Asetek Forte Formula Steering Wheel review: $529 with the grips already on it
Researched overview Manufacturer listings and owner reports, with no hands-on testing.
The Asetek Forte Formula Steering Wheel is $529.00, and the useful fact about it is not on its own spec sheet. Asetek sells three Forte Formula listings and this is the only one you can hold when the box is open. The $479.00 Forte Formula Button Box and the $649.00 Forte Formula Pro both carry a bold line reading “Note: Handles are sold separately”, and that line appears nowhere on this page. What this page has instead is a Dimensions block one line long: “290 mm diameter with Regular Handles (default).”
| Type | Complete formula wheel. Carbon button box, both handles, and the quick release, in one purchase |
|---|---|
| Shape and size | Formula, open at the top and the bottom. "290 mm diameter with Regular Handles (default)." |
| Controls | "12 Push buttons, 2 two-way Toggle switches, 2 seven-way Kinky switches", "3 twelve position Rotary encoders, 6 Thumb encoders", and "2 Contactless Magnetic shifter Paddles with additional optional paddles being upgradable" |
| Lights | "49 Total programmable A RGB LEDs": 15 rev, 6 flag, 12 button, and 12 backlighting the rotary switches |
| Screen | None. The $649.00 Pro is the only Forte Formula with one, and it differs on four other specs besides |
| Face | "2 mm woven carbon fiber front face" over an "Injection molded Carbon fiber reinforced composite chassis with laser etched forged carbon structure" |
| Quick release | Asetek's own, fitted. "Easy-to-use, no-play quick-release.Ensuring stable data and power transmission without the use of cables, batteries, or wireless signals." |
| Platforms | PC. "designed for PC and supports Windows 10 and Windows 11". No console named anywhere on the page |
| Color | Orange. The box list's first line is "Forte Formular Steering Wheel (Orange)", Asetek's own spelling |
| Price | $529.00 excluding sales tax, no discount running on 4 August 2026 |
| Best for | Asetek base owners who want a formula wheel that works out of the box and do not need a dash on the rim |
Who it’s for
Section titled “Who it’s for”Somebody already on an Asetek base who wants a formula wheel and does not want to shop for grips.
Buy it if:
- You want one purchase. Every other formula product in Asetek’s catalog except the $349.00 La Prima Formula Steering Wheel is a box plus a handle decision, and this one is not.
- You want the cheapest gripped Forte Formula. $529.00 beats $568.00 for the Button Box plus the cheapest handles, and beats $738.00 for the Pro plus the same handles.
- You do not need a screen on the rim. The rev strip, the flag lights, and the twelve backlit buttons are all here; the 4.3-inch LCD is what the Pro’s extra $120.00 buys, before its handles.
Not the one if you want the black-and-aluminum finish, because this SKU is the orange one and Asetek sells the finish rather than offering it as an option here. Not the one if you want LMP, suede, or XL grips from day one, since you would be paying for a Regular set you then replace. And not the one if you are not on an Asetek base, because nothing on this listing describes a route to any other brand.
The three Forte Formulas, and what each one actually costs
Section titled “The three Forte Formulas, and what each one actually costs”Asetek’s US Steering Wheels category served 22 products on 4 August 2026, and three of them are a Forte Formula. Every price below is the regular figure off that product’s own Asetek listing, read the same day, and all are exclusive of sales tax.
| Listing | Asetek’s price | Handles | Cheapest gripped total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forte® Formula Steering Wheel | $529.00 | Regular set fitted, orange trim | $529.00 |
| Forte® Formula Button Box (Black, Aluminum) | $479.00 | ”Note: Handles are sold separately” | $568.00 |
| Forte Formula Pro Steering Wheel | $649.00 | ”Note: Handles are sold separately” | $738.00 |
The handle line is $89.00 for Formula Regular Handles, Formula Regular Handles w. suede, or Formula LMP Handles, and $109.00 for Formula XL Handles. All four carry the same compatibility note, which Asetek writes on the Regular set as “These handles are only compatible with” followed by a link reading “Asetek Racing™ Formula Button Boxes and Formula Wheels.”
