Pentium:
Rossi, all those problems are coming from the basic layout design... If you mount the paddles in a fixed position on the steering column, you need to make them big so you can always find them with your fingers no matter the position of the steering wheel is (and also you are forced to have a very sharp/quick steering). But when the paddles are so large, the left and right sticks used for the other commands like the turn signal and so on are shifted from their standard position in any car. They are placed lower than usual.
Let my try to explain this better... In a standard car you are used to move your left hand somewhere to the upper left part of the steering wheel to use the turn signal stick. In a Ferrari doing exactly the same move your fingers will touch the left paddle not the stick. The stick is in a lower position than in a normal car, because the paddles are so large, because they are mounted on a fixed position on the steering column. Which is sooooo good when you are on a track... Where you don't need the other commands anyway...
I bet many owners that were switching cars all the time, keeping the Ferrari only for the weekend, had always issues to adapt while driving the F car. It happened to me too... Sometimes I was driving very fast and I wanted to pass someone and because my hand was looking for the turn signal in the wrong place I was ending up passing the car without having the time to use the turn signal anymore. Dangerous move. But it was forced on me. By the time I was moving the hand lower the pass was already completed... Also keep in mind that huge majority of Ferrari owners keep the car in auto so they don't use the paddles that much except to show off. So for them the biggest problem was the position of the sticks. So Ferrari tried something else to solve that problem. And their solution is OK for the vast majority of F car owners that don't hold the steering wheel like a racing driver does so they don't accidentaly press other buttons with their hands anyway. And they can show off with their "F1 inspired steering wheel". Yeah. Sad.
The Porsche has a more conventional setup because their customers are daily driving the cars much more than the F cars are. So they paddles are on the steering wheel. The sticks have the same position as in any other car... and the only downside is if you drive hard on a race track. And even in those times not on all bends you have a problem to flip the right paddles. Exiting a U turn bend is the worst for me, when I need to change up with my left hand (because the steering wheel is turned almost 180 degrees and my left hand is on the right side at that moment).
So you see Rossi is all good... Both car companies actually just adapted to their customer base.
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There is no try. Just do.
Sorry, I can't follow you on this. I never found the paddle/stalk-combination in the F430 to be troublesome, neither on a track, nor in the city. But those stupid buttons in the 458 are totally out of place IMO.
I bet the following: no way Ferrari chose this layout because of economical reasons or because they wanted to solve a problem. These buttons are on the steering wheel because modern F1-cars also have so many buttons there.
Yeah, I get it, we really need the buttons for wipers, flash lights and indicators there, just as the buttons for wipers, flash lights and indicators in the F1-cars.
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The secret of life is to admire without desiring.