Most sim racers treat a setup as a fixed thing. You download it, you use it, and if it doesn’t feel right, you either try to adjust to it, start clicking things hoping something improves it, or try another setup entirely.
Setup IQ in Delta 6.0 removes all of this and flips the script. It analyses the laps you’ve just driven alongside the setup you drove them on, identifies what in that setup is working against you, and adjusts it to suit the way YOU drive.
This guide covers how to use Setup IQ properly: what you need before you start, what each step is doing, how many laps you need to run, and where people go wrong.
Before You Start
- A Delta subscription: Goes without saying you need Delta 6.0 installed to access and use Setup IQ
- A supported sim: Setup IQ currently works with Le Mans Ultimate and Assetto Corsa Competizione, with iRacing coming soon
- A saved setup file: Setup IQ tunes saved setup files, so if you’re starting from an in-game default, you must save it as a setup in the garage first, or Setup IQ won’t see anything to work with. This is the part some people miss.
Your setup does not need to be a Coach Dave setup. Setup IQ works with anything you can load into the game: be an in-game default, your own creation, a teammate’s file, or a setup from another setup shop entirely. Setup IQ works with ALL setups.
One Subscription For All
Setup IQ, AI Coaching, Telemetry Data, Leaderboards, Never Lift and Video Analysis - all in Delta for Le Mans Ultimate, iRacing, ACC and AC Evo. Everything you need to win and get faster as a driver in one subscription.
How to use Setup IQ
Step 1 – Leave Delta Running
Open Delta and leave it running in the background before you get in the car. It needs to be live to capture your session.
Step 2 – Do Some Laps
Join any session, online or offline, with any car and track combination in ACC or LMU. Load the setup you want to work on and drive.
This is the step that determines how good the result is. Setup IQ is reading your telemetry: your braking, your steering inputs, your throttle application and more, so the laps need to represent how you actually drive. Run clean, representative laps rather than single qualifying attempts or laps ruined by traffic and off-tracks.
Run at least five laps before you tune. Fewer than that and there isn’t enough clean data for Setup IQ to make a confident call.
Step 3 – Hit Auto Tune
Once you’ve done your 5 minimum laps and you are back in the garage, press Auto Tune. Setup IQ takes the setup you just drove and adjusts it based on what you’re driving told it.
ACC users, one extra step: ACC doesn’t support automatic setup detection, so you need to select the setup you just used via the ‘my own setup file’ button before pressing Auto Tune. Skip that, and Auto Tune won’t do anything – it’ll ask you to point it at the file manually.
Step 4 – Load The New Setup
Setup IQ saves a brand-new setup file to your PC rather than overwriting anything. You’ll find it next to the other setups you have saved, named with IQ in the title – something like IQ V1 Default or IQ V4 Coach Dave – so you always know where it came from and what it was built from.
Select it from your in-game setup screen and go again.
Step 5 – Repeat
Each Auto Tune saves a new version alongside the previous ones. Five iterations give you five files to compare, and nothing gets destroyed along the way, so you can always drop back to an earlier version if you preferred how it felt compared to the new one.
Three to eight iterations is the sweet spot. Below three and you’ve probably left time on the table. Push much beyond eight, and you risk chasing your tail, with the setup drifting away from you rather than towards you.
Getting The Most Out Of Setup IQ
To recap everything above, this is the short version to get the most out of Setup IQ:
Five laps minimum per variation. Tuning off two laps is guesswork with extra steps.
Use the ‘I’ve changed my setup’ button. If you swap to a different base setup mid-session, click this so Setup IQ knows to re-read what you’re running rather than working from the old file.
Pick a winner from all your variations created. You’ll finish with a library of variations. Compare them on lap time and consistency using Delta’s telemetry and choose the one best for you where you can extract the maximum lap time.
Tune on the track you’re racing. A setup shaped around your driving at Spa isn’t shaped around your driving at Monaco. Re-run the process when you change circuit.
One Subscription For All
Setup IQ, AI Coaching, Telemetry Data, Leaderboards, Never Lift and Video Analysis - all in Delta for Le Mans Ultimate, iRacing, ACC and AC Evo. Everything you need to win and get faster as a driver in one subscription.
What Sort of Gains Are Realistic
It depends heavily on where you’re starting from.
Tuning a well-sorted pro setup will yield smaller, more refined gains than tuning an in-game default, simply because there’s less left on the table to begin with, unless you really don’t get on with ‘meta’ or ‘esports’ variations.
For reference, one driver took the in-game default on the McLaren 720S GT3 Evo at Bahrain Outer in LMU from a 1:14.2 to a 1:12.7 across eight Auto Tune iterations in a single hour. That’s a 1.5-second improvement from a baseline anyone has access to.
Gains from an already-strong setup will be tenths rather than seconds, but tenths shaped around your driving are the ones that hold up over a race distance, giving you speed and consistency.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Auto Tune does nothing when pressed (ACC) | No setup file selected – ACC has no automatic detection | Use the ‘my own setup file’ button to select the setup you drove, then press Auto Tune |
| Setup IQ can’t find your setup | You’re running an unsaved in-game default | Save the default as a named setup in the garage first, then drive and tune |
| Tuned setup doesn’t reflect a base setup you switched to | Setup IQ is still reading the previous file | Press ‘I’ve changed my setup’, then complete laps and tune again |
| Results feel random or inconsistent | Not enough clean laps per iteration | Run at least five representative laps before each Auto Tune |
| Setup getting progressively worse | Too many iterations is the likely cause | Revert to an earlier saved IQ version – they’re all still on your PC – and stop between three and eight |
Final Thoughts
Setup IQ was released as part of Delta 6.0, but Delta has so much more to give you.
Remember, alongside Setup IQ, there is Video Analysis, AI Coaching, Telemetry data and, of course, 1000+ setups across ACC, LMU, iRacing and AC Evo.
All of which help you improve your race craft, your lap times, and overall consistency as a racer driver.
No. It works with any setup you can load into the game, including in-game defaults and setups from other sources.
Le Mans Ultimate and Assetto Corsa Competizione, with iRacing coming soon.
No. Each Auto Tune creates a new file with IQ in the name and leaves everything else intact.
At least five clean laps per variation before tuning again. The more laps, the more data to fine tune against.
Yes – Setup IQ captures data from online and offline sessions alike. Tune in practice, race the result.
