Lewis Hamilton reveals that he re-designed the F1 steering wheel in the Mercedes team and he had done the same at McLaren.
7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton revealed that he redesigned the F1 steering wheel that all the teams use now.
Speaking to the CNA Luxury, Hamilton talked about his love for working on the ergonomics of the car that he drives. He disclosed that when he made his debut in F1 with McLaren he re-designed the steering wheel and then he did the same at Mercedes.
#FrenchGP 🇫🇷: Nyck De Vries says Lewis Hamilton was connected to the radio during his practice session, said he was having some issues with lock-ups and Lewis jumped in to give him some tips with the steering wheel and how to overcome those.
— deni (@fiagirly) July 22, 2022
The Briton explained that earlier all the wheels used to be circular, now there’s a top and the handle comes down and it doesn’t join at the bottom.
Hamilton takes pride in having made the changes and said that he should have copyrighted it before the other teams started copying it.
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How do F1 steering wheels work?
An average F1 wheel has about 25 buttons for the drivers to use to get their car around the track smoothly.
At least five of these buttons help the drivers to control the braking system of the car from the front to the rear and vice versa. It helps them optimise the break balance on the corners, switch through the amount of engine braking and adjust the brake migration.
Another 3 switches help the driver in controlling the amount of torque transfer between the rear wheels. This helps the car in making a smooth dive into the entry, the apex and the exit of the corner.
The rest of the buttons have various uses from switching through the data that is displayed on the screen, accessing the radio and pit lane limiter to adjusting the setting of the power unit.
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Lewis Hamilton also designed seats for his cockpit
Apart from the redesigning of the steering wheel, the 7-time world champion also designed the seat of his cockpit in Mercedes so as to fit his suitability. He also helped the engineers in redesigning the pedals.
After all, he is the one who has to drive behind the wheels for about an hour or so around high-speed corners and traffic on the track.
Hamilton revealed that the team has been using pretty much the same design for about 10 years now. He said that doing such things helps him tap into his creativity.
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