Sim Gaming Expo 2026 - Chicago, Sept 18–20
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The Fanatec Podium Pedals are finally here, and after years of waiting, they arrive with a lot of pressure on them. These are Fanatec’s newest and most premium pedals to date, first shown off at Sim Racing Expo and now landing as the company’s long-awaited flagship set. At launch, Fanatec is offering two versions. The one available right now is the Formula Edition, while the three-pedal GT version is coming later. Interestingly, both retail for the same $700 price.
And that immediately raises the obvious question. How does a two-pedal Formula set cost the same as the three-pedal GT version. The answer mainly comes down to the materials and the presentation. These Formula pedals are absolutely massive in person, and they use real carbon pedal faces with integrated carbon heel cups that make them feel far more special than most pedal sets the moment you pull them out of the box. So yes, they have a lot going for them. At the same time, at this kind of money, they also have a lot to prove.
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Starting with the overall experience, Fanatec still knows how to make a product feel expensive. The box itself is huge, and once opened, the pedals immediately give off that premium first impression. The build quality, overall finish, and use of materials all tell you this is meant to sit at the very top of Fanatec’s lineup. At least visually, they absolutely succeed in doing that.
In terms of compatibility, things are also handled well. Using the included control box, the pedals can connect via USB directly to your PC, or they can connect straight to a Fanatec wheel base. That also means they can work on console when paired with the right compatible Fanatec hardware, which remains one of Fanatec’s biggest strengths. For anyone already inside that ecosystem, this part makes a lot of sense.
One thing that is not included, and will definitely be controversial, is the optional mounting plate. Sold separately for a frankly outrageous $200, this plate is made from a single piece of extruded aluminum and does include a few smart touches. You get integrated sliding T-nuts and position markings to help with setup, so there is at least some thought behind it.
That said, I personally would not recommend buying it, especially for the Formula Edition. These pedals already come with their own integrated carbon heel cups, and each pedal can be mounted independently straight to your cockpit. You can even invert them if your rig allows for it. So while the plate is not bad, it feels massively overpriced, and with this two-pedal version, it also feels unnecessary.
Starting with the throttle, there is no denying the tremendous build quality. It uses die-cast and CNC-machined aluminum, subtle gold accents, very smooth ball bearings, and of course the carbon fiber face. The pedal plate itself is large, comfortable underfoot, and height adjustable. If you are using shoes, it feels great. With socks, it is a bit more slippery, which is why Fanatec includes grip tape, though I personally would not want to ruin the clean carbon look by applying it.
What Fanatec has done with the throttle adjustment is actually pretty clever. Without tools, you can adjust the resting angle, pedal travel, and preload. The differences between the most extreme settings were not massive to me, but being able to make those changes on the fly is still a positive. Fanatec also says the throttle is intentionally stiffer than usual because the added resistance should improve modulation and consistency. In fairness, on track, it does feel smooth, responsive, and very easy to trust. The Hall effect sensor feels consistent, and overall it performs exactly how a high-end throttle should.
My bigger complaints here are on the durability and refinement side. The finish does seem a bit delicate, with some risk of scratching, and more importantly, I actually stripped one of the adjustment bolts with very little force. Then it happened again on another pedal. That is not something I usually run into with sim racing hardware, and on a product that otherwise feels so well made, it is definitely worth pointing out. It does not ruin the pedal, but it does chip away at the premium feel.
Moving on to the brake, this is clearly the star of the show. Right away, I will say that once dialed in properly, it feels very, very good on track. The look from the front is nearly identical to the throttle, but around the back is where the interesting part lives. Fanatec uses what it calls a patented compression control system, and unlike a lot of marketing language in sim racing, this one is actually backed up by something genuinely clever.
The mechanism uses forged aluminum components and threaded cups that let you change pedal feel without tools. Fully closing the cups gives you almost no travel and a brick-wall feel, which I personally think is ridiculous for sim racing. Fully opening them gives you maximum travel, and everything in between serves as proper fine tuning. Fanatec also includes extra springs, an elastomer, and a guide showing different configurations, so while it does take some trial and error, there is a lot of room here to get the brake feeling just how you want it.
What makes the system especially smart is that the cups also act as mechanical limiters, preventing the elastomers from being over-compressed and worn out too quickly. That is very well thought out. On track, the result is a brake that can be firm, controlled, and confidence-inspiring. Once I found the right setup, it was easy to build pressure smoothly, hit consistent braking points, and trail off the brake without feeling like I was guessing.
There is also still a lot of software tuning available through Fanatec’s app. You can select presets or create your own non-linear pedal curve if you want more control over a certain part of the brake range or want to better match the behavior of different cars. Because those curves and dead zones are saved directly to the pedals, they also remain active when using them on console, which is a genuinely big deal for console users. Fanatec also uses a common elastomer size here, so people who want to experiment later with harder or softer compounds are not necessarily locked into only what comes in the box.
As good as the brake is, one of the more controversial parts of these pedals is that after so many years of waiting, all we are really getting at this price is a very high-end load cell brake. It is rated for over 200 kg of force, it feels excellent, and it is highly adjustable, but in a market where haptics and active pedals are increasingly what flagship means, this still feels a little traditional.
Yes, there are mounting points for haptic motors on top of the pedal arms, and Fanatec says its own options are coming later, but those are still additional purchases. So while the core brake feel is great, and the software curve tuning is also useful, there is still a sense that these pedals are impressively executed rather than revolutionary. They are excellent in a very mechanical, very traditional way, and that naturally leaves a little bit of underwhelm when expectations were this high.
I also noticed a very subtle amount of side-to-side flex on the brake. It was not something I really felt while driving, but visually it is there, and I was not able to fully solve it no matter how tightly everything was mounted. Again, not a huge deal, but at this level, small issues matter more.
The Fanatec Podium Pedals are really interesting because they are both genuinely impressive and slightly disappointing at the same time. On one hand, the build quality, presentation, materials, carbon fiber, mechanical adjustment, and overall driving feel are absolutely high-end. The throttle is smooth and dependable, the brake is excellent once dialed in, and the tool-less adjustment system is one of the smartest mechanical solutions I have seen on a pedal set in a while. I also really like that these can work on console when paired with the right Fanatec hardware, because that still gives Fanatec a real edge for some buyers.
On the other hand, these are $700 pedals, or effectively $900 if you add the optional pedal plate, and at that point the expectations have to be sky high. The Formula Edition looks incredible, but you are still only getting two pedals, no clutch, no included haptics, no active technology, and a few smaller quality issues that I really did not expect. None of those things ruin the experience, but they do stop this from feeling like the slam-dunk comeback product many people were hoping for.
So where do I land. These are very good pedals. In fact, they are the best pedals Fanatec has ever made. But they are also launching into a market that has become much more competitive and a lot more demanding. If you are already deep into the Fanatec ecosystem, especially if console compatibility matters to you, these make a lot of sense. If you are on PC and simply want the best value, the most complete feature set, or something that feels more genuinely next generation, they become much harder to call a no-brainer. Premium, capable, and very well made, yes. The category-defining flagship many were waiting for, not quite.
