Our Verdict
Pros
- Highly customisable.
- Stunning design.
- High-quality inputs.
- Large 4.3 inch touchscreen with 60Hz refresh rate.
- Third-party compatible.
- Lightweight.
- Fits, formula, GT or LMP driving.
Cons
- Only PC compatible.
- Rocker switches aren’t finished in black and appear unfinished.
- Push buttons have a lot of wobble.
It took a little time for Asetek to release the Invicta wheel, as we’ve had the Forte and La Prima wheels for a good few years now. But boy was it worth the wait.
Every single wheel is hand built to the customers individual specification. That means, you have control over the style of carbon fibre used, the colours of all inputs, the style of the handles and more.
On paper, the high level of customisation, combined with the large display and hand-built quality, set the Asetek Invicta Formula wheel up for success. I’ve spent a good amount of time with this wheel, and I’m going to spend this review looking at whether this sim racing steering wheel lives up to the hype.
Asetek sent me this wheel for review, but as with all of my reviews, if something is not up to scratch, I won’t stop sharing it with you.
Watch our Asetek Invicta Formula Wheel Review
What is the Asetek Invicta Formula wheel?
Up until now, I’ve been calling this the Invicta Formula Wheel, and well, that isn’t quite right. This is technically called the Invicta Formula Button Box. That is because, at its core, this is a sim racing button box. There is no requirement to purchase this wheel with handles.
This flexibility in its design and construction, gives more control than ever to the customer. You can choose if you want open formula-style handles, or closed GT or LMP handles. In fact, you get to choose and spec everything about this wheel at the time of purchase.
Beneath all of the customisation, the Invicta wheel is Asetek’s most premium sim racing steering wheel, sitting above the entry-level La Prima, and the mid-range Forte wheels.
This premium steering wheel comes in at 300mm in diameter or 304mm with the XL hand grips, and includes an in-built 4.3-inch 60Hz LCD touchscreen, something never seen before on an Asetek wheel. The wheel is constructed from CNC-milled aluminium and carbon fibre, providing a premium look and feel.
There are a huge number of inputs, as expected from a wheel that is trying its best to imitate the perfect F1 or GT steering wheel. You get 12 aluminium push buttons, 9 encoders, 2 rocker switches and 2 kinky switches. Plus there are 6 shifters and a touchscreen, resulting in many ways to interact with the wheel.
Price of the Asetek Invicta Formula wheel
To get all of this, the Asetek Invicta Formula wheel costs from $/€1,249.99 before sales tax, and can reach $/€1,484.96 if spec’d with the most premium options.
| Product | Price |
|---|---|
| Asetek Invicta Formula wheel | UK: €1,249.99 EU: €1,249.99 US: $1,249.99 |
What is the competition?
That price is not to be taken lightly and puts this Invicta wheel up alongside competition such as the Cube Controls GT-X2, the GSI Hyper P1, Fanatec BMW M4 GT3 and MOZA Lamborghini SCV12. Although, it remains one step removed from uber-premium sim racing wheels such as the Sim-Lab Mercedes-AMG F1 wheel and Fanatec Bentley GT3 wheel.
How does it compare to its direct competitors? Well, pretty strongly, in my opinion. It is easily the most customisable of any wheel I’ve just listed. It includes a similar number of inputs to those wheels. The build quality is just as high, and it is just as widely compatible with third-party brands.
Unboxing and what’s included
When I first opened the Asetek Invicta Formula wheel, I was presented with something I’d never seen before with a sim racing wheel. A pair of white gloves. These show from the outset that this wheel is a piece of art, and something to be appreciated and handled carefully.
Under these, you’ll find your warranty information and a large array of stickers, including shine-through stickers for the LED lights and sticker rings for the encoders. You also get a certificate of authenticity signed by André, the CEO, and the wheel assembler. So you know who to track down if something goes awry.
The design of the Asetek Invicta wheel
The Invicta Formula wheel is the flagship wheel from Danish company Asetek Sim Sports. And that is immediately apparent when you first see and handle the wheel. The first thing you’ll notice is just how light this wheel is. At 1500 grams without a QR attached, this isn’t the defacto lightest wheel, but it is lighter than many wheels with a screen. This helps with responsiveness during gameplay, which I’ll get to later in the review.
The chassis is CNC milled from a single block of aluminium and finished with a 5mm carbon fibre faceplate, which is one of the areas you get to customise. You can choose between a traditional carbon weave or forged carbon fibre.
Every part of this wheel oozes quality, with premium materials throughout. Every button and encoder is constructed from aluminium, something even the incredible Sim-Lab Mercedes-AMG F1 wheel can’t boast.
On the rear, the shifter paddles are all carbon-fibre as well, and you get a choice between four different hand grip styles across two material choices. And then there is the gloss black screen encolsure and 4.3 inch LCD display.