The Button Box is not this wheel made cheaper. Its published controls are this wheel’s, line for line: the same 49 aRGB LEDs split 15 rev, 6 flag, 12 button, and 12 rotary backlights, the same 12 push buttons, 2 two-way toggles, 2 seven-way kinky switches, 3 twelve-position rotaries, 6 thumb encoders, and 2 magnetic shifter paddles, the same injection-molded carbon composite chassis and 2 mm woven carbon face, and 13 identical rows in the Inputs & Controls table. Asetek never says the two share a board, so neither does this page. What is checkable is that the cheaper listing reaches a usable wheel for $39.00 more money.
The Pro is a different product, not this one with a screen. It is glassfiber reinforced with a forged carbon finish rather than carbon composite, carries 10 push buttons and 10 button LEDs against 12 and 12, measures 300 mm on Regular Handles against 290 mm, weighs 1.16 kg, and publishes a “3rd Party Quick Release compatibility” row this listing has no equivalent of. The Forte Formula Pro review covers it.
What it costs to steer with
Section titled “What it costs to steer with”Nothing here reaches a game on its own. Asetek names no base model on this listing at all, only “all Asetek Racing™ Wheelbases”, and its US catalog carried four on 4 August 2026.
| Purchase | Regular | Running total |
|---|---|---|
| Forte® Formula Steering Wheel | $529.00 | $529.00 |
| Cheapest Asetek base: Initium Direct Drive Wheelbase | $349.00 | $878.00 |
| Or the base this wheel is named after: Forte 18 Nm | $949.00 | $1,478.00 |
Pedals are a further purchase on either line: the cheapest Asetek pedal set is the $119.00 Initium Pedal Set, whose own spec table opens “1. Brake and Throttle”. For what else goes under a formula rim, see wheelbases.
What Asetek sells you afterwards
Section titled “What Asetek sells you afterwards”Two cross-sell blocks sit on this listing, “COMPLETE YOUR SETUP” under the Add to cart button and “Pairs Well With” below the FAQ, and seven parts appear across them. Asetek heads the upgrade block “Upgradable” and writes “Perfect your race starts with the optional dual-clutch paddles and take even more control with the optional input paddles.”
| Part | Regular | On 4 Aug 2026 | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paddle Bundle | $78.00 | $64.99 | The dual-clutch and input paddles the “Upgradable” block points at |
| Formula XL Handles | $109.00 | $109.00 | Bigger grips. The one set Asetek names for this wheel by model |
| Formula Regular Handles w. suede | $89.00 | $89.00 | Suede instead of the molded Regular set already fitted |
| Aluminum button color kit | $89.00 | $89.00 | Cosmetic |
| Steering Wheel Button Color Kit | $39.00 | $39.00 | Cosmetic |
| Orange buttons (Encoder + 7-way) | $29.00 | $29.00 | Cosmetic |
| Sim Racing Steering Wheel Wall Mount | $19.00 | $19.00 | Storage |
Two of those are worth reading against the Button Box. Asetek’s Tech Specs here promise “Possibility to change to XL handles at a later time” and its FAQ says the metal spider “allow[s] you to replace the handles and upgrade the wheel with compatible accessories, including Formula XL Handles, clutch paddles, DRS paddles, and additional magnetic input paddles”. So the grips are swappable on this wheel too, at $89.00 to $109.00 a set. And the $29.00 orange button kit is a part the cheaper Button Box ships for free: that listing’s own spec line reads “2 seven-way Kinky switches (Both orange and black sets are included)”.
Watch-outs
Section titled “Watch-outs”- Two input counts on one page, 48 apart. “With 80 inputs, drive your way - no restrictions.” in the marketing block, “The steering wheel offers 128 individual input options.” in the FAQ. The controls table counts 27 physical parts. Neither headline number is derivable from the table and Asetek reconciles them nowhere.
- Asetek misspells its own product in the box list. The heading reads “FORTE® FORMULAR STEERING WHEEL” and the first item “Forte Formular Steering Wheel (Orange)”. It is the same wheel.
