Race Track Setup Masterclass – From Theory to Solutions

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For Sim Racers and motor sport engineers – vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics and perfecting (high downforce) race car setup

Last updated:

July 26, 2025

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About Course

About the “Race Track Setup / Race Car Vehicle Dynamics” series of courses:

Part 1) Race Car Vehicle Dynamics – Fundamental Theory

Part 2) Race Car Vehicle Dynamics – Advanced Theory and Application

Part 3) Race Track Setup – High Downforce Race Car

All 3 parts added together as a bundle deal: Race Track Setup Masterclass – From Theory to Solutions (This course)

Race car setup to achieve the best lap times without resorting to tedious trial and error involves understanding both vehicle dynamics as well as aerodynamics, and being able to put it all together to make quick but accurate setup changes.

Tires, springs, anti roll bars, aero, dampers, tire pressure, wheel alignment, gearing, limited slip differential settings… all have an influence on your ability to achieve a faster lap time. Typical online setup guides or software offer multiple solutions for each individual handling problem, leaving racers having to resort to trial and error, and traditional text books are too long and theory dense to be of help to the typical racer or even race engineer, who just wants to solve a handling problem and go faster.

This series of courses is the filtered and condensed summary of how to get to the fastest setup, the result of having spent 19 years on vehicle dynamics being a sim racer, setting up my own cars for track days at Spa, Zandvoort, Nurburgring, and working for the past 9 years in automotive chassis development (currently active suspension controls).

The course offers a filtered/condensed view on vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics, before focusing on a holistic view on achieving the best race car setup up to and including a high downforce race car:

– the correct and logical order to tackle all the setup variables

– how each of these setup variables influence handling and how each one is optimized

– how to tackle handling problems in an existing car setup

– only as much theory as needed for each component to help you achieve the perfect setup

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Benefits of the course

Holistic, filtered and condensed summary of the science of extracting speed around a race track.
Solutions to specific race car handling issues which do so without affecting handling balance elsewhere.
How to tune using the 3 different components to lateral/longitudinal/cross-jacking load transfer - kinematic, dynamic, elastic.
Why yaw acceleration capability is just as important as lateral acceleration capability.
An intuitive view of tire slip angles and other tire behavior which are at the root of all vehicle handling behavior.
Logical steps to setting up a road biased sports car, or a high downforce race car, in the least number of steps.
How to solve the trade-off between "aerodynamic" grip and "mechanical" grip of high down force race cars.
How setup needs to be adjusted to suit driver preferences and specific types of corners.
The trade offs in race car suspension setup in response, tire load variation, pitch, roll, heave and warp.
Contributors to oversteer / understeer other than tire slip angle.

Course Content

Introduction to Race Track Setup as a topic

00:27:48

Introduction to Race Track Setup

00:23:08

Alternative video for those who prefer a more formal format

00:04:40

High level goals of race car setup

00:50:49

Friction circle size

00:09:27

Friction circle usage

00:05:49

Early and late apex

00:10:49

Changing setup on the fly

00:02:57

High level setup goal summary

00:00:42

Alternative video for those who prefer a more formal format

00:21:05

How the driver feels oversteer and understeer

00:05:57

Why yaw acceleration capability is important

00:38:29

Tire behavior as it relates to handling - deformation, slip and saturation

00:54:13

Load transfer and how its 3 components can be used to tune handling

00:30:31

Summary of fundamental theory and intro to advanced theory

00:39:02

Summary of fundamental theory

00:09:20

Introduction to advanced theory

00:07:43

Introduction to suspension tuning trade offs

00:09:07

How the elite racing driver uses longitudinal load transfer to modify handling

00:06:06

How lowering can result in negative kinematic load transfer and why that_s bad

00:06:46

Logical steps to setting up a road biased sports ca

00:31:50

Changing basic handling balance with tire static loads, alignment, tire temps

01:04:50

Static tire loads and dynamic jacking

00:11:34

Corner balancing

00:16:25

Changing handling balance using alignment and tire temperature

00:36:51

Changing handling balance for different corner types with brakes and diff lock

00:24:12

Changing handling balance in different corner phases with suspension setup

00:38:31

Race car aerodynamics - further complication for suspension setup

00:19:20

How down force and drag are created

00:03:56

Ground effect and stall

00:03:28

Issues when adding down force

00:02:52

Aero grip versus mechanical grip trade off

00:02:30

Optimizing aerodynamic performance over different speeds

00:02:15

How heave springs help create a better aero vs mechanical grip compromise

00:04:19

How all possible vehicle parameters affect performance criteria

00:15:07

Getting to the best setup of a high downforce race car in the least steps

00:40:03

Solving handling issues of a high downforce car

00:13:39

Solving braking instability

00:01:11

Solving high speed corner entry balance issue withou affecting balance elsewhere

00:01:44

Solving high speed mid corner balance issue without affecting balance elsewhere

00:02:15

Solving high speed corner exit balance issue without affecting balance elsewhere

00:02:05

Solving low speed corner entry balance issue without affecting balance elsewhere

00:01:55

Solving low speed mid corner balance issue without affecting balance elsewhere

00:02:46

Solving low speed corner exit balance issue without affecting balance elsewhere

00:01:43

Solving some typical suspension related issues

00:10:18

Solving sluggish direction changes

00:02:03

Solving unstable direction changes

00:01:15

Solving brake lockups

00:01:34

Solving sudden loss of grip from front or rear

00:02:07

Solving bottoming out.

00:00:55

Solving issues with mid corner bumps

00:02:24

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Last updated:

July 26, 2025
Lectures:

50 lectures
Course Duration:

8h 25m total length

Requirements

Very basic understanding of physics such as Force = Mass x Acceleration.
An interest in race track setup of either virtual (sim racing) cars or physical (real life) race cars.

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