Red Bull may develop ‘more extreme’ DAS
Christian Horner has confirmed that Red Bull is working on their own version of DAS, and suggested they may opt for a “more extreme” system.
The device designed by Mercedes was a talking point throughout the first race weekend of the system, with Red Bull lodging a protest to the FIA about it.
Many believe that they did so that, if it was deemed legal, they’d be able to develop a system of their own.
Speaking to Servus TV, Horner confirmed that they are indeed looking into doing so and implementing it at some point this season, and said that they may go for something more “extreme” than the German team.
“From our point of view, it was a grey area,” he said.
“Mercedes put forward the argument that it was part of the steering system, we thought that in this form it was part of the suspension. Ultimately it’s for warming up the tires.
“The technical delegate was in Spielberg for the hearing. Because of the protest on Friday, the subject had no influence on the rest of the weekend. …but we wanted to have it settled before we went out on the track.
“We’re putting a lot of money into this. Maybe we’ll look for a more extreme solution now that it’s allowed.”
Despite being comfortably the second quickest team all weekend, Red Bull came out of it without any points.
Max Verstappen retired early with an electrical problem, while Alex Albon, in a good position to get a podium and maybe even a win, collided with Lewis Hamilton and dropped to the back of the field before making it a double DNF.
“We had done it strategically very well up to that point, got Alex in and put on the soft tyre. Alex had to use this advantage quickly,” he added.
“He had so much more speed than Lewis. He thought he had already passed Hamilton. I even think Alex has a chance to win this race. He was 1.2 seconds faster than the Mercedes on each lap with our strategy.”
In the same interview, Horner refused to rule out the team bringing Sebastian Vettel back for the 2021 season. With Verstappen and Vettel himself also open to the idea, Albon will be hoping that maiden podium comes sooner rather than later…
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