James Vowles says it isn’t too difficult to adjust the display after Williams changed its positioning onto the steering wheel for F1 2024.
For decades, Williams have put their steering wheel display fixed onto the car in the cockpit. They have defended the same for years despite its rivals having changed already and put the display onto the steering wheel itself for better viewing.
But from 2024 season onward, Williams ditched its long-standing practice and put the display onto the steering wheel itself. There were problems for both Logan Sargeant and Alexander Albon in Bahrain, but both played it down to teething issues.
In fact, Sargeant noted that they will have a better fix for its steering wheel in Melbourne after a temporary one in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The American thinks the new way is better for them after they faced troubles last year especially during VSC and SC periods.
“There was a short-term fix for Saudi Arabia and a permanent long-term fix coming in Melbourne,” said Sargeant to media. “It wasn’t out of the blue. We had the same problem in the second run of quali in Bahrain, but not to the same extent as in the race. We obviously thought we fixed it. We didn’t.
“But certainly, it was fixed for Saudi Arabia. It’s quite a huge difference. You know, from driving the old one to driving the new one for the first time, it’s very visually different. The feeling of the steering wheel through your hands, through a corner, the way it rotates is very different. And definitely takes some time.
“But I think it’s definitely the right direction. We struggled a lot last year with VSC, safety cars, following delta times, and stuff like that. You need to be able to see it at all times. There’s so much that can be won or lost with it, just by being able to see the dash. So I think it’s a very big improvement,” summed up Sargeant.
The change was easy to put in place as per Vowles but the electronics is complicated underneath which is what caused some of the issues and what they are fixing. “In terms of putting it in place, quite easy, you just click it in, but in terms of the electronics underneath, fairly complicated,” he said.
“As with everything on the car, when you’re completely going from ground zero back up, which is what was happening with that steering wheel, it’s an all new design, it is very easy to introduce slight issues as a result of it. With the car now, we can put it onto a site called a VTT, a Virtual Track Test, test systems, cooling, radiators.
“With steering wheels, you can run it on the DIL, the Driver in the Loop simulator, but there’s no vibration or otherwise and it’s only really when you’re running an angle on the track that you can start to explore some of those features,” summed up Vowles.
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