Without a steering wheel, even the world’s best Formula 1 drivers would find it hard to display their talents. The modern wheel does much more than just steer the car, however.
Ostensibly, the purpose of a steering wheel is simple enough – to transmit the driver’s input to the steered wheels of the vehicle in question – when that vehicle is a Formula 1 car, however, simple is hardly an appropriate term.
The steering wheels currently used by Vodafone McLaren Mercedes’ drivers reflect the revolutionary changes that have occurred in Formula 1 steering wheel design – as well as technology in the sport as a whole – over the course of the past decade.
"The steering wheel of a modern Formula 1 car is one of the most intriguing parts because it is so visible,” admits Steve Hallam, Head of Race Engineering at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. “Most visitors to the McLaren Technology or to the pit facility at a race get an opportunity to hold the wheel and pull the gearshift levers – the obvious bits. The majority of them then ask a perfectly logical question: ‘what do all the buttons actually do?’
“Well, if I answered that fully, I’d be giving away too many team secrets! I can say, though, that the steering wheel is a very complex piece of kit, which allows our drivers to perform a number of tasks aside from the wheel’s intended purpose – steering the car.”
Indeed, even as recently as 1992, the steering wheel on a Formula 1 car was a relatively plain, straightforward piece of equipment, round in shape, with a metal plate at the centre to attach it to the steering column, and generally no more than three buttons – one for selecting neutral, one for releasing liquid through a tube in the helmet for the driver to replenish his fluid levels and one for the radio.
The advent of complex electronic systems in Formula 1 throughout the 1990s changed all that, though, and a plethora of different functions began to be controlled by buttons and dials, placed on the steering wheel for ease of access by the drivers while racing. The onset of semi-automatic gear systems in the early 1990s heralded the arrival of ‘paddle-shift’ gear levers, mounted behind the steering wheel, which negate the need for the driver to remove his hands from the wheel to select a gear. This eliminates the possibility of a driver missing a gear, therefore increasing the smoothness and improving the timing of gearshifts.
Engine mapping, traction control and the advent of launch control programs that optimised the race start procedure all required various buttons and toggle switches to enable the driver to fine-tune his car’s settings while on-track. Modern Formula 1 steering wheels typically now include a clutch paddle, as this is only used when the car is leaving the garage, and eliminating the clutch pedal allows the car designers to further optimise the packaging of components in the footwell.
The steering wheel is one of the most complex and high-tech parts of a Formula 1 car, with a typical wheel controlling at least 12 further functions in addition to actually steering the wheels. In spite of the confidentiality surrounding the functions controlled by the many buttons on the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes steering wheel, here is a full guide to their secrets.
How Are They Made?
The manufacture of any part on a Formula 1 car is a complex process, and the steering wheel is no exception. Many different lightweight materials are used in its manufacture, including carbon fibre, aluminium, titanium, steel, rubber and plastic, and a complete steering wheel can take approximately 100 hours to produce from start to finish.
With the average steering wheel controlling as many as 12 separate parameters on the car, there is a large number of components, buttons and switches that have to be fitted during the manufacturing process – some 120 separate items in all. Yet, despite the myriad of materials and parts that make up each completed wheel, the weight of the finished unit, as fitted to the car, is just 1.3 kilograms.
During the season, a minimum of five steering wheels are constructed for each of the team’s two race drivers. Of these, three remain with the race team while two are held with the test team. In addition, test driver Pedro de la Rosa has four wheels per season; two are kept with the race team and two for testing, whilst Gary Paffett has three steering wheels that travel with the test team at all times. However, during any specific Formula 1 season, more steering wheels will have to be manufactured, because it is a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes policy that, when one of its drivers finishes a grand prix on the podium, the wheel from his car is removed and its history documented. It will then go into storage as a valuable souvenir of the team’s success, never to be used again.
A version of this article originally appeared in Racing Line, the McLaren Group's in-house magazine.
