Getting Started with Assetto Corsa EVO: A First-Month Guide

Assetto Corsa EVO is in early access and moving fast: the 0.7 update of 3 June 2026 added yet more content. For a beginner, that youth is an advantage — you discover the sim alongside the community. The key is starting in the right order. This guide sets out the path we recommend to every beginner joining the JOBARD Racing Academy: a first month built for steady progress, without losing heart.

Why start with Assetto Corsa EVO now

EVO is built on a clear foundation: a demanding physics model and laser-scanned circuits. At the time of writing, the simulation offers nineteen tracks — Imola, Suzuka, Sebring, the Nürburgring — and around twenty cars, a catalogue aimed at one hundred by version 1.0. Recent updates have added the Audi R8 GT3, two Porsche entries in the GT2 category, and two variants of the Datsun 240Z.

For a beginner, two practical consequences follow. First, the content is more than sufficient to learn: there is no need to wait for the final release. Second, you arrive early — the competition is less entrenched than on established simulations, and the gap remains within reach if you work with method.

Week 1 — Set up the wheel before anything else

No progress is possible if the force feedback is misleading you. This is the beginner's first mistake: spending hours driving on a default setting that does not suit their hardware.

The logic is consistent regardless of your equipment. Set the main gain high in your wheel base application — 80 to 100 % — then adjust the final force output in-game to what your wrist can sustain over a full stint. Then work on damping: around 40 % Dynamic Damping on a Fanatec base, 30 % on Thrustmaster, Minimum Damper at zero, and Damper Gain starting low, around 10 %. Kunos publishes official starting points for the most common direct drive bases: begin from there.

The golden rule: one value at a time. Change one parameter, complete five laps, assess. A FFB setup is built in one calm session, not by adjusting ten settings at once.

Week 2 — Choose one car, one circuit, and stay there

The second classic mistake is trying everything. Twenty cars, nineteen circuits: the temptation to sample broadly is real, and it is precisely what prevents progress.

Do the opposite. Choose a single GT3 — stable, predictable, representative — and one circuit you learn thoroughly. The goal for the week is not lap time, it is consistency: completing ten clean laps with a spread of under one second between your tidy laps. One car mastered on one known circuit will teach you more than twenty combinations briefly sampled.

Use the built-in tools. EVO displays the delta relative to your personal best: this is your first measuring instrument. You can see in real time where you are gaining and where you are losing, corner by corner.

Week 3 — Racing clean: understanding the Safety Rating

EVO incorporates a safety rating system, and understanding it early matters. The principle: clean racing is rewarded, contacts are assessed from impact data, and the penalty is proportional to severity. The driver responsible for an incident pays more than the one on the receiving end.

For a beginner, the consequence is liberating: you do not need to be fast to perform well, you need to be clean. Leave margin, anticipate others' braking points, abandon an overtake that is not ready. A high safety rating opens up the more interesting servers and grids — it is that rating, not your raw pace, that determines the quality of your first real races.

It is also the first metric the JOBARD Academy looks at in a driver. Speed can be learned; a driver is expected to know how to race cleanly first.

Week 4 — Measure to improve

After three weeks, you are racing cleanly and consistently. It is time to look at the data. No complex software is needed to begin: the JOBARD method comes down to five metrics — lap time, consistency, tyre wear, brake temperature, top speed. Each tells part of the story of your lap and points to a setting worth adjusting.

This is the point where a methodical beginner pulls ahead: they stop feeling their mistakes and start reading them. The step forward comes from there.

Key takeaways - Set up the wheel first, one value at a time — without proper FFB, nothing else is worth driving. - One car and circuit combination, worked until you are consistent, is worth more than twenty combinations briefly tried. - The safety rating comes before lap time: learn to race cleanly first.

The championship that turns practice into progress

Driving alone has its limits: without an objective, consistency fades. That is the purpose of the JOBARD Racing Academy Series — eight free rounds on Assetto Corsa EVO, from September to December 2026, broadcast on Twitch. A structured framework, regular races, and a race team perspective on your progress. The first month described here is precisely the preparation needed to take the start with confidence.

Discover the JOBARD Racing Academy Series →

To go further during this first month, two resources complement this path: our method for reading your telemetry like an engineer, and the free guide to getting started cleanly in sim racing, whose approach applies directly to EVO.

In brief

Should you buy Assetto Corsa EVO in early access to get started? Yes. The current content — nineteen circuits, around twenty cars — is more than sufficient to learn, and you arrive early on the simulation.

What equipment to begin with? A force feedback wheel that is properly set up takes precedence over everything else. The base hardware matters less than the time spent configuring the FFB correctly.

How long before feeling at ease? With a single combination worked until consistent, and a carefully maintained safety rating, one month is enough to take a race start with confidence.