
A Look at the Formula 1 Steering Wheel - dmmalam
http://www.wired.com/2014/05/formula-1-steering-wheels/?mbid=social_fb
======
cl8ton
A Bit Off Topic: If anyone has interest in how it was before smart steering
wheels, here is a vid clip of the master Ayrton Senna at Monaco in real-time
as it happened.

[http://youtu.be/rh6bwZ4ooTI](http://youtu.be/rh6bwZ4ooTI)

It is deemed the best in car F1 vid of all times by fans. It is raw and not
sped up.

~~~
EC1
That's unreal. I remember watching the Senna documentary and at the end of one
of the races they had to pry him out of his car, starting with his fingers.
His teammates were giving him pats on the back and he just screamed out not to
touch him.

Insane.

~~~
cl8ton
Forearm and leg pump battling lateral G forces, current day Fernando
Alonso/Ferrari describes this during his race season if you following him.

During the Senna video above, he takes his hand off the steering wheel with 2+
lateral G’s to shift which is insane also. Today’s drivers paddle shift with
both hands on the wheel.

~~~
gsnedders
And back in Senna's day relatively little attention was paid to the physical
performance of the driver — nowadays all the drivers spend far, far more time
on their fitness.

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noonespecial
Its an interesting UI case. Everything happens so fast, there is no time for
modality so every function needs to be directly accessible at the top layer.
You end up with a steering-wheel full of single purpose buttons and knobs.

It kind of feels like the old days when you'd get "mission control syndrome"
because the controls were tied to actual relays that actuated functions so
they could only do one thing. In this case, its entirely justified.

~~~
robmcm
I imagine that the drivers can't look at the wheel when they are using it, so
everything has to be distinguishable by touch.

This happened only the other day to Maldonado:
[http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/24231/9271393/pastor-
maldo...](http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/24231/9271393/pastor-maldonado-
takes-blame-for-mistakes-after-crash-follows-earlier-spin-in-china)

>Maldonado confirmed he had been looking down at the steering wheel at the
time and simply took a wrong turn: "I was on the steering wheel. Too much to
do in the out laps. After out laps it's okay."

~~~
jonathansizz
It's difficult to draw conclusions using Maldonado, since he's a pay driver
with a well-established reputation for incompetence.

Lotus are getting what they deserve for hiring him for his money over more
skilled drivers who could have helped move the team forward.

~~~
CWuestefeld
While I'm not his biggest fan, I don't think you can fairly call him
incompetent. Anybody with a win and a pole position next to their name can't
be considered incompetent.

~~~
jonathansizz
If you say so. In today's Spanish grand prix he wrote off his car during
qualifying, and then smashed into Gutierrez during the race, receiving more
penalties, and adding to his already extensive record of crashing.

------
lr
Video of the 2014 Ferrari Steering Wheel:
[http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2014/0/1180.html](http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2014/0/1180.html)

~~~
RogerL
This just breaks my brain. I get confused if I accidentally hit the turn
signal while pulling out of a parking spot, and end up turning on the wipers
or something. How they manage all of that at such high speeds with such
consistency is truly a marvel.

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AndrewKemendo
One thing that is curious to me is that the display for speed takes a
significant portion of the screen space. I would imagine that knowing speed
would be incidental information for a race car driver, given that there are no
speed limits. I suppose that they might have marks to hit for straightaways or
something to limit wear on the engine - but in those cases a simple LED or
flash would be more effective for that.

~~~
mark242
The reason that -- at least on the Sauber -- the speed is displayed so large
is that it's the number that's changing the most rapidly. It isn't a primary
piece of information, but when the car is accelerating away from a corner, the
driver needs to be able to discern acceleration by way of more than just the
seat of his or her pants. With the immense amount of torque available this
year, being able to optimize that acceleration out of a corner is absolutely
paramount.

The "marks to hit for straightaways or (...)" are visual indicators on the
sides of the track, showing the distance to the corner. Part of what makes
these drivers the best in the world are that they're able to hit -- mostly --
the exact same braking spot coming from 300kph down to 60kph lap after lap
after lap, without a computer telling them when to brake.

Coincidentally, that row of LEDs on the top of the wheel is supposed to tell
drivers when to shift, but teams found out a long time ago that the visual
indicator wasn't being processed fast enough by the drivers' brains, so now
drivers get a little beep in their ear when they're supposed to up/downshift.

