Mercedes leaked the image of Lewis Hamilton’s steering wheel to the masses via social media. The steering wheel was connected to the W14 and featured a welcome graphic for Hamilton who was testing the car in Bahrain.
An F1 steering wheel is way more than a navigational device. It features a lot of buttons which take care of simple and complex tasks during the course of a race.
The difference between the wheel of a road-legal sports car and an F1 car is pretty drastic. The device needs to perform all the commands the driver or the team needs when required.
What does an F1 steering Wheel do?
F1 Steering Wheels are pretty small in size. The wheels are customised to fit within the measurements of the driver’s hands. Lewis Hamilton’s steering wheel has been designed partly by him based on his requirements.
An F1 car’s steering wheel is made out of carbon fibre. The wheels have an LCD screen and a myriad of buttons, knobs, or dials, that execute various commands or performance codes of a car.
The primary task of a steering wheel is to steer and allow gear changes. But they have evolved over time and today are state-of-the-art pieces of machinery.
Some commands a wheel can execute would be opening or closing of DRS flaps, changing brake bias, toggling with engine modes, limiting pitlane speed, putting the car and giving an extra performance boost before overtaking.
The Steering also has radio controls which allow the team to communicate with the driver mid-race. Drivers also have a drink feature that allows them to hydrate whilst driving.
How many buttons are on Lewis Hamilton’s steering wheel? What do they do?
Lewis Hamilton’s 2023 Mercedes W14 steering wheel features around 25 buttons or dials. There is a central LCD monitor that shows the speed of the car, current gear and other key data.
The wheel has 2 gear switch paddles on the back side, one for going up and one for going down. The DRS switch activates the DRS flap when the car is in the zone.
The Neutral button activates the “neutral” gear. When pressed continuously the driver can activate the reverse gear. The Pit lane Limiter sets the speed of the car to 80 Km/H, the current speed limit.
The Code entry button triggers a set code which would be set by the Engineers. The high speed and corner entry dials dictate the breaking and entry/exit speeds of a car. The drivers play around with different settings as every corner is approached differently.
Break balance regulates how much torque goes to the rear wheels when the rider is not accelerating. Overdrive is used to activate the ERS system that charges the hybrid power systems using the forces generated during braking.
The Chassis Tuning adjusts a bit of everything like clutches, gearbox, screen brightness and radio volume. While Power settings can be used to switch between power modes. These are usually preset by engineers before the race. Apart from that there are radio, fire extinguisher systems, overtake power boost, engine braking and drinks buttons.
How much does Lewis Hamilton’s Steering wheel cost?
Lewis Hamilton’s F1 steering wheel is customised by him. The steering wheel is made out of expensive carbon fibre, silicon, titanium and copper to reduce weight. Thus the cost of a steering wheel is estimated at around $100,000.
Hamilton had previously claimed that he had designed the modern steering wheel. When he signed with McLaren in 2007, Lewis changed the look of the wheel into something which resembles the modern version of the device.
He redesigned it again when he moved to Mercedes in 2013. Hamilton claimed that all the drivers copied his steering design and that he should have copyrighted it instead.
However, the truth has been debunked. While Hamilton did redesign it, such flat-bottom steering wheels have existed since the late 90s.
