why most gt\racing cars use f1 style steering wheel ?

whats wrong with the traditional round steering wheel :S ?

 

Whilst I dislike road cars with non-circular steering wheels (Audi...), in a race car, the rack is usually so quick there is no needs to move your hands to a different part of the wheel, ie you can get enough steering angle without ever having to cross hands or shuffle the wheel. And because your hands are in the same place, theres no need to have a full wheel, save the space and weight.

 

I would also suspect that it helps in driver swaps for endurance racing. They allow for easier egress from different size drivers.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

There's more space in the middle for a big, shiny autopilot button.

 

The trend away from manual transmission and towards shifters directly on the wheel allow for a "both hands always on the wheel" design.
This is aided by many of the cars functions being now accessible from the wheel rather then from the dashboard or center console.
Fast steering transmissions support this development as well.

Advantages are:
- much better ingress and egress (this is important in endurance racing with driver swaps and for safety in general)
- much, much improved freedom of placing dashboard displays or displays directly on the wheel
- improving visibility with a more aggressive (lower) driver position in the car (a traditional rounded wheel would simply hinder vision of the driver)
Really look how driver positions have developed dramatically in racing over the last ~ 20 years.
In GT racing we have now almost formula style driver positions with drivers sitting much less upright.
- less arm movement (as the formula style wheels usually have a much smaller diameter than the traditional rounded wheels of yore - 260 - 280mm are not unheard of while rounded racing wheels often where in the 280 - 320mm range - hence more driver movement necessary for steering inputs)

 

Funny, all things Menos listed apply to my rig as well. I swap wheels for new Formula and GT cars, also FFB feels more precise with a smaller wheel for me.
I was racing 2 months with Formulawheel only, after some time even drifiting was no problem although way less elegant.

 

For almost the whole time I race racing simulators, I would use traditional round wheels (starting with Logitech DFGTs, later Fanatec CSRE, CSWv1 and now CSWv2).

When I bought the CSW1 I got it with a GT wheel and the universal hub, intending to use the hub more flexibly with specialized wheels - I never once took the hub out of the package.

During my whole time since I build my current triple screen rig one single thing annoyed me immensely with Assetto Corsa: using the traditional round GT type racing wheel in cars that use a modern formula style wheel (like the McLaren GT racers or the AMG, …) I always had to work around an awkward cockpit view setup in order to be able to see the instruments in the cockpit. I promised myself to try a formula wheel sometime soon and quickly forgot about that thought thereafter.

Only now with the Red Pack and my old pedal set in need for a rebuilt, I simply decided to treat me a big upgrade, finally got a formula carbon fibre wheel and a CSW v3 pedal set.

I was always sceptic about racing with a formula wheel.

Within no more than 2 laps around Spielberg in a McLaren 650S GT3 did I have reached Nirvana.

This is how these cars are supposed to be driven - it is such a pleasure to race them as they are supposed to be driven and have a perfect cockpit experience!

Now I will rebuilt my older pedal set, get each simulator component into CAD and will design a new frame before upgrading to a new racing seat shell and redesigning the triple monitor mount.

I love the formula style wheel now and absolutely enjoy long stints in one of the GT3 racers, having tight races with the new AI - if we only had day night transitions and save points in the pit to race real endurance races against the AI :-(

This whole new found love for the formula style wheels even has triggered a new project of mine I cannot talk about yet ;-)

 

It is just the normal evolution towards a more efficient approach.
I hope simulated steering wheel will follow the trend. Driving an F1 with a round wheel like the G27 is not ideal.

Edit: As the simulators get more and more systems the buttons on the wheel are no longer enough, time for the rotary switches, (traction control and abs are no longer just ON or OFF but have many different levels, the same for transmission adjustments). The Logitech G29 missed that trend unfortunately.

 

I use a big 35cm circular OMP wheel mounted on the G27 base and Ilike it a lot, the round, circular thing in my hands.

 

The wheel manufacturers may be divided but with the round wheel still taking lead, with the different rims being add-ons. Round wheels are still the main trend because logitech/thrustmaster have the bigger audience on console racing games which have road cars, so a round wheel makes sense. It also makes sense if you're driving older race cars. Newer race cars (cup cars, not GT) still have round wheel. Then on the PC side we have AC and Pcars with the most audience, and it still makes sense for a round wheel to be the main one when you buy the wheel. The other pc racing sims are mainly made of race cars, but still their race cars are not mostly made of GT- steering wheel type, but still have round. That's why as add-on remains the better solution and not as main product.