Cars
Mythbusters: The Manettino
The wheel has proven largely unimprovable, both on the four corners of a car but also as a means of actually driving it. But Ferrari’s commitment to innovation has led to significant changes to the Human Machine Interface – HMI – in its cars, not least in the functionality of the steering wheel.
As is the case elsewhere on a contemporary Ferrari, the role played by Formula One is critical. Time was when the steering wheel had one job to do, although its diameter and the material used to trim it has altered through the years. Look at images of, say, José Froilán González wrestling with the wheel of his Ferrari 375 – the car in which he scored the Scuderia’s maiden win in F1 in 1951 – or even Gilles Villeneuve in a 126C 30 years later, and it’s apparent how far things have come. The steering wheel on a modern F1 car is an advanced computer in itself, offering control over myriad engine maps, brake balance set-ups, lap time deltas, and much, much more.
Click to watch the evolution of the manettino, from F1 to the road
The steering wheel on the Enzo (2002-’04) was the first Ferrari production car to really deepen the connection. Although generally minimalist in approach, the Enzo’s exterior and interior aesthetic was heavily influenced by F1. The steering wheel set the template for what was to follow in the next 20-plus years. Carefully sculpted with a détente for the thumbs, buttons for the indicators were positioned level with those, while three smaller buttons sat on a slightly extended section either side of the boss. These adjusted what appeared on the LCD dash display, the car’s front ride height, damper settings, the traction control system, and reverse gear selection. It was intuitive to use and introduced the ergonomic principle ‘eyes on the road, hands on the wheel’. This has been a guiding precept ever since.
Inspired by the F2002 and F1 cars before it, the Enzo was Ferrari's first road car to place buttons on the wheel – though it pre-dates the manettino
Sometimes cars evolve, on other occasions there’s a quantum leap. When the F430 arrived in 2004, it contained several significant developments. Perhaps the most important was the introduction of an electronically controlled, hydraulically actuated differential – E-Diff for short – which monitored data from sensors measuring steering angle, the amount of yaw, and individual wheel speeds to revolutionise the car’s dynamic responses.
But the mechanism by which Ferrari allowed the driver access to the car’s new-found bandwidth was just as ingenious. The manettino – ‘little lever’ – was a small anodised switch or lozenge on the lower right-hand side of the wheel that tapped into five distinct dynamic settings. These included the stiffness of the dampers and the shift times of the semi-automated gearbox. But it also gave the driver an ever more sophisticated say over the traction and stability control systems – and the behaviour of the E-Diff. A snow/ice and low grip/wet road symbol indicated that everything was ‘on’, giving the driver maximum protection from the various electronic safeguards. Beyond that lay Sport, Race and CST settings, the last of which delivered a little extra haptic push against the finger to confirm that the driver was happy to explore the car’s full handling envelope without any electronic assistance.
In 2003, the manettino debuted on the F430, with Ice, Wet, Sport, Race and CST-Off modes
Since then, the manettino has been a fixture on every Ferrari steering wheel, a deceptively simple and highly effective example of automotive ergonomy. The latest generation of Ferrari wheels have grown much more complex, and now mix a subtler touch-sensitive haptic alongside the tactility of the manettino. Hybridised Ferraris such as the 296 GTB and SF90 have to accommodate ever-expanding functionality, not least because the chassis software is an order of magnitude more sophisticated than that seen on the F430. On the 296, for example, the manettino governs six settings: ‘Wet’ for maximum stability, ‘Sport’ for dynamic driving, ‘Race’ for sporty driving, ‘CT’ off for maximum driving fun, ‘ESC off’ for extreme driving fun. Or you can press the ‘lozenge’ to change the suspension settings.
The key to the 296’s success is the way in which the complex systems that govern it are fully harmonised. The manettino is the gateway to all of the car’s magic.