- The box list never says “handles”. Its six items are the wheel, shifter paddles, tweezers, gray handle cushions, button stickers, and Forte stickers. What settles the question is the single-line diameter with “(default)” on it, the cushions, and the absence of the “sold separately” note both siblings carry.
- The user guide is a YouTube playlist. The USER MANUAL line points at a playlist, and it is the same playlist the $479.00 Button Box’s manual line points at, for two products sold under two names at two prices.
- The URL is a trap. This wheel sits at
/product/forte-formula-steering-wheel/and the Button Box sits at/product/forte-formula-steering-wheel-black-aluminum/, so the gripless part’s address contains this one’s. Asetek does the same thing on the La Prima GT Button Box and the Invicta Formula Button Box, both slugged “steering wheel”. Read the product name. - PC only, as far as Asetek will say. One machine named, no console mentioned in either direction.
- Asetek’s own site is hard to read. www.asetek.com answered a plain fetch with HTTP 403 and a Cloudflare interstitial on 4 August 2026, so every figure here was read through a text proxy. Prices and stock can move behind that wall without this page knowing.
Alternatives to consider
Section titled “Alternatives to consider”- Asetek Forte Formula Button Box: $479.00 for the same published controls in black and aluminum, with no grips. $568.00 once the cheapest handles go on, so it is the choice when you want the finish or a non-Regular grip, not when you want to save money.
- Asetek Forte Formula Pro: $649.00, a 4.3-inch 800x480 touch panel, a 300 mm diameter, and a published third-party-base route. Also handle-less, so $738.00 gripped.
- La Prima™ Formula Steering Wheel (Orange): $349.00, Asetek’s other complete formula wheel and the cheapest one it sells, on the same store and the same quick release. The step down from this one has not been read spec by spec here.
- Simagic FX: $359.00 regular for a 290 mm carbon formula wheel with the QR50 fitted, if you are choosing an ecosystem rather than already in one.
- Fanatec ClubSport Formula V2.5 X: $439.99, a 5 mm solid carbon plate, Alcantara grips, and a 1-inch OLED, locked to Fanatec’s quick release.
- MOZA FSR2: $649.00 with a 4.3-inch touchscreen and six magnetic paddles, which is what a screen costs in MOZA’s catalog against Asetek’s.
Price the base before the rim. Wheelbases covers what goes under this wheel, rims and quick-releases covers what makes a wheel fit, and steering wheels sorts the whole category by shape.
Sources
Section titled “Sources”www.asetek.com answered curl with HTTP 403 and a Cloudflare “Just a moment…” interstitial on 4 August 2026, so every page below was read through the r.jina.ai text proxy on that date, at HTTP 200. Byte counts are the proxy’s rendering. Every quotation above was verified character for character against those bytes.
- The wheel: Forte® Formula Steering Wheel, $529.00, 59,612 bytes, carrying the price, the stock line “In stock and ready to ship”, the Tech Specs and Inputs & Controls blocks, the six-question FAQ, and the box list.
- The two siblings: Forte® Formula Button Box (Black, Aluminum) at $479.00 and 61,663 bytes, and Forte Formula Pro Steering Wheel at $649.00 and 62,201 bytes.
- The grips: Formula Regular Handles and Formula Regular Handles w. suede and Formula LMP Handles at $89.00 each, and Formula XL Handles at $109.00.
- The catalog: Asetek’s Steering Wheels category, 54,333 bytes, whose own line reads “You are viewing 11 out of 22 products”, and its second page, 54,081 bytes, reading “22 out of 22 products”. The 22 split seven button boxes from $259.00 to $1,249.99, seven rims from $109.00 to $149.00, four handle sets from $89.00 to $109.00, and four complete steering wheels from $149.00 to $649.00.
Which platforms it works on
- PC
- Yes“The Forte® Formula Steering Wheel is designed for PC and supports Windows 10 and Windows 11. It is compatible with all Asetek Racing™ Wheelbases.” Asetek Racing’s own listing, checked August 2026.
