BustaWrench › Answers › What should I change first in an iRacing setup?
The short answer
If you are not yet consistent, tyre pressure is the safe first move — drop 1–2 PSI from one axle, not both, run five clean laps and read the delta. Brake bias next, then one click of bump or rebound. Leave aero, springs, anti-roll bars and cross-weight alone until you can hold a line: those pay off once you are already consistent, not before. Once you are, follow the full order — /answers/what-order-to-change-in-an-iracing-setup/.
This page is for a driver who is not yet holding a consistent lap. If you can already run ten laps within half a second of each other, this is the wrong page — you want the full setup order instead, which is a different list entirely.
Same advice, different stage. Brake bias early is not wrong, it is early.
Aero — wings, splitters, ride height — is a rabbit hole that will have you chasing your tail for weeks.
The big mechanical bits — springs, sway bars, bump stops, cross-weight — change the car's character in ways you will not feel until you are already consistent. That is not a dig at your driving. It is just maths.
1. Tyre pressure. Drop 1–2 PSI from the front or the rear — not both at once — run five clean laps, and watch lap time and tyre temps together. Cold pressures matter, but do not obsess over the number. Watch the delta.
2. Brake bias. Move it 1–2% rearward if the car understeers into corners, forward if it is twitchy under braking. This is a feel change, not a speed change, and you will know within two corners whether it helped.
3. One click of bump or rebound. One. On the damper, not the spring. Floaty over kerbs, add a click of rebound. Skittish, add a click of bump. Then stop. Seriously — stop.
The three levers above are the ones you can feel today. Springs, anti-roll bars, alignment, dampers and aero all work — they just need a car you can already drive predictably, or you will change five things and learn nothing.
When that day comes, work the full eight-step order: baseline, ride height, springs, anti-roll bars, alignment, dampers, aero, brake bias last. Brake bias moves from second to last because by then the springs and bars are doing the work.
See What order should I change things in when I set up an iRacing car? for that list in full.
Change one thing, run a full stint, write down what you felt. If you are not sure it helped, change it back.
You are not chasing a setup. You are learning to listen to the car, and that is the skill that actually transfers.
Two pages can look like a contradiction and not be one. This list is for a driver who is not yet consistent; the full eight-step order is for one who is. Check which you are before you touch anything. And if you change three things at once you have no idea what fixed it — or what broke it. One click, one test, one result.
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