Want to feel like a Formula 1 driver racing on the track? Then this blog is for you. We will show how ex-F1 driver Heikki Kovalainen adjusted his Simucube ActivePedal profile for sim racing and highlight the key features he thinks are the most important in Formula 1 pedals.

Heikki Kovalainen’s pedal profile for Simucube ActivePedal

Heikki Kovalainen is a former F1 driver. He raced for seven years in various F1 teams. After his Formula 1 career he has been racing in Japan’s Super GT series and rally events. As a keen sim racer, he created an F1 profile for the Simucube ActivePedal, which you can find in Simucube Tuner.

Here, we will go through his Simucube ActivePedal profile and explain his thoughts behind these adjustments.

Formula 1-styled brake pedal profile

To get a Formula 1 feel for your Simucube ActivePedal, try Heikki Kovalainen’s pedal settings. These settings will make your sim racing experience feel like you are a real Formula 1 driver on the circuit.

Kovalainen’s aim was to mimic the solid feel of a real F1 brake pedal. Here are the adjustments he felt are the most important in Formula 1 brake pedal:

Pedal travel 13,6mm

Meaning: Pedal travel is the distance a pedal move when you press it. In sim racing, short pedal travel can mean quicker response and longer pedal travel can give you more control. Simucube ActivePedal pedal travel can be changed up to 62mm when having the curve maximum force at 150kg.

Kovalainen: Short pedal travel is an adjustment F1 racers have in their brakes. Kovalainen set it to 13,6mm, because it felt closest to what it should be.

Curve maximum force 127kg

Meaning: The peak force the pedal can simulate. This effect is meant to adjust how hard you need to press the pedal to reach full braking.

Kovalainen: In Formula 1 cars the brake pedal feels like you need to press it hard. He explained that when you approach a tight corner at top speed in a Formula car, you need to brake as hard as you can. This is the reason, why Kovalainen adjusted the brake pedal curve maximum force to a high level.

Preload 2,03kg

Meaning: It is the initial resistance you feel when you start pressing the pedal.

Kovalainen: In Formula 1 cars the preload setting is quite low, so that the brake doesn’t feel numb when the foot is resting on the pedal, but he feels that you don’t need it to be higher amount to start activating the pedal.

Damping when releasing 3% and when pressing 9,4%

Meaning: Both are meant to bring realism to sim racing and prevent snapping and sudden jumps. Damping when releasing slows the pedal’s return after you have released it. Damping when pressing smooths the pedal movement when you are pressing it.

Kovalainen: To get a little better feel when the braking motion starts.

Pedal Curve

Meaning: Adjusting how the pedal response changes with pressure. It’s like a graph that links how hard you press the pedal to how the car reacts.

Kovalainen: Linear pedal curve gave numb feeling in the middle of the brake force, mid-force. Also, when the pedal curve was linear, the stopping power in the middle of the braking was not enough. Thus, a little curve in the mid-range is required to get the right Formula 1 experience.

Overall, Kovalainen feels that most sim racing brake pedals aren’t solid enough to get the Formula 1 experience. In F1, a brake pedal should feel almost immovable. He says that with the Simucube ActivePedal, you can adjust your settings to achieve a solid, F1-like feel in your sim racing pedals.

Formula 1-styled throttle pedal profile

Though the brake pedal is crucial and needs to feel the certain way to experience the F1 experience, you can also tweak the throttle pedal on your Simucube ActivePedal for a Formula 1 like feedback.

Here are the settings Kovalainen felt important to adjust in the throttle pedal to get the full Formula 1 experience:

Pedal travel 50mm

Kovalainen: The throttle pedal travel is quite long in Formula 1 cars, and this can be surprising to a lot of people. This gives the driver more controllability, so the driver can adjust the engine mapping smoother.

Curve maximum force 11,8 kg

Kovalainen: Quite light, but still needs to be a bit of resistance so that the pedal is not numb.

Preload 2,29 kg

Kovalainen: To get the resistance needed, but otherwise quite light feeling is ok.

Damping when releasing 4,9 % and when pressing 10 %

Kovalainen: Both settings need to be quite low, so the pedal is quite free to move but so that you have a little bit of resistance in the pedal.

Simucube ActivePedal

Simucube ActivePedal is an innovative product, launched in 2022. The Simucube ActivePedal’s don’t have any passive elements, since they work with servo motor.

These pedals offer unlimited adjustability and repeatability, enhancing your sim racing experience with effects like ABS, traction control, RPM, G-force, and more.

Fine-tuning your Simucube ActivePedal is key for different sim racing categories. With Simucube Tuner software, adjusting pedals and effects is easy, allowing you to switch cars or change the feel.

Learn more about Simucube ActivePedal and see the difference in your braking.

Want to see more?

Check out more pedal profiles in Tuner software (download Tuner) or watch behind-the-scenes videos from Heikki Kovalainen making the pedal profiles on Simucube’s YouTube channel.