- PlayStation
- Listing does not say
- Xbox
- Listing does not say
- Console license
- Not recorded
- How it connects
- Only through a wheelbase or hub“Easy-to-use, no-play quick-release.Ensuring stable data and power transmission without the use of cables, batteries, or wireless signals.” “The Forte® Formula Steering Wheel is designed for PC and supports Windows 10 and Windows 11. It is compatible with all Asetek Racing™ Wheelbases.”Asetek Racing’s own listing, checked August 2026.Both strings are byte-verbatim against this listing's 59,612 fetched bytes and each occurs once. The missing space after "quick-release." in the first is Asetek's own and is inside the quotation rather than repaired, because repairing it would make the string unfindable by anyone checking it. The first is the last bullet of the "Tech Specs" list; the second is the FAQ answer already quoted under `platforms` above, repeated here because it is the only sentence on the page that says which bases the joint reaches. `mode` is `through-base` on both: the quick release is the mount and the data path, and the wheel names no port of its own. That is what separates this record from its own Pro sibling, whose specification table carries a "3rd Party Quick Release compatibility" row whose value is "USB-C connection for 3rd party Quick Releases". Nothing on this listing offers that route, and this record states no cross-brand path as a result. The string "USB" returns exactly two hits across this listing, and neither is product copy: both are the alt text of one navigation thumbnail, "Asetek Invicta QR Quick Release Adapter USB A", which the store's Accessories menu ships on every product page. So no sentence about this wheel names a USB port, and no sentence about it names any port at all.
The quoted sentence is the whole of the FAQ answer to Asetek's own question "Which platforms is the Forte® Formula Steering Wheel compatible with?", verified byte-verbatim with `grep -F` against the listing's fetched bytes, where it occurs once. The proxy renders the answer with a leading "A: " and that prefix is outside the quotation. The listing's own compatibility badge prints one item, "PC", above the price. Nothing on the page names a games console, and the FAQ's games answer names only PC titles: "Assetto Corsa, Assetto Corsa Competizione, DiRT Rally, DiRT Rally 2.0, the F1 series, iRacing, Project CARS 2, rFactor 2, and more."
Optional upgrades
“Upgradable” “Perfect your race starts with the optional dual-clutch paddles and take even more control with the optional input paddles.” “Exciting accessories await you, from handles to button color kits and more.” “Possibility to change to XL handles at a later time” “Yes. The rigid metal spider interface and reinforced composite chassis allow you to replace the handles and upgrade the wheel with compatible accessories, including Formula XL Handles, clutch paddles, DRS paddles, and additional magnetic input paddles.” Asetek Racing’s own words, naming 7 parts, checked August 2026.
Seven parts across two blocks, and the five quoted strings are byte-verbatim against this listing's fetched bytes with one occurrence each. The prices in `list` are the figures printed beside each part in the cross-sell blocks on this listing; the four handle sets were also opened individually, which is where the XL quotation comes from. What Asetek does not offer anywhere on this page is a path from this wheel to the Pro: no upgrade kit, no trade-in, and no sentence naming the Pro at all. The two are separate purchases at separate prices.
- Paddle Bundle
- $78The first item in both cross-sell blocks and the one part on either block that was discounted on the check date, printed "~~$78.00~~ Original price was: $78.00.$64.99 Current price is: $64.99." `msrp` carries the regular $78.00 rather than the day's $64.99, because a discount is not a price. This is the part the "Upgradable" block's own EXPLORE MORE link points at, so it is Asetek's answer to its own sentence about dual-clutch and input paddles.
- Formula XL Handles
- $109“These handles are only compatible with” “Asetek Racing™ Formula Button Boxes and Formula Wheels.”The one handle set Asetek names for this wheel by model, in the FAQ answer quoted above and again in the Tech Specs line "Possibility to change to XL handles at a later time". It is the dearest of the four formula handle sets at $109.00, where the other three are $89.00. The sentence is quoted in the two contiguous runs the bytes actually hold rather than as one string, and this is why: the fetched line reads `**Note:**These handles are only compatible with[Asetek Racing™ Formula Button Boxes and Formula Wheels.](https://www.asetek.com/simsports/product-category/steering-wheels/formula-wheels/)`, so Asetek sets its own label in bold and links the second half of its own sentence to the formula-wheels category, with no space on either boundary. Both runs are byte-verbatim against the XL listing's own 49,634 fetched bytes and each occurs once there. The pairing claim is the point: Asetek says a formula handle set goes on a formula button box or a formula wheel, and this product is the second of those two.
