IMSA, Bosch and Robert Wickens collaborate on new steering wheel control system

Robert Wickens has been paralysed from the waist down for over six years now, following a very serious accident during theIndyCar Pocono in 2018. The Canadian driver was able to return to competition in 2022 at the wheel of a Hyundai Elantra TCR in IMSA Pilot Challenge, a competition in which he won the 2023 title alongside Harry Gottsacker. Wickens used a steering wheel control system developed specifically for the TCR category, with an electronic accelerator, and a braking system that operated the physical pedal of the Hyundai.

Such a system was perfectly functional, as Robert Wickens' results proved, but it was not very adaptable to other motorsport categories, which used smaller cockpits. In recent months, IMSA and its partner Bosch have been working with Bryan Herta Autosport, which enters Elantra TCRs in the Michelin Pilot Challenge, to adapt the brake-by-wire system used in the GTP prototypes for this particular application. It was at Indianapolis, on the sidelines of the IMSA 6 Hours, that this system was used for the first time in a race, with success, as Wickens and Gottsacker finished in second place in the TCR class in the race.

A new system that can be adapted to any racing car

The use of electronic braking frees up space in the cockpit, as everything is now done electronically, rather than through mechanical links on the brake pedal, for example. Wickens also has to use less force with his arms to slow his car, allowing him to brake with one hand, using the other to downshift with the paddles on the steering wheel. While the change may seem small on paper, it offers a chance of being adapted to GTP cars, and even single-seaters in the future.

"It offers opportunities", Wickens explained. “I think it’s fair to say that the system we developed with Bryan Herta Autosport and Hyundai couldn’t really be used beyond the TCR category. It’s always been my ambition to try and explore the possibilities of racing in the IMSA championship or other professional categories around the world. This new system doesn’t guarantee anything, far from it, but it gives me a chance.”

Robert Wickens has never hidden his ambition to participate a second time in his career in the Indianapolis 500, after the 2018 edition, in which he finished as Rookie of the Year. The Toronto native logically believes he has the right to another end to his career at the top of the car American than the one he experienced at Pocono, a few months later. This new system can therefore offer the opportunity to achieve this objective, which is also a desire of Bryan Herta Autosport. The boss of the eponymous team explained his desire to offer at least one test to Wickens, but that finding the funding to set up a system adapted to IndyCar was difficult. For the driver, it is also an opportunity to offer other chances to drivers suffering from a disability.

“The main thing and the goal of all this is to try to create a level playing field with able-bodied drivers. I hope that at the end of my career I can congratulate myself on having made it easier for the next generation of disabled athletes trying to access the highest levels of motorsport.”

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