Slipstream
Your phone becomes a Formula 1 steering wheel.
- Status
- Beta
- Platforms
- iOS, Android, Windows
- Role
- Founder, designer and sole developer
- Year
- 2026
The problem
A real sim racing wheel costs hundreds of dollars before you add pedals, a stand and a cockpit. For most players, that puts the wheel experience out of reach, and a gamepad never feels like driving.
Almost everyone already owns a phone with a touchscreen, an accelerometer and a fast connection to their PC. Slipstream turns that phone into the wheel.
The build
A full F1 - style wheel and pedals on your phone, a Windows bridge that turns it into a real game controller, and a live pit wall for race strategy.
A wheel modeled on the real thing
The layout mirrors a modern F1 steering wheel: push buttons, rotary knobs for TYRE, STRAT, ENGINE, DISP and MODE, rotary switches for DIFF, TORQ, BBAL and MID, shift paddles, and a wide display with rev LEDs.
Tilt to steer, touch to drive
Steering comes from the phone's motion sensors, with on-screen throttle, brake and paddles built so gear changes still register while you hold the throttle.
Pair in seconds
The desktop app shows a QR code or a short code. Scan or type it on the phone and you are connected, on a port chosen fresh each session.
A live pit wall
Once connected, a desktop strategy view shows car behaviour, inputs and race information, including a track map, like a race engineer's screen.
Under the hood
- Phone app: React Native with Expo, reading motion sensors and multi-touch input and streaming them to the PC.
- PC bridge: a Python service on Windows that presents Slipstream to games as a virtual Xbox 360 controller through ViGEmBus, so it works with racing games that support a gamepad, including F1, Assetto Corsa, Forza Horizon and iRacing.
- Pit wall: a desktop application that visualizes live inputs and race data.
- Website: Next.js and Supabase on Vercel, with a feedback form for players.
Hardest problem
Shifting gears at full throttle
In a race you hold the throttle with one thumb and flick paddles with the other. Making sure every shift registers reliably during sustained multi-touch input, without a missed or phantom press, shaped the controller's input handling from the start.
My role
Founder, designer and sole developer .
Where it stands
Done
- F1-style wheel with knobs, switches, paddles and LED display
- QR and code pairing with a dynamic port
- Pit wall desktop application
- Marketing website with player feedback
Next
- GT wheel layout
- More controller settings
- App Store and Play Store release