority corner #2: Turn 17 (2:00 in above video) leads onto the next longest straight; the front straight. Luckily turn 17 is also a right hand turn, so much of what you did to your setup for turn 16 will apply here as well. The biggest thing you will have to fight here is the bumpy surface towards the exit of the corner. If your springs are too stiff, the car will be hard to control here so a compromise on your spring rate (and ride height) is a must. So too will you need to sacrifice in your overall damper setup, with slightly lower settings to both bump and rebound to allow the suspension to quickly adapt to each bump and undulation of the track surface. Because the corner is high speed, your aero setup will play a large roll in the car’s handling both at entry and exit of turn 17, however this is not the only fast corner on track so any aero adjustments you make will have effects elsewhere on track too. Use it sparingly.

Priority corner #3: The third most important corner on track is turn 5 (0:24 in above video), as it leads onto next longest straight, which also precedes the hairpin – another great passing zone. This left handed turn comes with a hazard sitting right at your apex; the inside curbing. It is tall and steep, so getting your left-front wheel up on it will cause extreme dynamic corner weighting and seriously upset your car. Keep this in mind when navigating the corner. Fine tune the corner entry with VRCE’s Corner Wizard to avoid over use of the inside curb. Again, getting on the throttle at or before the apex, and having a controllable setup through the exit phase of the corner, will net extra speed through turn 6 (long flat out right hand) and all the way down the straight. This is an ideal place to pass your competitor that didn’t pay as much attention to setting up for turn 5, or to get past cars of a slower classification. There are not many places to pass until the back straight, so getting past those lapped vehicles before the hairpin matters big time.

The problem corners

The turns 3 through 5 complex has always been a thorn in my side. The curbing here is so tall and abrupt that it will throw your car off track or into a spin quite easily. While you do want to maximize the track width as much as possible, use caution about getting up onto the curbing. Tweaking some fast-damping can help some, but it can not fix the problem as a whole. If you want to know more about how these cubs impact your setup, the dynamic corner weighting article is worth a read.

Turn 7, the hairpin, will tempt a lot of drivers into a spin. Hard braking for the only real slow corner on track combined with a high ride height and soft springs will mean the weight of the car will shift quite dramatically, and sloppy. You can remedy some of the risk with easy fixes to your car’s differential and dampers (use VRCE’s Lap Wizard for more advice). However, most of the solution will come from you, the driver. As a rule of thumb, there is little time to be gained risking a super late braking maneuver. There is much more time to be gained by having an optimal exit to a corner. So, focus on “slow in, fast out” here. Use a late apex to get the straightest line exit, mashing that throttle sooner than your competition and you will be faster, guaranteed.

Turn 11 is another tough corner to navigate at speed. The trick here is to be full throttle all the way around the corner, but the car’s rear end likes to step out due to the heavy lateral cornering forces. VRCE’s Corner Wizard can absolutely fix that tendency, giving you a huge edge up on your competition. Being able to safely go full throttle through a corner that most others will struggle with is massive. Don’t pass up this opportunity. And of course, brake for turn 13 in a straight line to ensure you do not lock up that inside tire.

Turn 14 is that long, and fast, left hand sweeper. Again, you must be able to hold flat out throttle. For high horsepower cars, short shift to the next gear to make this work with less risk. Again, brake for turn 15 in as straight a line as possible.

Alien advice

The majority of the corners on track are to the right, with two of the three priority corners (turns 16 & 17) being right hand turns. You could setup your car with a right-side weight bias as well as pre-loading some corner weight to the right-front with some added spring rate. This is a risky move though, as it will have some negative effects in left turns as well as under hard braking at the hairpin.

Turn 17 is a quite unique corner, with multiple distinct racing lines. The conventional arch does work here (green line) as long as you have good markers for when you need to be back on the throttle. It is also susceptible to slower cars (like those pitting) being on your racing line at the worst of time. One option is to “diamond” the corner. This effectively extends both the back *and* front straights (brake later, apply throttle earlier) while giving up some mid-corner speed. It also allows you to setup your car more for straight line speeds as opposed to cornering speeds. It is very difficult for a conventional racing line driver to pass a driver using a diamond-line on either of the two straights because of the added speeds entering and exiting the corner. However, the driver using a diamond line is vulnerable at mid corner to a standard racing line.