Interesting review by Heikki himself. I'm sorry that I don't have a picture of the wheel online, maybe someone can find one and link it here?
It's not hard to learn the steering wheel and controls. Our wheel is also relatively simple. We have this big knob on the middle. Everything left from that are basically functions, which I don't have to worry about. I just turn them as the team says on the radio.
For someone, who isn't used to making adjustments with his his fingers while racing, this might seem strange. But to us drivers it's quite normal to use the controls in the middle of a corner. The only thing I have to use a lot, is the thumb controlled numbered LSD wheel. It affects the handling of the car a lot, for example if the tyres wear out or something alike. We also use the traction control control quite a lot, which is below the LSD control.
Heikki explains the controls in details
Lets start from up left.
Yellow neutral-button. When you press it, the car puts the transmission in neutral and goes to idle. You use this everytime you stop at the pits.
Blue TC Disable. You can turn the traction control completely off with this one. For example if you spin on the track and you have to throw the car around, you can't have the traction control on or the car will just turn in a big circle.
Orange buttons on both sides of the display. These are the up and down controls for the lower central control switch fuctions below.
The round multi coloured central control switch
DISPLAY: Normal display, when everything is normal. Then you can see revs and speed.
AERO: Aero limiter, which is used when you for example are just checking the track on warm-up lap. You can set the car to different speeds and for example limit the speed to 250 km/h.
DIFF: Controls the differential or LSD. When you turn to right, the inner rear wheel always travels less distance than the outer tyre. If you set the LSD really open, then car turns really well. If you set it tighter, the car has trouble turning.
EBS: Different settings for engine braking.
TC: Traction control, which has ready made maps, that change from corner to another. If for some reason the electronics stop working, I can set the traction control so that's it's the same in every corner.
TRIM: Fine tune for the engine braking, if there are minor issues.
TCS LIMITATION: Traction control limiter. The engine guys tell me what to do with this. I don't set it myself.
LIFT: The fueling system is complex and this is used to control the auxiliary fuel pumps. If there are any problems, I can turn any pump off or on.
FAIL: If some sensor stops working and affects performance, this is used to set a replacement system. The team can see the problem on their computer through telemetry. Then they tell me to find a certain sensor number and and press the blue FAIL-button under the display, which disables that sensor. If we have to use this, the performance isn't optimal anymore, but the car can still continue the race.
CLT: Clutch settings for wet and dry. Or when it gets hotter or colder and the traction varies, we use this.
On the left, the white MARKER ERROR: It's a reminder. We use this in testing, if something special happens on a lap. For example if I go over a kurb where I shouldn't, I press this. Then afterwards the computer printouts show a white line and the engineers can ask me what happened there.
On the right, the white BPL ARM: When we have a new clutch, this finds the correct biting point. After this the clutch learns the optimum biting point.
Lower left
Green OIL: We use this during the race to fill the system from external oil supply, if the engine is consuming oil.
MIX: Fuel mixture. Bigger setting is richer, gives more power and saves the engine. Lower gives less performance, but saves fuel.
THR: Highest revs. If there are no problems at the end of the race, we use lower revs to save the engine.
Lower right
SLS: Launch system control, which finds the optimum settings for current conditions. When you go to a warmup lap, you can optimize the grip and clutch positions for start.
TCS: Traction control fine tune for every corner individually. The lower the number, the less it's on. Usually around 3-4, on wet track almost all the way to the bottom.
Red radio: I press this to open the line to the team. The other way around, the line is always open from the team to the car.
Upper right
White OVERRIDE: Not used this year. Last year it raised the revs temporarily to say 20000rpm, to make overtaking easier. Then we could use it ten times per race. Now the revs are limited to 19000rpm, so even if I press the button, nothing happens.
Yellow PIT LIMITER: Drops the speed to pitlane limit. Usually I come to the line a bit below 80 km/h, so the limiter raises the speed to the allowed.
Behind the steering wheel are gear controls up and down. We also have a clutch on both sides of the wheel.
