Explained: Logan's steering wheel
We break down all the tech behind Sarge's steering wheel
12 Aug 2024
3 min read
One of the most important parts to Logan’s FW46 car is his steering wheel. While a steering wheel on your everyday road car controls the driving direction, an F1 steering wheel does a whole lot more and is used to control every aspect of the car from gear changes, to brake bias, to overtaking and more.
At the start of this season, Williams introduced a newly designed steering wheel for Logan and teammate Alex, with the dash moving to the wheel itself and an all-new ergonomic button placement.
Predominantly made from carbon fibre, silicon, titanium and copper, the design process of Logan’s steering wheel involves various departments from across the racing team, with input from designers, systems engineers, trackside engineers and feedback from Sarge himself. This process all goes into creating something entirely bespoke and unique for Logan that suits his preferences and driving style.
Looking at the steering wheel design, the dash screen features in the centre of the wheel and this means it is always visible for Logan to see, even when turning into corners at speed.
A variety of different buttons are placed in an ergonomic layout on the front of the wheel, allowing Sarge to access all of them just by moving his thumb. If we look at the top right of the wheel, we can see the radio buttons and volume control which Logan can use to speak to his engineers on the pit wall.
On the right side of the wheel we can also see the “BBAL” control. This is used to adjust the braking balance between the front and rear tyres. Sarge will often change this along with the entry and exit dial going into each corner to achieve the optimum car balance when turning.
Moving down to the centre of the wheel there are a number of rotary controls and switches. These are predominantly used to switch between different modes in the car. One of the most important of these is the “Strat” switch which controls the Power Unit modes and allows Logan to adjust the engine recovery system to change the balance between engine recovery and engine boost.
LED lights also feature on the front of the steering wheel and Sarge has these customized to display when he has activated both the overtake and DRS buttons.
There are more important controls looking at the back of the wheel. Firstly there is the paddle that Logan will use for race starts along with the two gear shift paddles. The gear shift paddles are some of the most used controls, with Sarge sometimes shifting gear up to 50 times in one lap.
The back also features two toggle controls that can also be used to alter the car setup for specific corners.
Finally, the bespoke outer grip of Logan’s steering wheel has been fully molded to his hands, meaning a perfect fit and maximum comfort when driving. This ensures Sarge can race at maximum speed and corner feeling fully in control.