Mercedes was not able to get the most out of DAS in 2020: 'Very difficult'

During the winter tests in Barcelona, Mercedes came up with an innovation that confused many: DAS. But how many times has the team been able to use it?

DAS not optimally used

Once again it was Mercedes and not one of the other top teams that had the advantage ahead of the season. With the Dual Axis Steering system, Mercedes was once again outsmarting the competition, because with this new system it was possible to adjust the position of the tyres, but did this really work properly?

''I think we can say that it has to a large extent done what we had hoped for. However, we had hoped that we could use it more often in the corners, but that turned out to be more difficult for the drivers than expected," says top designer James Allison to The Race.

Warm up the tyres

The development of the design also became somewhat difficult due to the chaotic season. ''In a full season where we wouldn't be distracted by COVID, we might have had a chance to develop and test this more and fine-tune it a bit more.

"The system has, in spite of everything, helped us enormously in warming up the tyres for a qualifying round and of course behind the Safety Car. So we've certainly seen part of what this system can do, but certainly not all of it," Allison adds.