~~~
Kudos
> Coincidentally, that row of LEDs on the top of the wheel is supposed to tell
> drivers when to shift, but teams found out a long time ago that the visual
> indicator wasn't being processed fast enough by the drivers' brains, so now
> drivers get a little beep in their ear when they're supposed to
> up/downshift.

I'd wondered where those went, it's amazing what they optimize to buy
milliseconds per lap.

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beachstartup
i'm surprised f1 topics don't come up on HN more often. it's an incredible
engineering field and has driven the development and adaptation of basically
every consumer automobile safety and performance feature for decades.

------
ars
I'm a little skeptical that a human can do a better job on these than a
computer. I guess the computer doesn't know the drivers intent, so he needs to
control things that will change after his next action (speed up/down, etc).

But I wonder if instead of controlling the parameters directly, instead you
switch to an intent based system where you tell the computer what you are
going to do.

Makes me ponder about computerized auto racing - same kind of car, track, and
rules - just with a computer at the wheel. Then even on a human race the car
pretends it was driving and adjusts things based on what it would do with the
assumption the human would do the same (or close enough).

~~~
NamTaf
As the sibling said, it's about pushing more responsibility back on the
driver. You're absolutely right that a computer would do a better job for many
of the functions.

One example is that they removed traction control from the cars a few seasons
ago. Why? Because it made it easier for the drivers to drive optimally, but in
doing so reduced the entertainment and variability of how the race unfolds. By
removing it, it gives more chances for the driver to screw up and for the race
to change. It's more exciting for the spectator.

It was broadly held by many fans some years ago that F1 was becoming too
robotic and taking all the fun and variety out of it. The race depended more
on the tech that the team could jam in to the car, and the driver was really
just a glorified program to run the basic functions. By making driver skill a
bigger slice of the 'what it takes to win' pie, it made it more exciting to
follow as a fan.

~~~
bobbles
Driverless F1 cars in a race... now that would be an interesting competition

~~~
noir_lord
To us.

I'm not convinced that it would be everyone, the "problem" with F1 over the
last few years is that the personality and style of the drivers has taken a
backseat to the technology.

I find the technology fascinating but many of the races boring.

------
Theodores
Interesting that there is a supply chain for these parts, i.e. McLaren sell
instrumentation goodies to their rivals. Volume levels cannot be that high,
even if the margins are good. Why don't they keep things to themselves?

With the steering wheel moving it looks like digital rather than an analogue
style gauge is how information gets best presented as far as speed is
concerned.

Note that when Lewis Hamilton moved to Mercedes he got the engineers to strip
back the 30+ knobs and buttons to be something more like what you might find
on a consumer steering wheel for an F1 game. Hence I don't think the featured
steering wheel is optimal or likely to be the best.

~~~
pedrocr
>Note that when Lewis Hamilton moved to Mercedes he got the engineers to strip
back the 30+ knobs and buttons to be something more like what you might find
on a consumer steering wheel for an F1 game.

Apparently he removed 4 knobs, from 31 to 27, so not very significant. He also
has a supposedly useless red X button by his left thumb. My theory is that
it's the "x-factor" button that he pushes when he's really trying. Sort of
like when Valentino Rossi starts hanging his leg out in the corners when he's
trying to go really fast, apparently useless for balance under breaking but
probably helps mentally.

[http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1/lewis-hamilton-
makes...](http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1/lewis-hamilton-makes-
mercedes-reduce-1706059)

~~~
hvidgaard
The "X button" could be a button to help him react properly. I know he is a
world class driver, but when something unforeseen happens, all people react
instinctively, rather than consciously. A way to combat this is to train a
movement, like slamming the foot in the footrest, or pressing a button. It
buys you that fraction of a second to assess the situation and act
consciously, rather than just react.

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joshu
Curiously, modern driver's cars are removing increasingly more from the
steering wheel. It can be a distraction on the track.

~~~
sclangdon
And instead put touch-screen media centres, which aren't distracting at all...

~~~
joshu
At least on the McLaren you can turn it off very easily.