Inputs
You get as many controls and inputs with the Invicta as you do with any other premium wheel. At the centre sit three rotary encoders, which can be programmed as encoders or multi-position switches. Thanks to their aluminium construction, these feel nice to touchand have a great amount of resistance, bridging the gap between too stiff and too loose.
There are also six thumb encoders, again constructed from aluminium and feeling nice to interact with. However, all six thumb encoders have less resistance than the front-facing encoders, which makes it a little harder to make precise inputs.
Two rocker switches, jutting out from the face of the wheel and having a simple, bare metal appearance, are at the top of the wheel. Upon first glance, I thought these were missing a cap as they almost appeared unfinished. The same rockers on the Forte wheel have a rubber cap which makes them a little more in keeping with the black aesthetic.
There are also two kinky switches that feature seven different inputs in each switch. These feel just as good as the front-facing encoders thanks to the same aluminium construction. And they make it easy to navigate menus or your black box without the need for a keyboard.
Rounding out the front inputs are ten push buttons. Each button cap is aluminium and looks really nice, especially when finished in the red that I’ve spec’d with my wheel. There is a lot of initial resistance followed by a very short throw and a tactile click, making them a joy to use.
However, there is a lot of wiggle and play in each button, which I wasn’t expecting. This is the same issue that plagued the Forte wheel, and I’m presuming it’s because it’s the same button mechanism being used.
Shifters
Turning the wheel over, you’re presented with an additional two push buttons, bringing the total up to twelve. You have six shifter paddles, with the option to choose between forged carbon fibre and aluminium.
I chose the forged carbon option as they look more impressive despite not having as potentially good ergonomics as the standard paddles. Each shifter is incredibly well-dampened, making them one of the quieter shifters I’ve used.
One detail I really appreciate is the laser-engraved or etched Asetek logo on the rear of the wheel. It’s not a part of the wheel that you look at often, but every time you see it, you’re reminded of the high attention to detail and that you’re racing with a truly high-end sim racing steering wheel.
Compatibility of the Asetek Invicta Formula wheel
As standard with most wheels, a quick release comes pre-installed and features the unique Asetek design with a slide-down mechanism, which I really like. Unlike many premium wheels, you won’t find a USB or data port directly on the rear of the wheel; however, if you remove the quick release, there is a USB-C port under the adapter.
This lets you use any third-party quick release with the wheel while transferring data via the USB-C connection. The wheel is also compatible with third-party wheel bases by using the Asetek third-party quick release adapter. So there are multiple ways of using this wheel.
Mounting the wheel
The mounting pattern used by Asetek has a 70×6 mm PCD, letting me easily mount this to any third-party wheel base. I’ve had this thing mounted to my Asetek Forte wheel directly, and to my Fanatec ClubSport DD+ wheel base using the Asetek adapter.
The digital display
Flipping the wheel back to its front side, I have to talk about the display. This is a large 4.3 inch LCD display with touchscreen functionality. It comes in at 800×480 pixels, and boasts a 60Hz refresh rate.
Asetek has designed a range of display design presets that can be switched in RaceHub, but the wheel is also SimHub compatible. This opens up almost unlimited customisation when choosing your dash, as you can use any design via SimHub.
I like to test displays using the defaults that come with the wheel, and I have to say Asetek has done a great job with these designs. You get a range of designs to choose from, and one area where Asetek have killed it is with the animations within each design.
Normally with most wheels, changing your TC or ABS will popup on your screen to confirm the change which is great. Asetek goes beyond this, by implementing silky smooth animations with the box expanding to fill the screen after each change. It’s little features like this that I really appreciate, and it shows a real attention for detail.
Customisability and adjustability
Now, I have to talk about the customisation on offer with the Invicta Formula wheel. When buying this wheel, Asetek has a 3D configurator that lets you see your customisation in real time. You get to change a variety of material finishes such as the carbon weave pattern and the colour of all inputs.
You really can get creative, and I’ve seen some pretty out-there designs with various colours across the inputs. I’ve kept things pretty understated with a flash of red on some button caps, as I prefer to adjust the LED colours instead of the inputs themselves.
Asetek has grouped the inputs together which was a slight frustration when customising. I would have liked to be able to change the colour of each button cap individually, which would really open up some unique designs.
You also get to choose the style of hand grip, between regular formula or LMP style grips, suede grips or XL grips. I’ve gone with the formula-style hand grips with the open bottom as that’s my preference, and I’m more than happy with this choice.
Software adjustments
Inside Asetek’s RaceHub software, you get to customise various elements of the wheel itself. The first choice is the LED colour and behaviour. By clicking into each input, you can change the colour for both passive and active. This lets the LED light flash to confirm you have activated an input.
With push buttons, you can change the input mode between button and latched, which serves as an on/off toggle. Rotary encoders also have the option to change the input mode to be a multi-position switch or simple rotary encoder.
