THE REBELLION STEERING WHEEL

This weekend, the Rebellions will be fighting for their honour at Le Mans 24 hours and one thing in the Rebellion will get a lot of use and that is its Cosworth steering wheel. We sat down with Gustavo Menezes to talk about the main tools he uses.

 

 

 

1: Flash: If we want to make it clear to a slower competitor we are coming through, this will flash our laser lights ten times in three seconds and those lights are bright!

 

2: Radio: Pretty straightforward. We press it, there is a little beep, and we can talk.

 

3: Drink: Self-explanatory. Activates a little pump connected to your water bottle and when you hold it, it squirts water into your mouth. “I don’t personally drink in the car, only during pit stops, because I don’t have a tube in my helmet.”

 

4: Slip and gain: Various settings for traction control. It also maintains the angles. Sometimes you use it but sometimes you turn everything off.

 

5: Wiper: Also obvious. But I very rarely use it, especially in the dry. One push is one time, second push is faster and holding it is for cleaning the windshield, but we never use that last function.

 

6: Acknowledge: We have to push this button if any alarm comes through, to acknowledge that we’ve seen it. Otherwise it won’t go away.

 

7: Mode: Different engine modes for different situations or to resolve different problems. Like mode 12 is something we use during warm-up or if the throttle sensor fails.

 

8: Fuel map: Very similar as engine map. It changes the lambda and optimizes the fuel flow in the engine.

 

9: Engine map: These are more for the engineers. We just switch them to whatever mode they ask us.

 

10: Power button: To start the car. It also has an automatic mode for use during pitstops and it actually engages the engine when the jack of fuel is released to make the perfect pitstop.

 

11: FYC: Whenever there is a full course yellow on the track, there is a countdown. We hit this button and it cuts the fuel flow and limits the car to 80km/h. “Basically you hit it and smash the brakes and run down the gears to get to 80km/h. It also completely changes the display. Because we monitor different things during an FCY than at race speeds.

 

12: Pit: The pit lane limiter: similar to FCY but it limits the car to 60km/h. It also changes the display to the things that we only watch during a pitstop.

 

13: Kill: We use it during a pitstop because it just kills the car while you’re stopped in first gear, so when you hit the power button again, you are ready to go.

 

Shift Paddles (Behind): Downshift and upshift.

 

Clutch paddles (Behind): These work in much the same way as a foot clutch and there is also a friction point, but it’s very short. We only use this during starts. Both paddles do the same but there are two because when you are pulling out of the pits your wheel is turned upside down. This is a bit tricky.