Try keeping track of which button does what at 200 mph.
By Gregory Leporati
Nov. 15 at 7:30 a.m.
Comment on this storyAdd to your saved storiesThe steering wheel of a Formula One car looks, well … nothing much like a conventional steering wheel. In fact, new fans of the sport might mistake it for a video game controller or a prop from a science-fiction movie, with buttons and knobs filling nearly every inch of its surface.
Even Formula One drivers find the steering wheel intimidating when they first enter the sport.
“When you make the jump to Formula One, it feels like you become more like an engineer than a racing driver in some ways — and the steering wheel is definitely an example of that,” said Alex Albon, a driver for the Williams Racing team.
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Now in his fifth season of Formula One, the 27-year-old Albon has emerged as one of the sport’s most consistent racers, frequently scoring points even though his Williams car is not a top performing car such as Red Bull or Mercedes. But, he admits, it took him some time early in his career to master the nuances of the steering wheel.
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“[When you] join the team, they give you a booklet, and it’s this thick,” he explained, holding his fingers about six inches apart, “[describing] what the steering wheel does.”
During a typical race, Albon’s engineer, James Urwin, speaks to him via radio about which engine modes to engage and what braking adjustments he needs to make, all of which require quick knob turns and button presses.
There are hundreds of configurations possible when using combinations of the various dials and buttons, Urwin noted. Mastering these controls could make the difference between a driver scoring points or finishing near the bottom of any given race.
“You won’t gain time from it, but you can certainly lose time if you get it wrong,” Urwin said.
Because a Formula One car moves so fast, with top speeds well over 200 mph, Urwin typically relays complex instructions to Albon shortly before a long straightaway. This allows Albon to finish the configurations while on the straight, when he isn’t turning the steering wheel through a corner.
And although Albon said many of the buttons feel like “muscle memory” for him, a few of the dials require him to look down to make sure he sets them to the right position.
“I’m good, but I’m not that good,” he laughed.
The Washington Post sat down with Albon and Urwin to demystify the complex Formula One steering wheel and break down some of the most frequently used buttons and dials.
The surface of the Williams wheel is filled with more than 18 inputs, each with a specific function to optimize the car’s time under any scenario. The layout allows Albon to quickly adjust engine modes, brake balance, stability and a host of other settings on the fly as he navigates the complex twists and turns of each Formula One racetrack.
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Also known as the “Global Override,” the GO Dial provides something of a cheat sheet for drivers, quickly adjusting the car’s engine mapping and brake settings based on various race scenarios — such as the start of the race, safety car periods and cool-down laps.
According to Urwin, this shortcut dial became standard for Formula One teams around 2016, when the sport briefly put restrictions on radio communications.
“We made it simplistic,” he said. “So if the radio failed and you weren’t able to talk, it’s sort of a, let’s call it, ‘idiot-proof’ way of driving.”
Even after the communications ban was lifted about a year later, teams found these dials so useful that they remain standard today.
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The green dial on the left — MF-A — changes what information is displayed on the LCD screen in front of the driver. (The LCD of the Williams car is built into the chassis, whereas other teams have the LCD display on the actual steering wheel itself).
The blue dial on the right — MF-B — adjusts engine settings. There are nine different engine parameters, although Urwin noted there are sub-settings buried beneath each one.
On a particular race weekend, Albon might discover during a practice session that he can take a certain corner at a more flat-out speed, with full battery deployment; in that case, he would adjust his dial to a higher engine-setting number while entering that corner.
For both switches, the red “DEF” (default) option is the most commonly used configuration during a race.
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These buttons work in conjunction with the MF-A and MF-B dials and select sub-positions within those settings. For example: Urwin may come on the radio and ask Albon to switch to “green two, position seven.” Albon will then click the MF-A onto position two and press the plus button seven times.
Albon noted that, as a result of this, there are technically hundreds of possible combinations of knob positions and button presses, requiring a good deal of mental and physical work on the driver’s part to get these configurations right — all while steering the car.
“You do the knob with one hand then press the button with the other,” Albon said.
After Albon rotates the dials and hits the plus or minus buttons appropriately, he pushes the “OK" button to confirm those new settings. “It’s just [like hitting] enter on the keyboard,” Urwin said.
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This button — the pit limiter — ensures the car cannot exceed the speed limit of the pitlane (typically slower than 50 mph, though it varies with each particular circuit). According to Albon, the button is sunken slightly to lessen the chances a driver could press it by mistake while gliding his hands across the wheel.
“You see how close it is to your thumb,” Albon said. “You want easy access, but you don’t want to run the risk of accidentally hitting it.”
In the event that Albon does mistakenly press it, Urwin notes there are safeguards in place to prevent total disaster. (For example, it only engages when the car is in a lower gear.)
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When Albon presses this button — short for ‘Radio’ — red lights flash above the GO dial, which indicates his radio message is being broadcast back to his engineer. And while TV coverage typically lets audiences hear some of the more colorful radio messages, engineers are more often relaying complex instructions to the drivers about switching to certain engine modes or balancing the brakes.
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These knobs control the differential — often referred to as the “diff” — of the car. Essentially, it controls the difference in how the tires rotate from one another, impacting the stability of the car through corners and on straights. “The way we set it up, the higher the number, the more stable the car,” Albon said. Numbers on each dial go from 1 through 12.
“In a race … we tend to start around five or six, in the middle,” he continued. “If we get rear tire degradation, we’ll close them up and go higher on the number to stabilize. And if we go lower on the degradation, we’ll lower it. So it’s a balancing tool.”
The knob on the top left controls the differential on a corner entry, while the red knob on the top right impacts the differential in the middle of a turn.
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These buttons allow Albon to change the brake bias in the front and the rear of the car. Essentially, this impacts the ratio of the braking force that goes to either your front or back tires, which can impact stability depending on the track conditions.
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This button stands for “brake warming,” which can help provide grip.
The button also controls “anti,” a function Albon said allows him to quickly stop his battery deployment. Throughout a race, the battery can provide a momentary boost during an overtake, but drivers seek to conserve it for only the most useful opportunities.
When the car is at full throttle, the battery will automatically deploy, providing a momentary boost during a potential overtake. But battery is also finite, so drivers seek to conserve it for only the most useful opportunities.
“If I see that the move isn’t on and I’m wasting battery for no reason … I’ll hit the ‘anti’ to cut it and not waste any more battery on an overtake that I’ll never get,” he explained.
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