Red Bull blames ambiguity of F1 regs, won’t appeal Mercedes DAS ruling

Red Bull Racing chief Christian Horner says the team is unlikely to pursue more action against Mercedes after its protest against its controversial Dual-Axis Steering (DAS) system was thrown out ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.

The title challengers lodged a formal grievance with the FIA over the DAS system – which allows drivers to adjust the toe angle of their front wheels by sliding the steering wheel back and forth along the straights - over concerns it didn’t comply with the technical regulations.

Among its concerns were whether the system allows drivers to help keep the tyres warm on out-laps and at the end of safety car periods.

However, the FIA sided with Mercedes, who are set to continue using it for this weekend and possibly for the remainder of the season, even if it has already been outlawed for 2021.

While Red Bull reserves the right to appeal, Horner – who praised Mercedes for coming up with the innovation – admits it is unlikely to do so.

“Having seen it on the car yesterday we chose to use the avenue of a protest to achieve clarity,” he told Sky Sports F1. “We informed Mercedes of that prior to putting in the protest.

“The system is very complicated and of course it comes into question ‘what is a steering wheel for?’. The stewards backed the decision of the technical delegate so we have that clarity now, it is legal and if we want one then we will have to decision our own and incorporate.

“The engineering feedback we had was that it wasn’t fully compliant to the regulations this year which is why we got that clarity late last night, so as far as we are concerned it is book closed now.

It means Red Bull is now free to develop its own system if it wants to, saying the fact the FIA has outlawed it for 2021 shows Mercedes simply exploited a loophole that has now been closed in retrospect.

“I think it is [used] a combination of achieving balance shifts and tyre warm up during safety car periods, so in that respect it is a tool that doesn’t have anything to do with steering the car because they only use it in a straight line.

“But that is sometimes the ambiguity that these regulations create, it is something that has been tidied up for the next year.”