How direct/specific do steering wheel settings need to be? Eg. Are macros allowed?

[u/mrbitterpants]

Can macros be created to execute a series of settings changes with a single driver input? Eg. A ‘turn 4’ macro that changes brake balance, differential and battery deployment with one button press? Or must each driver input only affect one parameter?

I’m guessing that the engine mode settings change multiple parameters within the engine at once so maybe macros are possible for other settings?

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[u/Magnet50]

Many years ago, at an F1 race at Indianapolis, I was using my scanner to find team communications. I found McLaren, David Coulthard’s engineer and DC.

We were sitting near the entry to T1 and DC had just passed. His engineer said something like “David, turn A anticlockwise to 4, then turn D clockwise to 6 and press button G.” And then he repeated the instruction.

A few seconds later, his engineer, sounding exasperated, called “Box box now David.”

Then DC, in his wonderful Scottish accent replied “Look, I appreciate your need for data, but please don’t give me complex instructions to make changes when I am in the twisty bits.

[u/andruby → u/Magnet50]

Fully read that in DC’s voice. Awesome that you could hear their comms

[u/Magnet50 → u/andruby]

But…I screwed myself over. My family and I flew out from Indianapolis on the Monday following a race, every race at Indy. We flew American Airlines, same as McLaren. Walking in the terminal there would be a line of mostly young, mostly white young men dressed in identical outfits, with identical carry on sized bags. All of it branded “Hugo Boss.” So that was McLaren (when Ron Dennis was in charge).

DC had retired from the race, the same one I discussed above. And I had heard it, live “David, the gearbox is failing, box now to retire the car.” And DC did what he was told.

The teams were usually happy to chat and as I stood in line I said “Shame about David’s gearbox…” and the McLaren guy I was talking with said “What? We haven’t said why he retired,” and I said, well I was listening in on your radio frequencies. So he called another guy over and had me repeat, and I told him about the twisty bits and even told them the frequency, 437.5 MHz.

The next year I get there and find their same telemetry channels (which make a weird pulsing tone) but on the voice channels, I only heard a sync-tone and then a digital hiss. I used to work in Signal Intelligence and I knew this was the sound of digital encrypted speech.

Of course, the FIA banned encrypted speech later.

[u/Onoben4 → u/Magnet50]

"Gentlemen, a short view back to the past. Thirty years ago, Niki Lauda told us ‘take a monkey, place him into the cockpit and he is able to drive the car.’ Thirty years later, Sebastian told us ‘I had to start my car like a computer, it’s very complicated.’ And Nico Rosberg said that during the race – I don’t remember what race - he pressed the wrong button on the wheel. Question for you both: is Formula One driving today too complicated with twenty and more buttons on the wheel, are you too much under effort, under pressure? What are your wishes for the future concerning the technical programme during the race? Less buttons, more? Or less and more communication with your engineers?"

[u/Magnet50 → u/Onoben4]

From my prospective, the ‘easy’ answer is that if there are changes to the car, be it battery deployment, rate of charge, differentials, brake bias, engine mode, then it should be controlled solely by the driver, with prompting by the engineer.

So that means no corner by corner planning and engine software design for battery deployment.

But that genie is out of the bottle.

Given the authority to make changes, I would reduce the weight and size of the car and simplify the control inputs.

I get that “manufacturers” want the F1 cars to more mirror their modern production cars. And we are down to but two real manufacturers. McLaren makes cars but get their engines from Mercedes. Alpine, ditto. Ford will use, if I have this correct, Honda engines. And GM will use Ferrari.

But no modern car, ICE Hybrids, or EVs will do things like plan battery deployment based on route. I am sure Tesla will claim they do, but they seem to lie about plenty of things.

So I would make battery deployment linear based on throttle position and gain and recharging based throttle off regeneration from the rear axle.

But all this is mental masturbation. As I said, the genie is out of the bottle and won’t go back in unless the cost cap is reduced to such an extent that teams would be forced to cut workforce.

[u/_usernamepassword_]

I think they’re allowed, the issue is these setting change over a tires life and what compound they’re on. Otherwise they’d likely already just have a “turn the knob for the next corners settings” already in place

[u/ImReverse_Giraffe → u/_usernamepassword_]

They're allowed a certain number of presets.

