Welcome to the Audi R8 GT4 CDA4 release notes blog. In this page you will find the detailed notes compiled by the team after each session when creating the fast and safe variants of the new CDA4 Audi GT4 setups. Please carry on reading below to see what our team found:
Brands Hatch
- High preload and high rake are used to provide enough rotation in the fast corners of the track.
- To improve trailbraking the brake bias is set really low and there’s also less positive rear toe to allow the rear of the car to move under braking a bit more.
- The front bump damping is soft to allow better rotation off throttle. However, should you need more it’s better to lower the rear rebound damping as the front bump is already quite low.
Misano
- Stiff ARB on the front to have a more responsive car in the change direction.
- Stiff rear wheel-rate to increase the rotation on throttle.
- Stiff rear bump damping for increase the rotation on throttle,
- Never go under 3rd gear during the lap.
- Setup is made with TC off but if you struggle you can use TC 1
Nurburgring
- Very roll-centre sensitive, low rake improves rear grip enormously.
- Soft springs and roll bars used to maximise mechanical grip for S1.
- Alignment adjusted to improve traction on corner exit.
- Brakes adjusted to give more consistent results to enable confidence in the car.
- Safe setup uses slightly less preload to give more predictable traction, along with slightly more wing and alignment adjustments to give a more stable car.
Paul Ricard
- Low wing to maximise the top speed.
- Setup is made with TC off but if you struggle you can use TC 1.
- Soft springs to maximise the traction, stiff front ARB to stabilise the car in the high speed corners.
- Dampers are tuned to increase the traction and the stability under braking.
Silverstone
- Medium Rake and medium wing used to balance between speed and braking ability.
- Dampers tuned to remove off-brake oversteer and give easily readable slip on the rear.
- Not much is available to change on the Audi, so compromises have to be made to get the best setup possible.
- Brake force changed to try to minimise the ABS intrusion costing braking performance.
Spa Francorchamps
- Low wing and high rake for maximize the top speed and high speed corner rotation.
- Stiff rear spring for increase rotation on throttle.
- Setup is made with TC off but if you struggle you can use TC 1
- Stiff front ARB for increase the stability of the car.
- Damper are tuned for fix the understeer of the car.
Suzuka
- Traction is key for lap time at Suzuka with the Audi R8 GT4. To combat this, the rear dampers have been softened, with minimum rear spring rates.
- With a soft rear end, the car can understeer through the lap. To reduce this, max rear wing is applied whilst reducing the rear ride height. The preload has also been increased to help reduce the corner entry understeer.
- To further improve traction at the rear, TC can be increased, but this will cost lap time.
Zandvoort
- Due to the lower grip surface compared to other tracks, the setup is aimed around stability and traction more than might be the case elsewhere.
- Low rake used to compensate for the lack of rear grip. This is a powerful balance adjustment tool at this track.
- Dampers tuned to limit the amount of rotation releasing the brakes and give entry stability.
- Low preload used to help with rotation in the slower corners.
- Safe setup uses a small rake adjustment, and some damper tweaks to improve controllability.
Zolder
- Front suspension has been set up to quickly stabilise after going over the kerbs in chicanes. That means using stiff springs, bumpstops and damping.
- Front arb has been kept soft to give the car enough grip as the rest of the settings are really stiff.
- Rear suspension is kept soft to provide enough traction that’s especially needed when running the traction control off. For the same reason there is quite a lot of positive toe in the rear.
- As the car still rebounds quite heavily, taking less of the first chicane can be just as fast and much more consistent.
Barcelona
- Despite having quite long main straight and fast corners, the car needs to use some wing. With the lowest setting, the braking performance is just too poor.
- High bumpstop rates in front prevent the car from sliding on the high inside kerbs.
- Front suspension is set stiff to avoid both pitching and excessive roll in dowhill braking zones like in T1 and T7.
- In long braking zones like for T1 and T10 good downshifts are a must. Without the optimal engine braking, the braking distance becomes much longer.
Donington Park
- Car needs to use a high wing on this track in order to get a much better and more consistent braking performance. Wing also provides good traction for the setups with traction control turned off.
- Lower bumpstop rate smooths out the ride over bumps in the chicane.
- Stiff rear rebound is used to control the pitch of the car and the overall behaviour on corner entry. Preload has to be kept low for good traction and to allow good rotation in the tight hairpins.
Laguna Seca
- Soft springs maximise the traction.
- Setup is made with TC off but if you struggle you can use TC 1.
- Dampers are tuned to maximise traction.
- Use high gear to have the easiest experience on exits.
- High wing to maximise downforce.
Kyalami
- The Audi struggles with braking distances and thus requires the ABS to be kept as low as possible, with the setup being optimised to naturally improve the braking performance.
- The higher downforce helps in reducing the braking distances with the stiffer springs being used to improve overall rotation.
- The bumpstops are set quite soft along with a low preload to improve mechanical grip close to the apex, thereby minimising the traction issues that can arise from the car.
- The car generally has some rear end traction issues while getting off the brakes. This can be compounded due to the low diff, but extra preload would cause more issues on throttle. So for the safe setup if the off throttle rotation is too high, consider going up on the preload but also reduce the rear ride height and rear bumpstop rates a bit.