One thing Asetek has done well with this wheel is the positioning of each LED light. The lights are just above each button and can be covered with the shine-through stickers. These label each button, which can be seen even if your thumb is on the button.
The shine-through design is a really nice way to customise the wheel without the stickers looking out of place or too garish. Each sticker is incredibly high quality and quite thick. However, when applied over the LED light area, the black out part of the sticker doesn’t fully mask the entire button. Even with stickers I have applied pretty accurately, you can see some light escaping from around the sticker itself. While its not the end of the world, its something that does bug me every time I turn this wheel on, to the point where I may remove the stickers altogether in the future.
Outside of the button configuration, we can change the shift lights. You have the option to change each shift light colour, as well as the timing of when each light will activate, the direction of the shift pattern and the behaviour of the lights when you reach the optimal time to shift.
This is more than enough control to truly customise and create the perfect shift pattern for the style of car you’re driving. The only thing you can’t do within RaceHub, which I loved on the Sim-Lab Mercedes-AMG F1 wheel, is set certain shift light behaviour for other in game functions, such as certain lights coming on when DRS is activated.
Elements like that really add to the immersion when racing an F1 car, so it’s a slight shame we can’t achieve this natively within RaceHub. Thankfully though, you can choose to let SimHub control the shift lights, meaning we can achieve this light format using SimHub.
Asetek have implemented a lot of additional functionality in their LED lighting. Within the LED section of RaceHub, we can configure different LED light behaviour from the wheel lighting up as certain assists activate, as well as adjusting where different flag lights appear.
Then, we have another section for the display. Here, we can choose between a variety of preset layouts and make adjustments to certain aspects, such as our preferred units and which notifications can be activated.
One strange option is the option to keep certain elements level. This will keep elements such as your current gear straight even while rotating the wheel. To me, with only limited elements moving like this, it is a little offputting, and its not a feature I’ve really been using. However, some may love it.
Performance review
When we do get this wheel onto the rig, its performance really reinforces its high quality. Unlike many wheels, everything simply works out of the box. With RaceHub running, and the firmware upto date, all features, the screen, LEDs and inputs simpy work without issue. You will need to spend some time mapping buttons in game, which is normal for most wheels.
While sim racing, every part of the wheel comes together cohesively. The bright rev lights dance between each shift, and there is little to no bleed between each individual light. The buttons flash as you make changes to your car mid-race. These are partnered with the 60Hz display’s gorgeously sharp animations, just to confirm your adjustment.
In terms of stability, the wheel is rock solid with zero flex or rattling, rounding out an altogether premium experience. The wheel’s lightness means there is no real loss in force feedback detail that some heavier wheels can dampen out. Despite me primarily racing Formula cars, the 300mm diameter doesn’t feel too large, with precise steering inputs being the benefit of a larger GT-sized steering wheel.
Is the Asetek Invicta Formula wheel worth buying?
During my time with this wheel, I was trying to find some negatives. I didn’t want to write a review where I spent the entire review praising the wheel without offering some criticism. However, Asetek has made this incredibly hard, as this wheel is really quite special.
There are some small quirks, such as the slight wiggle on the buttons, the metal rocker switches, which I’m not a huge fan of, and the PC-only compatibility, although this is normal for most high-end wheels currently.
The choice to make this wheel completely customisable removes any concerns about the lack of GT handles or the styling choices throughout, as the end user can fully customise every component. The inclusion of SimHub compatibility simply opens the wheel up to the community to tinker and customise even more than RaceHub allows. And the third-party compatibility options allow this wheel to seamlessly integrate into almost any sim racing setup, regardless of which wheel base you’re running.
The price may be the only real negative, as this is a pricey wheel. However, it remains competitively priced compared to its direct competition from GSI, Rexing and Cube Controls. So really, even this isn’t a unique downside.
Quite simply, I was flawed by this wheel, from the moment I took it out of the box with the white gloves, to my first few laps experiencing the excellent screen and high-quality inputs. If you have over £/$1,000 to spend on a high-end sim racing wheel, the Asetek Invicta Formula wheel may be the best there is.
Frequently asked questions
All of Asetek’s products are currently only PC-compatible, and that includes the Invicta Formula wheel. Asetek has confirmed it is working on adding console support to its hardware, but we have no confirmation of when this is happening.
The Asetek Invicta Formula wheels offers third-party compatibility in a variety of ways. You can use Asetek’s third-party quick release, or remove the pre-installed quick release and replace it with any other hub. Both of these options allow for Simucube compatibility, as well as compatibility with other third-party brands.
The 300mm diameter of the Asetek Invicta Formula wheel is ideal for GT racing, as this is the standard size across most GT cars. A formula wheel is typically smaller at 280mm in diameter, however, a wheel upto 300mm is fine for formula and open-wheeled sim racing.
Technical Specifications
Review written by Felix König
