Starting your car in ACC can be set to automatic so you never need to worry about it. However if you do this you will be giving up time during certain scenarios.
For example, you need to start your car after a spin and after a pit stop. In both of these situations, having your engine start set to automatic will lose you crucial seconds. So I would highly recommend setting engine starting to manual if you can. You can change this option in the assists settings.
To manually start your car you will need to map two buttons to your controller or racing wheel. Both the ignition and the starter. I personally map these to two buttons which are out of the way on my racing wheel, but you can choose which configuration works for you. Map these two buttons in the control menu in the settings. When it comes to the actual engine start procedure, you need to follow a few key steps.
First – Put the car in neutral gear.
Second – Press in the clutch pedal.
Third – Press the ignition button once.
Fourth – Press and hold the starter button for a couple of seconds. You should hear the car start up, and see the revs increase.
Fifth – Shift to first gear, release the clutch and accelerate away just like you would in a road car.
You can choose to have manual car start enabled and an automatic clutch. By doing this you can remove
the clutch steps in the above process. Simply press the ignition button, hold the starter button, and accelerate away.
Mastering this procedure is crucial, especially when it comes to minimising the time lost during a pit stop.

If you start to lose control of your car and the car starts to spin there is one crucial thing you can do to avoid stalling your engine. If you do stall, you will lose crucial time going through the engine start procedure from above.
To avoid stalling your car when you spin you can simply depress the clutch pedal as your car spins. As soon as you feel the car starting to lose control, if you can’t catch it, move your left foot from the brake pedal to the clutch and depress it all the way. Then you can move your right foot from the accelerator and on to the brake pedal to bring your car under control or to a complete stop.
By catching the clutch before your car spins around will stop the engine from stalling. Allowing you to put your car into first gear and drive away from your spin without having to restart your engine.

Assetto Corsa Competizione utilises a rolling start procedure across all of its races. However this rolling start procedure can be different across single player and multiplayer servers. In single player, you only have access to the short rolling start procedure. Here you start a few corners from the end of the track, you line up in double file, and then go when the lights turn green. In multiplayer some servers utilise a complete formation lap, where you drive th full lap in single file, before lining up in double file before the end of the lap. Across both single player and multiplayer, the main thing to pay attention to is your HUD. You will have clear notifications of what you should be doing at any point in the start procedure. Simply follow these and you should be safe. As you approach the end of the formation lap in double file, you have to keep your speed below 60mph. Try to do this manually without running in to your limiter. Simply moderate your throttle inputs to keep the car just under 60mph. Pay attention to where you are in the grid to know when the lights will turn green. This happens when the first car crosses the start line. If you are towards the front of the pack, you will be much closer to the start line when lights go green compared to if you are at the back. As soon as you get the notification that the lights have gone green, hit the accelerator and away you go. I recommend trying to be in first gear as you approach the line for the best acceleration. Time this perfectly and you will get the best start possible in ACC.

Pitting in Assetto Corsa Competizione can be a tricky procedure to master. The pit routine is rather unforgiving if you miss your marks when pulling up for your stop. You have to really learn to position your car exactly where it needs to be to avoid any lost time. If your car isn’t positioned correctly, there will be a delay while your car is moved in to position before the car is raised. This can lose you multiple seconds which can be the difference in losing a couple of positions. You can practice pitstops during any session, including practice sessions. So I’d recommend running a practice session with multiple stop to nail your positioning. When approaching the pit lane you should break the whole procedure down in to multiple segments. First – Approaching the line, and slowing the car down to avoid a penalty. Second – Lining up your pit box and positioning your car correctly. Third – Stalling your engine or turning your engine off. Fourth – Engine start procedure. Fifth – Getting away from your pitbox. When approaching the pitline, you should try to maximise your entry. Approach the line as fast as you can just like any other part of the track. But ensure you brake early enough to slow your car down to 60mph before the line. If you don’t you’ll receive a penalty. Then, as you’re cruising down the pit lane, here you can make any additional changes to your pit strategy if needed. Then focus all your energy on lining up your pit box. The only way to nail your positioning is via practice. However if you approach at full (pit-limited) speed, and brake just before you enter your pit box, you should nail your forward position. Ensure you turn your engine off as you come to a stop to avoid any lost time. You will then have to wait for at least 30 seconds while the pit crew do their thing. As the timer nears zero be ready to restart your car. Use the same engine start procedure as noted above. You can only start your car as your car is being lowered to the ground. I’d recommend hitting the ignition during your stop. Then waiting until your car starts to drop, and only then hold the starter button. If you time this just right you will be able to pull away as your wheels touch the road.