[u/mrbitterpants → u/_usernamepassword_]

Good point. So maybe macros are allowed but not very useful I guess.

[u/_usernamepassword_ → u/mrbitterpants]

If memory serves me correctly, I remember someone walking through their wheel and mentioning it has a “favorite switch” which does go to a preset thing. Again though, if it were practical to just do this for ever corner, I think itd be done already

[u/TheMadFlyentist → u/_usernamepassword_]

In a recent video by Yelistener on YouTube he breaks down an old Rosberg pole lap and explains there is a button on the wheel for a brake balance preset, or a "favorite switch" as you put it.

Toggling the button switches between the preset and whatever the current values are set to on the wheel itself.

[u/ImReverse_Giraffe → u/_usernamepassword_]

They're allowed a certain number of presets.

[u/ImReverse_Giraffe]

They're allowed a certain number of preset changes like that. It's not many, like 3-5.

[u/ghrrrrowl]

I remember when they used to have a button they’d push when going into certain corners (usually hairpins), that was pre-programmed to do all the required down shifting and diff settings for that specific corner, automatically

(They also used to run full automatic up shifts for the whole lap).

ABS, traction control, self levelling ride height, live pit-to-car suspension, brake and engine map adjustments during race laps….the only thing missing in the 90s was active aero and that’s because it was old tech and banned in the 70s

[u/mrbitterpants → u/ghrrrrowl]

I know remote changes of the car from the pits aren’t allowed but it’d be kinda neat if they had enough compute power in the car to process all the sensor data locally and determine the best car settings per mini sector and just have the driver hit OK or Cancel.

[u/ghrrrrowl → u/mrbitterpants]

Oh they certainly have enough onboard computing power…tape a smartphone to the dash would be enough. There must be regulation issues.

[u/cafk]

As long as it's the driver doing the changes - which they do through presets, it's allowed - if something is automated (i.e. reset) then they can get disqualified, like Renault did in 2019 at Japanese GP: https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/renault-disqualified-japanese-gp-after-illegal-brake-system-spotted-tv/

The core rule is: "drivers must drive the car alone and unaided." So anything that isn't explicitly allowed in regulations is prohibited.

[u/xc_racer → u/cafk]

Was just going to post this. Racing Point thought it was an automatic brake balance adjustment; it wasn't automatically adjusting it, but rather would automatically switch it between corners. The drivers still had to manually adjust the balance for each corner.

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[u/Gproto32]

If I remember correctly there are a variety of battery deployment maps the teams use, which are predefined and according to Russell's Q3 (?) in Qatar, rely on GPS. That is similar to a macro, but for the rest of the settings there is this video of Alonso adjusting everything during a Q3 lap. He clearly adjusts brake balance but also note the "ENTR", "MID" and "BSHP" settings. The first and second refer to the differential on corner entry and mid corner respectively while the latter is possibly the same to what Mercedes refers to as brake migration, or how the balance changes during corner entry.

These actively change the parameters the teams are allowed without further driver input, but for a specific corner the driver decides which is optimal. Given that the hybrid deployment maps work well with GPS most of the time it wouldn't be difficult to predefine those settings in the same way. Either that is not allowed by the rules, or it isn't optimal since those settings can change depending on conditions, tire wear and fuel load, or even the driver's preference which would explain why it wasn't implemented even in the predictable conditions of Qatar 2021.

[u/JetFan2004]

Yes they can, and it’s visible on many teams. At the very least I can point you toward seeing them (though can’t be 100% sure which settings like BBAL/Diff/Shape/EB they use per race as it won’t appear)

Ferrari: Blue or Red light in left status bar, Yellow toggle (which appears to be the “slow” speed toggle) on the right. 2 presets.

McLaren: 2 Green lights on the left of the rpm bar, 2 blue lights on the right of the rpm bar. 2 presets that I could see.

Rest of the grid I haven’t researched as much but Mercedes, VCARB, Aston, and Williams all have some form on the dash and Red Bull, Sauber, and Haas I think all use a different set of lights.

I wouldn’t quote myself for these being 100% right but it’s what I use to reference.

[u/ImReverse_Giraffe]

They're allowed a certain number of preset changes like that. It's not many, like 3-5.