Early thoughts on Formula 1 V3 after moving from V2.5

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A_Dylikowski
Title: Early thoughts on Formula 1 V3 after moving from V2.5

Just some balanced feedback from someone still quite new to the Fanatec ecosystem. I’ve only been using the DD Extreme and Fanatec gear for around 3–4 months.

I was using the Formula V2.5 before, which honestly was very good for me. Recently I upgraded the DD Extreme to 18 Nm and also purchased the new Formula 1 V3 wheel.

One very positive thing immediately noticeable for me is the slightly bigger wheel size. It genuinely reduced wrist strain for me and gave me better control of the car, especially in GT7.

But today, while doing Nordschleife Reverse Circuit Experience, I noticed quite loud plastic creaking coming from the wheel itself. My V2.5 does not do this at all and feels more solid in comparison.

So at the moment, my honest impression is that despite some improvements, the build quality of my particular V3 unit feels worse than my V2.5. Very likely I’ll replace it while I still can.

Maybe this is just early adopter stuff, maybe hit and miss manufacturing tolerances, I honestly don’t know yet.

Curious what long-term V2/V2.5 owners think, and especially people who already have the V3 — what has your experience been like so far?
 
I received mine a week ago Friday and used it heavily during that time. I have not had any noises or any issues. I think the wheel is top notch and better than the v2 and v2.5,( I do have both of those). But I have had experiences when swapping wheels in the past I would here noises and found that I did not push the wheel to the base properly to seat the wheel and problem was solved.
 
I’ve had the V2 for years and updated it w APM and Pineapple chunky grips w leather covering

Its been totally solid, and w the older chips didn’t have any of the issues w the 2.5 newer chips. The chunkier grips helped both in comfort and getting rid of Alcantara which I don’t like as much

The V3 is incrementally nicer in 2 ways - the larger size and the revised thumb knobs. But the ITM is currently unused on console (well sorta in PMR) and as my primary formula wheel use is in F1 25 the game has FFB disconnects w any wheel so far w the ITM display - the Extreme and GT3 PBME

So until thats resolved which won’t likely be soon the V3 doesn’t add much value for me
 
I got my V3 yesterday. I've had a 2.5 for many years. Took me a little while to get the V3 recognized in game as I did not know that you had to do a software update first, that tip would have been useful in all of the YouTube reviews I watched before ordering it.

The wheel feels much more solid than the 2.5 does even though if you hold one in each hand they don't feel like one is much heavier than the other one. It does feel better driving than the 2.5 does. Feels like you have more control and a more solid unit when you're turning.

Now to the bad parts. I do not understand how the ITM stuff works. I understand each one of the sections. But if I choose page 1 and mark it as a favorite, drive the car with page 1 active, stop and change cars, the ITM reverts to default. Do you have to set it each and every time you either change cars or change games? Speaking of the default I don't know what in the hell it's doing. It's counting up numbers seemingly at random showing single numbers in brackets [4] that do not match the gear you're in or lap you're on. Then I can come to a complete stop and the counter keeps on going up then it comes down still flashing numbers in brackets occasionally. So I don't know what all of that means.

The other bad thing is that I can't figure out how to get the LED's to display correctly. I've driven with the default which I think is percentages. With that there are no LED's in the first 3 or 4 gears then in 5th they might go halfway on the display even when you hit the rev limiter to change to 6th. So what do the percentages mean? I tried switching to RPM but that's about the same thing except as you're slowing down for a slow corner and the rev's are dropping, the LED's go up about halfway. And I'm not talking about on a gear change down when you get a little rev spike just normal slowing down. So I can't get LED's to properly follow the RPM gauge on the vehicle. The odd thing is that in Assetto Corsa if you're doing a hotlap, before you start the car is just sitting there in neutral idling. You can rev the engine and the LED's follow what the engine is doing, go to redline the graph goes to redline. It's just when the car is in motion that there is a problem.

All of the reviews I watched before making the purchase never really did a deep dive into what all of the functions are and how they work. They just briefly touched on what they were. So if there is a better more analytical guide out there for all of the functions of this wheel that someone can point out to me I would appreciate it.

It's early yet and I might grow to love this wheel more than the 2.5 but right now the negatives are outweighing the positives. Also this is what that LED percentages screen looks like on mine.

Screenshot 2026-05-09 165235.webp
 
super_gt
Because it should look this way.

View attachment 1536094
Click to expand...
My PC is attached to a 55" tv. If I take it down to 100% it makes anything on it microscopic. I'm more concerned with the functionality of the wheel right now. How do I get the rev LED's to match what the car is doing? How do you get that ITM screen to stay with a choice and not reset each time to whatever that default is?

Before I quit for the evening yesterday I ran Project Motor Racing with the V3 just to see what happens and apparently it's default for the OLED screen is just speed. So it has a different default than Assetto Corsa. Also with Automobilista 2 everything on the wheel is blank. But if I attach the V2.5 or the Universal Hub wheel, it works. But that's an AMS2 problem. About 3 updates or so ago the displays on both of my rims went blank. Then after a couple of updates the displays would work occasionally. Recently they have worked each time I've played. But this V3 is blank for now. It might start working after the next update or so.
 
Jezza819
My PC is attached to a 55" tv. If I take it down to 100% it makes anything on it microscopic.
Click to expand...
No one said it had to be 100%, the PC App picture I showed you is 175% on a 43 inch monitor. There are other percentages you can choose, the important thing is to show all PC App settings in the window.

I mainly play GT7 and I'm not very familiar with the profiles and LED settings in the PC App. Someone else should help you with that.
 

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