So this is our current steering wheel
that we're racing this year basically
this is what the driver used to control
absolutely everything on the car short
of the brake and throttle. You've got a
carbon-fiber body and then on the front
we've got a rapid prototype front which
means that if we do want to make any
changes it's reasonably quick and cheap
to do it it takes about a week to put
them together inside there's the actual
obviously you've got the actual
dashboard in here but there's also
another unit in there called the SIU
these are all parts which is supplied by
McLaren in their parts that we have to
use it's dictated by the FIA and there's
an awful lot of wiring inside this
steering wheel so once we've actually
made it we then have to test it just to
make sure that it is fully signed off
before we send it to the track.
The main thing you'll see is there's the
dashboard in the middle and this is
where it gets all of the information he
needs went on track on a normal lap when
he's driving around he'll have the lap
time, he'll have the speed of the car
the gear number, he can press this
button and it'll bring up what the tire
temperatures are, what the brake
temperatures are doing, how much fuels
left in the car and all sorts of other
information that he needs to sort of
have an optimized lap. Our main switch
that we use is this one which is what
we call a run switch and this changes
all sorts of settings on the engine so
we get more power, we can change the fuel
consumption and we can change the
deployment of the earth system and so
there's all sorts of different modes on here.
As he leaves the garage and have a
live start mode and then he'll do a
track to start at the end of pit lane
then as soon as he leaves the pit lane
but then move that to that out position
then just as you come around to the end
of the lap if we're in practice then
you'll move it into practice which then
sets the earth system and all the brake
balance and everything for an all
practice lap if we're in qualifying then
you put it into qualifying mode and that
gives absolute maximum power we've also
got this switch which is a menu switch
so each position in here has 12 settings
with it there's 12 settings on each one
so that 144 settings just in that switch
alone which he then can change with
these buttons on these paddles on the
back of the steering wheel we mainly use
this if there's a problem with the car
we'll get on the radio to them and say
move this to reference lap and then go
to position 3 and then it'll do that
this switch controls the mode so that's
how we control the deployment from the
earth system so in mode one that's
that's a full qualifying mode that's
basically you get all deployment all the
time use as much energy as possible for
absolutely optimize that time and
there's twelve different modes there
depending on the situation.
Going on from there we have a tire switch which
basically just sets up the car depending
on if you've got dry tires wet tires or
intermediate tires. If he's coming into the
pit slow down and they'll press the pit
limiter button and as a car stays down
he'll go down through the gears and
eventually press neutral and come to a
stop.
Two of the switches here control the
differential now in a most modern cars
you have a thing called an open
differential and what that means is that
on the axle that's driving the car
forward wheels can turn independently of
each other
one of the things that a lot of sort of
hard forms cars have is a limited slip
differential if you try and combine the
two things so if you want to go in a
tight corner you need to have a big
differential between the wheel speeds
and if you want to go around a very wide
open corner you don't have a very big
differential speed so what they'll do is
you're going down straight the
differential is locked and then as you
enter the corner you unlock the
differential so that the car can
actually turn in and then you lock the
differential again is that you exit the
corner and it's how much we lock and
unlock that changes the balance of the car.
Depending on what track you go to
you've got very tight corners and very
sort of wide open corners so we have
these two buttons which actually
override the differential switch so
those get used two three or four times a lap.
The other switch which we've got here is
talk so this basically changes the on
throttle pedal map and then depending on
what position that switch is it will
change how that feels to the driver the
other thing that goes with that as well
as we've got a switch here called axle
and what that does is it changes the
amount that we changed the brake balance
through the corner on the back we have
the two gear shifter paddles so presses
that shift dirt presses that shift down
there are these two panels as well
which will basically change some of the
other settings but we usually use these
for brake balance so he'll change a
brake balance two or three times a lap
these paddles down here the clutch
paddles so at the beginning of the race
he has to control the clutch and control
the torque so basically drop it to
around halfway which is the bite point
and any release it and try not to get
wheel spin.
This is a button called pick
confirm to let us know that he's coming
into the pits this is the DRS button so
if he's trying to overtake somebody you
press that button it opened wing last
two buttons that we've got here is the
energy button so that just gives an
extra boost less so he's trying to
overtake somebody and he presses that
and gives you more deployment from the
earth system and the talking button so
when he wants to complain about
something on the car he can tell us all
of his complaints and then we'll try and
work out how to fix it.
In terms of cost, you're looking in the region
of about
10,000 pounds to build one of these and
that doesn't include development cost
that's just the cost of the parts.