- Formula Regular Handles w. suede
- $89Named in both of this listing's cross-sell blocks. Asetek's own copy on that listing recommends gloves with it: "We recommend using racing gloves with suede steering wheels." Buying it is a swap rather than an addition, since a Regular set is already on this wheel.
- Aluminum button color kit
- $89Named in both cross-sell blocks. Cosmetic.
- Steering Wheel Button Color Kit
- $39Named in the "Pairs Well With" block. Cosmetic.
- Orange buttons (Encoder + 7-way)
- $29Named in the "Pairs Well With" block. Cosmetic, and worth a note beside the $479.00 Button Box, whose own Tech Specs line reads "2 seven-way Kinky switches (Both orange and black sets are included)". So the cheaper, gripless box ships both switch colors where this one sells the orange set as a $29.00 part.
- Sim Racing Steering Wheel Wall Mount
- $19Named in the "Pairs Well With" block. Storage rather than an upgrade to the wheel.
Frequently asked questions
Do the handles come with the Asetek Forte Formula Steering Wheel?
Yes, and this is the one of Asetek's three Forte Formula listings where they do. Its Dimensions block is a single line, "290 mm diameter with Regular Handles (default).", and the bold "Note: Handles are sold separately" that Asetek prints on the $479.00 Forte Formula Button Box and on the $649.00 Forte Formula Pro appears nowhere on this page. Read 4 August 2026.
Is the $479.00 Forte Formula Button Box the cheaper way to buy this wheel?
No, it works out $39.00 dearer. The Button Box is $479.00 with no grips, and the cheapest Asetek formula handle set is $89.00, so a wheel you can hold costs $568.00 that way against $529.00 for this one. The Button Box's own published controls are identical to this wheel's, line for line, so what the extra $39.00 buys is a black-and-aluminum finish instead of orange and the freedom to pick LMP, suede, or XL grips at the start rather than later. Regular prices off Asetek's US store, read 4 August 2026.
Does the Asetek Forte Formula work on PlayStation or Xbox?
Asetek does not say. Its FAQ answers the platform question with "The Forte® Formula Steering Wheel is designed for PC and supports Windows 10 and Windows 11. It is compatible with all Asetek Racing™ Wheelbases.", and the words PlayStation, PS4, PS5, and Xbox return zero hits across the whole listing, searched case-insensitively on 4 August 2026. That is silence rather than a no, and the compatibility badge above the price shows one item, PC.
Does the Forte Formula work on a non-Asetek wheelbase?
Nothing on its listing says so. It mounts on the Asetek quick release and takes power and data through it, on Asetek's own "Easy-to-use, no-play quick-release.Ensuring stable data and power transmission without the use of cables, batteries, or wireless signals." (the missing space is Asetek's). The word USB appears twice on the page and both are a navigation thumbnail's alt text. Its $649.00 Pro sibling is the one Asetek publishes a cross-brand route for, with a $129.00 3rd party wheelbase QR Adapter and a $219.00 QR Wheelbase Extension named on its own listing. Neither part is named here.
How many inputs does the Forte Formula have?
Asetek prints two figures on one page and they differ by 48. A marketing block reads "With 80 inputs, drive your way - no restrictions." and the FAQ two screens below reads "The steering wheel offers 128 individual input options." The Inputs & Controls table under both counts 3 twelve-position rotaries, 6 thumb wheels, 2 seven-way switches, 12 push buttons, 2 rocker switches, and 2 paddles, which is 27 physical controls, so neither published figure is a count of parts. Count the table, not the headline.
What does an Asetek Forte Formula cost to steer with?
$878.00 at the cheapest, this wheel plus Asetek's $349.00 Initium base, and $1,478.00 on the $949.00 Forte base its name comes from. Asetek names no base model on this listing, only "all Asetek Racing™ Wheelbases", and its US catalog carried four of them on 4 August 2026. Pedals are on top of both figures.