Mercedes' new DAS system

Day 2 of Formula One pre-season testing at Barcelona, Spain saw Mercedes pull out a weird new system. Mercedes' technical director James Allison called referred to this system as "DAS" or "Dual Axis Steering"

The DAS works on the toe angle of the car. As explained briefly by motorsport magazine "Toe is the angle that the wheels sit in relation to dead ahead when the steering is straight. If the front of the wheels are pointing out then this is known as toe out, the opposite and they are toed in".

Engineers in F1 tweak the angle to counteract oversteer and understeer. So what Mercedes's DAS does is that it varies the toe angle between zero toe and negative toe. On the straights the angle becomes zero, reducing drag and giving a slight speed boost. This system is not automatic. It is activated with a button on the steering wheel. The message "marker" is displayed on the dash everytime the system is activated. The system allows the driver to change the toe by pushing or pulling the steering wheel by around 1cm.

The FIA has seemingly deemed this system to be legal. While the exact benefit of this system remains a little unclear, it has bemused the entire paddock.

Ferrari driver, Sebastian Vettel believes that the system might be uncomfortable to use. He said “I have seen it and we talked about it at lunch and it looks interesting. I guess the fact that they are running with it means that it is legal.I don’t know if it works…it is called a steering wheel not a push or pull wheel."

“I guess there is quite a lot of work to bring it to the track and it is probably not as easy as it looks for the driver to work with it."

“These things are never easy but I also guess it is not easy to operate, I think it is quite weird to have the feeling of having the wheel in your hands."

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