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It has been revealed that Red Bull was ready to protest Mercedes' Dual-Axis Steering (DAS) if they used it in Melbourne.
Mercedes caught the attention of the paddock in pre-season testing when onboard footage from Lewis Hamilton's W11 showed the British driver pulling the steering wheel back to adjust the toe angle of the front wheels.
Normally, F1 teams run their cars toe-out, which means that the front wheels point outwards slightly. This is beneficial through the corners as it increases the turning ability, but it is a slight disadvantage along the straights. This is because it induces scrub onto the tyres, which slows the car down and can cause the tyres to overheat.
Using this system, Mercedes has given the drivers control over when they are using toe-out, keeping their ability to corner well but removing any disadvantages of this setup along the straights.
Whilst most of the teams have agreed that DAS is within the rules, with there being a loophole that has been cleverly exploited by the Silver Arrows, it was believed that Red Bull was still convinced it was illegal, according to Autosport.
They were so confident in this that they were ready to launch a protest against Mercedes had they used the system in a session.
Valtteri Bottas was not too concerned about Mercedes' chances if the system was taken away, but said that the German team would have to weigh up their chances: "We would be happy to run it, but it is up to the team to calculate the possible risk of it being taken away," said the Finn.
"In a short answer, yes, we would like to keep it. But if there's a big risk we don't, there is no big problem then."
Wonder what keeps the other teams from changing the front wing angle, rear end plate orientation with driver assistance.
You cannot have movable aerodynamics, so wings, floors, etc cannot move with driver control (obviously excluding the rear wing DRS)
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You cannot have movable aerodynamics, so wings, floors, etc cannot move with driver control (obviously excluding the rear wing DRS)