While 2020’s Dutch Grand Prix never took place, those who know Dutch weather will know that there would have been a good chance of there being a wet race. It’s just as likely that you’ll find your career mode or My Team version of the event to feature rain as well.
Zandvoort in the wet is a thrilling experience, but without the right setup you’ll find yourself clinging on for dear life. With these alterations to the car, you’ll find staying on the black stuff to be a piece of cake.
Aerodynamics
The wings are the most important part of this setup, as it is from them that you will gain most of the stability under acceleration that you will need.
To achieve the desired effect, running a low front wing with a maxed out rear wing is the way to go. I’ve gone for 4-11, but the front wing setting could be moved up or down slightly according to your personal preference.
Transmission
An on-throttle differential setting of 50% is a no brainer around here. It will help you drag the car out of the slow corners without the rear end sliding.
Off-throttle differential is a much harder choice to make. In the wet, a lower off-throttle differential setting is nice for rotating the car around long, slow corners. However, it can make the car harder to handle.
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I’ve found that 70% works best in these conditions, but if you find your car sliding a little too much, raising this is a good place to look to fix that.
Suspension Geometry
Running high camber helps both your car’s performance in low speed corners and also its stability.
For this reason, it’s best to run the maximum settings of -2.50 and -1.00, as this will help both your maximum performance and your consistency.
Low toe is well suited to longer corners, of which Zandvoort has plenty. The stability gains of running a higher rear toe around here are marginal, so using the minimum settings of 0.05 and 0.20 will give you the best results.
Suspension
As I noted in my dry Dutch Grand Prix setup guide, this circuit is far from smooth.
For this reason, soft suspension settings are definitely the way to go. I’ve elected to run 3-3 here, but any combination below 5-5 should work well enough.
Anti-roll bars, unlike the suspension itself, need to be on the firmer side. Running 8-9 helps with the understeer inherent with the aforementioned wing settings, without stressing the tyres too much.
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Ride height is important in the wet at Zandvoort. Going to the extreme with 9-11 helped me enormously with stability, and gave me a huge amount of confidence in the car. You’ll lose a bit on the straights, but you won’t be a sitting duck.
Brakes
I recommend using 100% brake pressure alongside 50% brake bias.
This combination gives you the maximum stopping power while reducing the risk of front lockups, and the rearward brake bias will help you to rotate the car at lower speeds.
Tyres
To help with your traction, taking a little air out of the rear tyres is the way to go. You can also get away with deflating the fronts slightly, and therefore helping to lower the tyre wear factor on the critical left-front tyre.
22.6psi on the fronts with 20.7psi on the rears works very nicely around here.
With this setup you should find yourself able to plant the throttle earlier out of each corner, while still being able to take a decent amount of apex speed. Ultimately, comfort is the most important thing in the wet, and this setup is the equivalent of a luxury feather mattress.