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I need some help...urgently. The image linked to below is of a Ferrari F1 steering wheel, and I'm trying to find out what all of the various buttons, switches, dials, and screens do. I found some explanation here: http://www.f1technical.net/article30.html. But it's not quite enough for my needs, nor does that steering wheel perfectly match up with the one here.
If anyone can help me out—either with an explanation of the buttons (even if it's only one or two) or point me in the direction of somewhere I can get the info—I'd be mighty grateful.
N - neutral
L - pit lane limiter
Below L, the yellow button is the radio.
F/A - adjusts fuel/air ratio
I think LOC refers to differential lock settings. There are probably presets for different corners.
The bottom left adjusts how strong the traction control (TC button) is set.
There are IN and OUT dials. I dunno if they are related to either differential lock settings, or TC settings, or both, but they probably refer to corner entry and exit.
The dials in the middle allow the driver to switch pages of data and which type of data to select on screen. Most likely the + and - signs are to adjust parameters.
The pink dial limits the cars revs, in a way unlike the pit lane limiter
E probably is the emergency light, in case of rain, safety lap, etc
That white button on the bottom right seems to be the drink button
That’s the Barrichello keyboard (yellow circles around the “+” & “-“) :
Dials
From left up, anticlockwise
OUT : differential, corner exit.
IN : differential, corner entry
TC : TC... on MS wheel it’s labelled WS = wheel spin. Same function different ways to achieve it, if RB wants to increase TC intervention he rotates the dial towards + while MS to achieve the same effect rotates the dial toward – (reducing wheel spin). The same difference of approach applies to a few other parameters.
Rev : sets the rev limiter, positions U3,U2,U1, –2, –1,0,1,2, Ov
EBL : engine brake low, it sets the amount of “push” from the engine while off the throttle, MS has the label TQ and follows a different logic, as seen for TC.
LOC : selects the differential parameter (labels are, from left : DL, DX, DM, DI, TM, T, TX, EL, E, EH, just in case you wanna guess what they mean...).
MS instead of the OUT has a LOC1 with 10 positions and instead of the LOC has a LOC2 with 7 positions. That’s because MS plays a lot more with the differential parameters compared with RB, hence he prefers to have the settings easily available on dials instead of looking for them in the menus.
Buttons :
N : neutral
Ov : while pushed sets the rev limiter to the highest limit.
Bf : something to do with the start, probably related with the biting point but I’m not sure
F/A : I’ve two different sources... one says that the button is to signal that fuel is low and the driver is coming in the pits, the other says that it’s to open the cover over the fuel rig connector (MS has a blue button with an F, same function)
Oil : activates the oil auxiliary pump
E : turns off the engine
SC : activates a particular engine map and settings for safety car period, possibly also for the in lap in qualifying.
Drink : orange juice for MS and a Cuba Libre for RB.
Bo : something to do with the start, don’t know more, bo sounds as boost, let’s say turbo boost...
Radio : well...
L : speed limiter
The “+” and “–“ buttons are to modify a parameter (you select which one with the central dials), say a given position for the TC, only temporarily and with more ease (just using the thumbs) so you can do it for just 1 corner and rapidly get back to the previous setting for other corners. Rotating the dials on the contrary you make a permanent modification.
Some people say that rotating the keyboard you can also make the front wheels steer left or right. I don’t know if it’s true but I think that it’s probably just a collateral and unwanted effect.
has under the technical section (at least a while ago) an article about the steering wheel, and all the buttons were explained with a picture of the mclaren steering wheel. Pretty comprehensive IMO.
McLaren11 wrote:
I was under the impression that the fuel flap was automatically opened whenever the pit lane speed limiter was selected.
I believe it too, but as I said I have two sources saying two different things for that button so I posted both. It should be easy to solve the “mystery” anyway, we just have to look at the camera car of a Ferrari entering the pits and see if the driver pushes two buttons or just the L one.
McLaren11 wrote:
Also, wouldn’t it be rather difficult to go thru menus while running a race? I wonder if they could do a voice controlled thing rather than knobs.
I don’t think they play often with menus during the race, it’s probably mainly for setup during practice or in particular situations, in normal conditions they in theory don’t have to change many things, MS has additional knobs exactly to avoid the menus (anyway, I don’t expect the menu to be really huge, just a few things). Anyway I wouldn’t discount MS “love” for buttons... I’m not kidding, consider that the day before the launch of the F2003GA, when mechanics were completing the car, MS insisted to be the one sitting inside the car and push the buttons to verify everything was working... like a kid the Christmas morning...
At the end I just remembered the images from the on board of MS “overtaking” Klien in Shangai last year, when they touched ALL the lights on the MS steering wheel turned on. I wouldn’t be surprised to know that the display was reading “TILT”.
