[fiaF1x2th] The Complex F1 Steering Wheel

The steering wheels of current Formula 1 cars are not only handmade work of arts, but they are also highly concentrated pieces of advanced technologies and insanely complex!

F1 steering wheels are not purchased, but entirely hand made and designed by each team to suit the demands of their drivers and engineers.

Since there are no dashboards in the modern F1 cars, all the controls, switches and displays are located on the steering wheels, allowing the driver to make adjustments to the car performance and behaviour while driving at 300 km/h (186 mph).

Drivers can modify the settings of the engine, the KERS, the DRS, the differential and the brake balance.

• It takes around six weeks to build a wheel from start to finish
  
• The servicing time for a wheel between events is around 24 man hours
• The team will take three wheels for each driver to every race. These are constantly being modified to suit different settings or preferences throughout the year.
  

Although all steering wheels are different, most buttons and switches are common to all of them.

A look at the fuctions of the buttons:
N: Puts gearbox in neutral
DIF: Adjust the settings of the differential
RADIO: To talk to the team by radio
DRINK: To drink during the race
PUMP: Activates reserve oil tank
REV: Set maximum revs of the engine
MIX: To change engine maps to save fuel, for example
TRQ: (Torque) Changes torque settings, changes torque delivery
BOOST:To increase power delivery to pass another car
CHRG: To make adjustments to the KERS
BP: Bite Point Finder, used to accurately measure the clutch bite point
OK: To acknowledge radio message
10 + : To change a selected value by increments of 10
1 -: To change a selected value by increments of 1
PIT: Set speed limiter in the pit lane



2014 marked the beginning of a new era in Formula 1 through a number of ways, including the evolution of the modern steering wheel.
F1 has been left behind in this area over the past decade, with many other forms of motorsport adopting new displays and making various performance factors easier to adjust from the cockpit. From 2014 onwards, however, the pinnacle of motorsport is set to become the trend setter in vehicle electronic systems via an upgrade to the steering wheel and, more obviously, the ERS. <<<<<note to stig cuz


For this analysis in particular we will refer to the Mercedes W05 steering wheel although many of the features will be identical to those found on the other cars.



At the hub of all the switches, buttons and dials, for most teams, is the McLaren Electronics PCU- dashboard, although some (Williams, Red Bull and Lotus) have chosen to continue with the older PCU-6D.

The 6D has limited capabilities due to its single LED strip (rev lights) and three, small alphanumeric LED windows (one of which is occupied by gear number) but takes up far less room on the already-cluttered modern steering wheel. On the other hand, the  (4.3″ backlit LCD) offers a vast amount of information including the charging and discharging state of the Energy Store (ES – the ERS battery), an important element when considering set up and in-car changes as a race unfolds. Although both displays can show similar amounts of information, the  is more visually accessible to the driver which can be customised to their liking.

Let’s break down Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes steering wheel for this year. I’ve always found the differences between Rosberg and teammate Lewis Hamilton’s quite interesting although this year they have more or less the same amount of “adjustable”, the latter driver choosing a more colour friendly layout to help him navigate the wheel more quickly under pressure.



The modern Formula 1 car is among the most amazing machines ever made. And when you’re going wheel-to-wheel with someone like four-time world champ Sebastian Vettel at 180 mph, you can’t take a hand off the wheel to do, well, anything. Every task a driver might need to do, every bit of information he might need to know, is quite literally at his fingertips.

The modern Formula 1 steering wheel is, therefore, the most amazing ever made. It is, in every way, the nerve center of the car.

That’s because an F1 car has dozens of parameters that can be adjusted on the fly, but only by the driver.

Although telemetry provides a nonstop stream of data to engineers on the pitwall and at team HQ, the driver has sole control over things like differential settings, the air-fuel mix, and the torque curve. All of these settings can change several times during a race, or even a lap. Adjustments must be made while keeping both hands on the wheel and both eyes on the track, which is why a modern F1 wheel might have 35 or more knobs, buttons and switches flanking a small LCD screen introduced this season. Drivers also use small paddles behind the wheel to shift up and down as many as 4,000 times in a race, and a third paddle to engage the clutch.

The PCU- LCD screen, made by McLaren Electronics, is 4.3 inches wide with a resolution of 480 x 272 pixels. It can display as many as 100 pages of info and the data–everything from engine RPM and oil temperature to current lap speed and how many laps remain–can be configured by the driver or his engineer. This year marks a transition to the new technology, with some teams–including Infiniti Red Bull Racing–sticking with the older, simpler, PCU-6D for one more season.

So What Do All Those Buttons Do, Anyway?




