Ferrari make major update to Lewis Hamilton’s F1 steering wheel with special feature he used at Mercedes
LEWIS HAMILTON has received a major update to his Formula One car for the Japanese Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver has endured a mixed start with his new team, winning the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint Race but scoring just one championship point during the two Sunday feature races.
However, the seven-time F1 world champion will see a welcome upgrade for this weekend’s race with a feature brought over from his old team Mercedes.
Hamilton has already been forced to hold a meeting with race engineer, Riccardo Adami, to outline what information he wants passed over from the pit wall.
He has been consistently asking for changes to his car configuration, but has now seen a huge adjustment made to his steering wheel with new software being added to give him direct access to more data.
Motorsport revealed how Hamilton’s steering wheel in the SF-25 had been given a new lever for the clutch and gear shift.
But a fresh report has detailed how Ferrari have tried to replicate the automation seen on Hamilton’s Mercedes steering wheel on to their own with a specially developed software.
In addition to the classic indicators seen on an F1 steering wheel such as speed, gear, time and delta, Hamilton’s wheel features information on the race screen including engine mappings used.
The upper left of the screen has an indicator of the SOC (hybrid management) and the ENG engine map used so he is always aware of which configuration is being used.
At Mercedes much of the Power Unit information was linked to a single STRAT lever located in the lower part of the steering wheel which was grouped together into three areas.
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At Ferrari many of these elements were split, with the simplified Mercedes model being another change Hamilton has asked for.
Elsewhere, under the box that indicates engine mapping, there is a space dedicated to what Ferrari call “Multi”.
This gives Hamilton access to secondary engine settings which he is said to have always wanted access to.
The changes have not been implemented for Scuderia team-mate Charles Leclerc, who prefers to have less data on his screen during a lap.
Hamilton finished in P4 in both practice sessions on Friday.
FP2 was hit by chaos as FOUR red flags were waved thanks to a huge 185mph crash by Alpine rookie Jack Doohan and Fernando Alonso beaching his Aston Martin before two trackside grass fires.
Elsewhere, the driver Hamilton replaced at Ferrari, Carlos Sainz, had an embarrassing gaffe with Williams as he missed his box to change tyres – blasting “oh s***” down the team radio as he realised.