F1 News: Lewis Hamilton Reveals Personal Design Change Has Been Adopted By Grid
Seven-time F1 world champion, Lewis Hamilton, has revealed that when he was driving for McLaren, he redesigned the shape of his steering wheel. He changed the round design to what all of the driver's use on the grid now to be flat on top with the handles on either side.
Hamilton has always shown a strong working connection with the team of engineers behind him ever since he started his F1 career back in 2007.
Speaking to CNA Luxury during a meet and greet, the Mercedes driver explained:
“What a lot of people don’t actually know is that I re-designed the steering wheel when I was at McLaren,”
“And when I came to Mercedes, I did the same thing, and the other teams have all copied the wheel.
He continued:
“All the old wheels used to be circular. Now, you’ll see there’s a top and the handle comes down and it doesn’t join at the bottom.
“I should have copyrighted it. This is something I’m really proud of; I really love working on the ergonomics of the car.
Hamilton went on to reveal that the steering wheel is not the only thing that he has redesigned, explaining:
“I also designed the seat for my cockpit; I filed it down and it’s been pretty much the same seat for [almost] 10 years with the team. We also redesigned the pedals with the engineers.
“Those are the things I love to do, as it allows me to tap into a bit of creativity.”
The shape of the steering wheel is not the only thing that Hamilton has decided to have differently, as according to Grand Tour Nation, eagled eyed fans have picked up on the way he holds the wheel at the start of the race. A video was released on TikTok recently with what is thought to be one of his race engineers explaining why he does this.
The way Hamilton works with his team of engineers has been even more apparent this season with the issues Mercedes have had with the W13 since the beginning of this year.
Before the 2022 season started, Hamilton said he was coming back in "attack mode" after losing the 2021 championship to Red Bull's Max Verstappen, however, the Mercedes has just not been competitive enough to compete for the top spot.
Mercedes are now looking ahead to getting it right again for the 2023 season and many are speculating when Hamilton will decide to retire from the sport. Although it has been rumoured that he has signed another multi-year long deal with the team, Hamilton spoke about the possibility of him retiring:
“I’ve spoken to a lot of amazing athletes over time that have been in competition towards the end of their careers, and also ones who are retired. Many said that they stopped too early or too late.
“Most said you will know when the time is right [to retire]. But because we’re so single-minded [as race car drivers] and so focused on being the best we can be, we usually lack the time to do other things.
“So when an athlete does retire, it’s like the whole world comes to a stop. So I’m trying to put these things in place so that it’s a very easy transition for me afterwards.”