During a full race weekend in single player, many race formats have mandatory driver swaps. This means that you will have to change between your drivers during the race. If you don’t fancy getting too involved in this procedure you can just leave it alone, and it will automatically swap drivers for you during a pit stop. However, in longer endurance races the race will be divided in to driver stints. These stints dictate how long a single driver can drive for in one stint. Before the end of a particular stint, you will have to swap drivers to avoid any penalties. You can keep track of your current stint length, and how long you have left by using the alternate Racelogic displays. You can switch through the displays by either mapping it to a button, or via your MFD in the bottom left corner. The MFD is also where you can select which driver to swap to during the next pitstop. Simply use the dpad on your wheel or controller to scroll down to the driver name. Then you can scroll left or right to choose your desired driver. This swap will then happen during the next pitstop.

When it comes to finding good Assetto Corsa Competizione setups, it can be tricky. We have uploaded our favourite setups that have been created by us and our community. And you can find all of our free ACC setups here. If you would like to download professional setups created by real racing drivers, Coach Dave is our pick of the bunch. Coach Dave is a real racing driver and has a huge variety of car setups available for ACC. All of Dave’s setups have been created by a professional, and you can also pick up a huge variety of data points, such as track maps, braking reference points etc. Visit Coach Dave Setups here.

There are two places where you will need to be aware of your fuel. The first is in the garage throughout the practice and qualifying sessions. The second place is during a race, where you may be required to refuel your car. I’ll talk about refuelling during a race and a pitstop below. When in the garage you can find your fuel level in the car setup screen. Navigate here and you will then be able to click in to your fuel setting and increase or decrease it for the session. Remember that some sessions don’t allow refuelling so you will need to start the session with enough fuel to complete that session. To actually adjust your fuel level, click in to the fuel option and scroll left to decrease your fuel level. Or right to increase your fuel level.

During races where refuelling isn’t allowed, you will need to calculate how much fuel you need before the race starts. This can be done fairly easily by using a simple calculation. You will need to have completed some practice laps so you know how long an average lap takes to complete. Then simply divide the race session time by the average lap time. This will give you how many laps you will complete during the race. After you know how many laps you are likely to complete during a race, you can multiply the lap count with the average lap fuel consumption. This figure is available to see on the same screen where you choose your fuel level. When doing this calculation, we would always add an extra laps worth of fuel just to account for the extra lap that you complete once the timer hits zero. Also make sure you are aware that if you run in a faster fuel mix mode, you will burn more fuel each lap.

When you enter the pit lane you will have a moment to adjust your pit settings before you reach your pit box. This screen automatically pops up when you enter the pit lane. To add more fuel, simply scroll down this list while driving down the pitlane, and adjust the fuel level to the right to add fuel. You can also add fuel for the next pitstop during the race by flipping through your bottom left MFD options.

Mapping wheel buttons is crucial when you first jump in to ACC. You should certainly look to utilise all of the buttons that are available to you on your wheel, so you can quickly make adjustments during a race. Jump in to the settings menu and navigate to controls. In here you will be able to choose between your input device, either wheel or controller. And if you scroll down and to the right, you will be able to adjust your button mapping. Click in to the menu, and scroll down the list to adjust every option you want to. To map a button, simply click into an option and then press the button you want it mapped to.

Once you are happy with your controller/wheel configuration and your button mapping, you can save your custom configuration by scrolling down to the pre-set menu in the control settings. Click save pre-set, which will then present you with an input field. Give your custom configuration a name and click save.