The steering wheel of an F1 is like an on-board computer for drivers. In it, the athlete can change dozens of parameters of his car in real time to extract the car’s maximum potential in every corner. With dozens of buttons and a central screen, it is made of carbon fiber, a very resistant and light material, and as revealed by Pedro de la Rosa, ambassador of Aston Martin, the total cost of a steering wheel is very high .
In the report where MD exclusively revealed the functionality and examples of the use of each button on Fernando Alonso’s steering wheel, Pedro de la Rosa forcefully talked about how much drivers should take care of this tool to avoid extra cost for the team. .
“Its estimated cost is between 100,000 and 120,000 euros. Therefore, in order not to increase their annual costs, if a steering wheel breaks, the teams do not create a new one, but rather repair it. Each driver has his own plus one spare (4 in total per team) and “kept with great care”he declared.
“Before, when you got out of the car after a crash, for example, you left the steering wheel on top of the monocoque. Today, you leave it there but there is like a foam rubber area to leave it and rest on the soft, and in the past there was no display (the central screen) and now the steering wheels are more fragile,” argued the Catalan.
“The cost of a flyer is equal to making a background”
“And if the driver gets angry and throws it away, it’s not considered good, because there’s a lot of work behind it and it’s not a part that a team plans to work on again. The cost of the steering wheel is equivalent to making a new flat bottom around 100 or 120,000 euros. If the driver throws it and it breaks, it’s a less flat bottom you can do because there’s a budget ceiling that limits a team’s expenses during the year,” added the ambassador of the English firm.
The team requests that the buttons be the same between pilots
This explains why teams try to persuade drivers to have teammates drive on the same tire. Because if one fails, not only the spare, but also your partner’s spare steering wheel.
Although it makes it clear that there always is “non-negotiable demands” of specific buttons that a driver may be accustomed to carrying in the same place throughout his career: “There are non-negotiables that a driver demands from the steering wheel. For example, the radio button on the right, because you’ve just been using it that way for years and if you move it it can mess up the pilot.”
“The team will always try to make sure you have the exact same steering wheel as the other team-mate driver because it’s easier for them because there are fewer spare parts. But There are always buttons that pilots consider non-negotiable like the radio, the speed limiter, the neutral position, things that come out of you without thinking,” he reasoned.
Everything is thought out in detail and places are tailored to the fingers
Apart from its multiple buttons and functionality and the material from which it is created, the Formula 1 steering wheel has very high manufacturing costs because everything is thought out to the millimeter. Without walking any further, The lower rear paddles where the rider releases the clutch at start are custom made for the rider to place his gloved fingers on.. “Therefore, if you change gloves you have to be careful,” De la Rosa highlighted.
Its cost and wear and tear have increased dramatically since drivers began mounting central screens (display). And that has led teams to look for weight reduction due to the added weight of the screen. This is how De la Rosa explains it in a real MD master class.
“The steering wheel is not round to reduce its weight. In the past, it was symmetrical and the bottom part was combined. Now that’s not the case. When I was at Mclaren they told me they wanted to make the steering wheel lighter because it increased after the display was introduced. They thought of removing the bottom part. And I said: ‘Oysters! Probably not going well, especially on circuits like Monaco, on curves like Loews’. We tested it in the simulator and they got it right. We said, ‘The bottom part is useless.’ And since then, all the ruffles have been taken off the bottom,” he revealed.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
