By Baden Copeland
Modern cars put a variety of controls at the driver’s fingertips: Switches and buttons for the cruise control, navigation and audio systems, among other functions, all jostle for the limited real estate on the steering wheel.
Formula One racecars take this trend to the extreme. A driver can make more than a dozen adjustments without lifting a hand from the steering wheel.
After advancing technologies like traction control and antilock braking, now standard equipment in road cars, Formula One backed away from the computer systems that were considered drivers’ aids. All adjustments while the car is moving must be made by the driver.
To be competitive, a driver must be able to constantly adjust settings for the front-to-rear brake balance, fuel consumption and differential functions. The hybrid system can be adjusted to store and release energy at different rates as race strategies change. A button under the driver’s thumb provides extra power through the hybrid motor for passing; another reduces aerodynamic drag by opening a section of the rear wing, allowed only when the car is in specified sections of the track and within one second of the car ahead.
In essence, the driver has to make adjustments that would be done by the computer in a modern road car. The steering wheel is how he tells the car what to do. At this year’s Singapore race, the Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg retired with what the team later found to be a wiring failure in the steering column. He could not operate the clutch or make adjustments to engine settings because the steering wheel could not transmit his selections.
Every team designs and builds steering wheels and may further customize them for their two drivers. It takes six weeks to build each steering wheel; three are taken to every race for each driver.