There is no magic bullet.
Start with default settings.
If you are running high framerate (60+) then start increasing things. Bump up resolution, bump up texture quality...one at at time. The best thing is to use a replay, so you can see numbers from the same rendering over and over.
If you are running low framerate (20-) then start easing up...lower framrate, lower settings, one at a time...
Its trial and error, especially with laptops, because not only is the hardware (gpu/cpu/mem) slower, but busses and all of that are slower...so its more unpredictable...it shouldnt take you more than an hour to drill down a good setting range...
You should shoot for 40 or so FPS... 30 is borderline. Start a full field of AI cars, and let them all pass you in a group...if you drop down to 20 or less, ease it up...you're in the range of being jumpy, and that causes wrecks...and other people dont generally appreciate it when you wreck them because you just HAD to have the 1024 textures turned on.