Steering Wheels 2013

[Lycoming]

Anybody know what the grips are made of? BMW Sauber wheels in particular look to be custom moulded, but are the rest just modeled in CAD, then fabricated out of some plastic/rubber then wrapped in felt?

[ringo]

Hamilton's wheel is much simpler.
I guess as long as it's doing what he wants, it should be ok.

[raymondu999]

Yes, I knew that too (although I was under the impression it came later at the year). However, point still stands that they did not modify the steering for the f-duct, atleast not until Turkey then. Watching from the video, it remained the same steering wheel.

Look closely at the video, the wheel is intact cut off at the bottom that's the first race they raced it...there are many videos and pics you just have to google it
And also they have f-duct switch repositioned to side of cockpit
And I remember scarbs or someone else confirming they cut it off for easy access of f duct switch

Turbof1's point stands. Even in Bahrain 2010, when they were still using the knees for F-duct activation, the bottom was already chopped off. When they switched to hand-switched F-ducts, the wheel already was chopped off at the bottom.

[beelsebob]

Hamilton's wheel is much simpler.
I guess as long as it's doing what he wants, it should be ok.

One of Hamilton's first actions in the team was to dramatically simplify the wheel – he says he wants to simplify it more next year too.

[turbof1]

I didn't know F1 cars still have a reverse gear. Wasn't it forbidden to use reverse?

EDIT: apperently it is mandated to f1 cars to have one. Technical regs:

9.7 Reverse gear :
All cars must have a reverse gear operable any time during the Event by the driver when the engine is running.

What is the point of it though? They never use it.

[beelsebob]

I didn't know F1 cars still have a reverse gear. Wasn't it forbidden to use reverse?

No, it's completely allowed, and in fact required in the technical regs that the car has an accessible reverse gear. What's not allowed is driving the opposite way to the flow of cars on track, unless it's to take yourself out of a dangerous situation.

Remember – Hamilton reversed back onto the track at Australia, and was allowed because he was in an unsafe location.

[andrewf1]

Hamilton's wheel is much simpler.
I guess as long as it's doing what he wants, it should be ok.

I think Lewis' wheel just looks simpler, it has a neater aspect because the dials only show the current step/click they're on, as opposed to all of them in Nico's case. The number of buttons and dials looks the same to me. Also, the black dials are less noticeable and fade within the carbon fibre background. All in all, nice changes by Lewis, the wheel has the same number of functions but provides an easier overview with less distraction.

Here's a little side-by-side image to show what i mean:

[marcush.]

especially the purple dial is very readible...

the dials showing only the chosen parameter have a drawback in my view as you cannot see the target position wwith this approach .But then the window is moving anyways so it has no real advantage in my view ...the Hmilton approach would make entire sense if the numbers would appear in a fixed position window so you always focus on the same spot to check the setting.
I think they would be much better off doing it entirely different: One dial to preselect the parameter to change and maybe a paddle to adjust the setting and showing the change of settings in the display.

[ajdavison2]

I didn't know F1 cars still have a reverse gear. Wasn't it forbidden to use reverse?

EDIT: apperently it is mandated to f1 cars to have one. Technical regs:

9.7 Reverse gear :
All cars must have a reverse gear operable any time during the Event by the driver when the engine is running.

What is the point of it though? They never use it.

I think they rarely use it because 9/10 times it's faster to just spin the car around in 1st rather than go back through the box to reverse?

[krisfx]

I didn't know F1 cars still have a reverse gear. Wasn't it forbidden to use reverse?

EDIT: apperently it is mandated to f1 cars to have one. Technical regs:

9.7 Reverse gear :
All cars must have a reverse gear operable any time during the Event by the driver when the engine is running.

What is the point of it though? They never use it.

I imagine it'd be quite useful if you found yourself in the small runoff zones at monaco or singapore. Most of the time, though they tend to go in with enough room to spin round so I see your point!

[beelsebob]

I didn't know F1 cars still have a reverse gear. Wasn't it forbidden to use reverse?

EDIT: apperently it is mandated to f1 cars to have one. Technical regs:

9.7 Reverse gear :
All cars must have a reverse gear operable any time during the Event by the driver when the engine is running.

What is the point of it though? They never use it.

Simple, you're making the mistake of thinking that never and rarely are the same thing. They're not. Lewis reversed at Australia. The reason is to make sure that drivers have the maximum ability to get out of a dangerous situation if they can.

[turbof1]

Yeah, I came to that now :p.

I knew that during a past era, they used the reverse quite often in the pitlane (especially when they overshot the stopping point, something that happened quite often then), and that it got forbidden to do so.

I have missed Hamilton doing it in Australia. It is used, like you said, very rarely. Even Raikkonen last year at Sao Paulo just spun the car around when he got trapped at the gate (which was quite impressive due the limited room he had to do so).

[SiLo]

Why do they label the number 1-12 around the dial from the bottom left? Surely it would make sense to label them like the dial of a clock, possibly the most instinctive set of numbers known to follow the shape of a circle.

[wesley123]

Maybe because '6' is the default and therefore is in the top position. Then 1-5 are down from the Default setting and 7-12 up

[Blackout]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arpahxCxfrE

http://img4.auto-motor-und-sport.de/Mer ... 684032.jpg
http://img3.auto-motor-und-sport.de/Mer ... 684038.jpg