If that were me driving, I imagine an exchange like this would take place:

"So, are you sure you put the wheel on properly?"
"Yes, go!"
"It's just that it was put on so fast..."
"It's supposed to be, you have to go, now!"
"I'm not questioning your ability, I just want to be sure, you know? I mean this thing goes REAL fast and when I turn, I don't want the wheel to pop off and then slam into a wall"
"Look, see it's fit very tight... oh, look at this... it wasn't clipped on properly. That's better, now"
"See? I never hurts to double check... wait, what was that?"
"The checkered flag. We've just lost"
"Oh, that's a shame. Actually that works for me, I promised the wife I'd get some milk on the way home and now I'll have the time"

I was going to write something sarcastic like "Too long. Didn't watch the whole thing."...

But I'm sincerely curious. Why do they change the steering wheel?

>> ^Raveni:

I was going to write something sarcastic like "Too long. Didn't watch the whole thing."...
But I'm sincerely curious. Why do they change the steering wheel?


Interesting question indeed! I'm wondering if there are batteries in there? Perhaps it's to get around some crazy rule F1 seems riddled with.

One of his flappy pedals wasn't working properly, and to prevent it from failing entirely, they switched his steering wheel.>> ^Raveni:
Why do they change the steering wheel?

*dead

This video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by Norsuelefantti.

>> ^Norsuelefantti:

dead


Fixed, at least now for thanks!

The steering wheels have some settings that can be changed remotely by the pit crew and pit wall control crew, and some settings that can only be done manually which the driver has to do while racing.

If the car is responding too badly and a lot of settings need to be changed rather than slight tweaks here and there, and if they are coming in for a pit soon/anyway, then it can be easier to swap out the steering wheels rather than having the driver distracted for a few laps setting up the new configuration.