Land Rover wheel could help steer Sir Ben Ainslie to America's Cup victory

The bespoke steering wheel, which draws on technology developed for the Discovery, features gear-shift paddles that have been shaped to fit Sir Ben’s hands, giving him perfect fingertip control of the hydrofoils on which R1, Land Rover BAR’s 2.4 tonne yacht will “fly”.

Land Rover’s Human Machine Interface engineers spent 18 months developing the wheel that will lift R1 above the water at speeds above 50 knots.

Just as an aerofoil helps a plane into the sky, hydrofoils lift a boat out of the water. The Land Rover steering wheel turns the boat left and right as it would on a car, while the gear shift paddles control its height above the water by controlling the lift from the foils.

Commenting on the wheel, Ainslie said: “This is not just a great piece of design and engineering, but beautiful craftsmanship. The controls are intuitive and smooth, with just the right amount of feel and feedback. It really has made a difference to how I control R1.”