- More positive rear toe is another alternative if you need more rear end stability.
Hungaroring
- Setup is made with TC off but if you struggle you can use TC 1.
- Soft springs and ARBs to maximise the mechanical grip.
- Dampers are tuned to give more rotation to the car on throttle.
- Low preload value to increase the rotation off throttle.
Monza
- For Monza very low wing levels were tried and tested but due to the braking distances and relatively slower handling response of the car through the high speed corners, a very low wing value was deemed unfeasible.
- Improving overall mechanical grip was the priority through the corners so the suspension has been adjusted accordingly. Stiff front values were tested but there was too much understeer observed.
- The stiff front bumpstop rate in the setup helps with pitch control and stability into corners stemming from the low preload values being used.
Imola
- The car is very high so we didn’t notice big problem to hit the bumps, so we focus on increase the grip and the rotation.
- Damper are tuned for have faster load transfers so that the car is faster in changes of direction.
- Setup is made with TC off but if you struggle you can use TC 1.
- Soft springs for maximize the mechanical grip.
Mount Panorama
- Low wing and high rake for maximising the top speed and high speed corner rotation.
- Dampers are tuned to increase the stability on the downhill section.
- Setup is made with TC off but if you struggle you can use TC 1.
- Positive toe for maximising the traction.
Snetterton
- Front minimum ride height is quite high. To avoid understeer in fast turns a low wing level is needed to shift the balance forward.
- The few settings in mechanical grip focus on providing the car with good traction. Stiff bumpstops also help the car with handling over some bumps and to keep the car stable through the bomb hole.
- A lot of tuning has to be done with dampers. Stiff rear rebound helps with keeping the car stable under braking and thus preventing the ABS from interfering too much.
- A lot of positive rear toe and soft rear bump damping is needed to give the car a smooth response to throttle and to stop the rear from kicking out.
Oulton Park
- Car is running stiff springs to help with overall smoothness of driving over the very bumpy track. Having stiffer springs in the rear also helps with rotating the car through the fast corners.
- To provide enough traction though, the rear bump damping has to be kept quite soft in order to avoid snappy oversteer.
- Bumpstops have to be soft to avoid excessive rebounds when hitting them. On the other hand, going too soft can make the car bounce too much going over bumps.
- High and low wing setups have very similar pace. However, driving on high wing requires a bit more aggressive driving as you have to make the most of slightly better braking and traction.
Watkins Glen
- Medium rake and above average wing to maximise cornering speeds.
- Stiff front roll bar combined with stiffer rear spring to try to give stability toward the end of the lap without sacrificing rotation at the start.
- Alignment adjusted to compliment other settings for better balance.
- Safe setup uses more wing and less rake to give extra stability under braking, along with other minor changes for ease of use.
COTA
- Medium rake and reasonably high wing used for high speed cornering ability.
- Front roll bar adjusted to find a balance between vehicle rotation and stability.
- Dampers tuned to limit any issues on corner entry.
- Safe setup uses changes to rear springs, ride height and alignment to maximise traction.
Indianapolis
- Contrary to other slightly flatter tracks, Indianapolis uses a very stiff mechanical setup to help with response through the corners requiring direction changes.
- The low preload and soft dampers help with optimising traction at the late apex phase making this an ideal compromise between traction and high speed rotation.
- The stiffer rear dampers help with matching the wheel rate while the softer front dampers help with loading the rear better on exit to prevent grip loss on initial throttle application.
Valencia
- The car feels a lot understeer on entry, so we put more brake bias on the rear to fix that.
- Soft ARBs and springs to maximise the mechanical grip, since it is very important to have good traction at this track.
- High wing to have more stability.
- Is better to use higher gear, because the torque is better on low rpms and it’s also more easy to manage with the TC off.
- Setup is made with TC off but if you struggle you can use TC 1
Team List
| Track | Driver | Engineer |
| Barcelona | Hubert Szymanski | |
| Hungaroring | Amedeo Castorino | |
| Imola | Amedeo Castorino | |
| Kyalami | David Pertile | Saiduth Ramesh |
| Laguna Seca | Amedeo Castorino | |
| Misano | Amedeo Castorino | |
| Monza | David Pertile | Saiduth Ramesh |
| Mount Panorama | Amedeo Castorino | |
| Nurburgring | David Pertile | Rob Taplin |
| Paul Ricard | Amedeo Castorino | |
| Spa Francorchamps | Amedeo Castorino | |
| Suzuka | David Pertile | David Skidmore |
| Zandvoort | David Pertile | Rob Taplin |
| Zolder | Hubert Szymanski | |
| Brands Hatch | Hubert Szymanski | |
| Donington | Hubert Szymanski | |
| Oulton Park | Hubert Szymanski | |
| Snetterton | Hubert Szymanski | |
| Silverstone | Luka Berk | Rob Taplin |
| Watkins Glen | Luka Berk | Rob Taplin |
| Indianapolis | Amedeo Castorino | Saiduth Ramesh |
| COTA | Luka Berk | Rob Taplin |
| Valencia | Amedeo Castorino |