Yellow N button: Selects neutral from 1st or 2nd gear.
BRKBAL (brake balance) rotary switch: Adjusts the front and rear brake balance.
Black Box button: Confirms the driver’s intention to come to the pits.
Blue and orange S1/S2 buttons: These can be programmed for various funcutions.
Entry rotary switch: This allows the driver to make changes to corner entry settings of the differential.
Orange and green BRK-/BRK+ buttons: These change the brake balance between a programmed position and the current BRKBAL rotary position.
IGN (ignition) rotary switch: Controls ignition timing.
White ACK (acknowledge) button: Acknowledges changes in the system.
PREL (preload) rotary switch: Controls the preload differential offset torque.
Red Oil button: Transfers oil from the auxiliary tank to the main tank.
Black BP (bite point) button: Activates the clutch bite point finding procedure.
DRS (drag reduction system) button, upper left edge of the wheel: Activates the rear wing flap in the DRS zone.
Red PL (pit lane) button: Activates the pit lane speed limiter, limiting the car to the designated pit lane speed limit (typically 100 km/hr).
Black R button: Activates the driver radio transmission.
SOC rotary switch: Controls the state of charge of the ERS energy storage system, whether the system is generating or consuming energy.
Pedal rotary switch: Changes the pedal map dictating how the accelerator pedal responds to inputs.
Fuel rotary switch: Controls the rate of fuel consumption.
Black OT button: Activates configurable performance maps to assist the driver in overtaking or defending.
Tire rotary switch: Tells the ECU and other systems what type of tire the car is running on.
BBal-/BBal+ switches: These are used to make fine adjustments to the brake balance offset.
MFRS (multi-function rotary switch): This allows the driver and engineers to control a variety of systems that don’t require a dedicated buttons. They include engine modes (PERF), rev limiter (ENG), air-fuel ratio (MIX), turbo-compressor (TURBO), corner exit differential (VISCO), MGU-K recovery limits (BRK), MGU-K boost limits (BOOST), dashboard options (DASH), cruise control (CC, disabled for qualifying and the race), shift type (SHIFT), and the clutch bite point offset (CLU).
White -10/+1 buttons: These allow quick navigation of maps from the MFRS dial.

That’s a lot to process, and it doesn’t even include the pages of data that can be relayed through the LCD screen. More information isn’t always a good thing, which is why most teams let each driver decide which wheel they prefer– the older style with the simpler display or the new wheel with the LCD. That said, the LCD screens have a distinct advantage, in that the driver knows exactly that’s going on, something that saved Nico Rosberg’s bacon when his car’s telemetry system failed just before the race in China. With no information from the car, engineers had to ask Rosberg for periodic updates on fuel consumption and other information. The Mercedes AMG Petronas driver eventually grew annoyed by the repeated queries and asked his engineers to kindly shut up and let him get on with the business at hand–taking second place behind teammate Lewis Hamilton.


As new systems developed, various other controls came up on the steering wheel. A modern F1 car now has various switches, one of which is the fuel mixture regulator, through which the driver can adjust whether the engine has to be fed with more or less fuel; the driver can also conserve fuel during the race by using the regulator to change the fuel mixture to lean mode. Another important feature of the steering wheel today is the LCD display screen which gives vital information to the drivers about their current position, lap times and the difference from the car immediately ahead. As stated above the bright LED indicators mounted on the wheel allow a driver to make gear shifts at the right time; also, in the event of an accident or safety car, the the lights start to blink the colours corresponding to the flags, like yellow colour for yellow flag.

Other buttons such as pit stop indicator, pit lane speed limiter, neutral, radio button and drink button (which allows the driver to consume fluids whenever necessary) are also mounted on the wheel. With the innovation of Drag Reduction System and KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery system), two more buttons for these systems have been added to the steering wheel.



Now that we have dealt with the basic elements of the steering wheel, later we will take a closer look at some of its more advanced features.
The wheel has various rotatory switches on it which are used for adjusting differential, torque and the clutch bite point. Differential plays a major role in getting a perfect lap and is quite important in qualifying . During qualifying or even during a race lap, a driver changes the differential many times to get sufficient handling in different corners. The torque rotatory switch is used to adjust how much power will be generated when a driver pushes the throttle pedal; in other words, it is used to adjust throttle sensitivity. This is very important when drivers face rainy or changing conditions as they can use the torque rotatory switch to go for softer settings in rainy conditions. The clutch bite point switch is important to make an adequate start to the race and it is used to the launch the car from the grid!

More photos of various F1 Wheel designs coming! zoom zoom!