Red Bull intends to reserve the right to lodge a future appeal against the stewards’ decision Mercedes’ Dual Axis Steering system is legal.
The FIA stewards rejected Red Bull’s protest over the device yesterday. RaceFans understands Red Bull will not appeal the decision immediately, but will reserve the right to lodge future appeals.Yesterday Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said the matter must be resolved before tomorrow’s grand prix, in order to avoid post-race protests which would put the result in doubt.
“All teams are pretty much aware that we are in a sensitive situation with going racing,” he said. “It’s the first race.
“I think on one side, it’s fair enough to seek clarification, on the other side we are aware that we don’t want to end up with a big debate on Sunday night.”
“First of all we wanted to get clarity,” he told Sky. “We wanted to protest at the earliest point in the weekend so not to interrupt with the result. So it was either going to be legal or illegal on Friday which would then give the chance for Mercedes to rectify that either way.
“So having seen it on the car yesterday we chose to use the avenue of a protest to achieve that clarity. We informed Mercedes of that prior to putting in the protest.
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[/CBC]“Basically the system is very, very complicated. And it comes into question what is the steering wheel for. The stewards obviously backed the decision of Nikolas Tombazis, the technical delegate there, so we have that clarity now. So we know it is legal and if we want one we will have to design our own and incorporate it.”
Red Bull protested DAS on the grounds they consider is part of the car’s suspension, rather than steering. “It is a tool that has nothing to do obviously with steering the car because they only use it in a straight line,” said Horner.
However the stewards ruled in favour of Mercedes, concluding DAS is part of the W11’s steering system.
“That’s sometimes the ambiguity that these regulations create,” said Horner. “It’s something that’s been tidied up for next year.
“We didn’t feel that, the engineering feedback we had it wasn’t fully compliant to the regs this year so that’s why we questioned it and got that clarity late last year. So as far as we’re concerned it’s all closed now.”
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2020 F1 season
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- Hamilton and Mercedes finally announce new deal for 2021 season
- F1 audience figures “strong” in 2020 despite dip in television viewers
DAllein (@)
4th July 2020, 11:14
Sore losers.
They can protest as much as they like, they will lose.
Chaitanya
4th July 2020, 11:33
Sour grapes. This team is becoming a skeloton of former self with Newey designs falling by wayside. Instead of inovating they are pulling legs of their rivals.
Patrick (@paeschli)
4th July 2020, 12:05
They are doing better than Ferrari though
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
4th July 2020, 12:27
Not sour grapes. Effectively what Tombazis clarified is that you can use active suspension again, that is the problem, the pandora’s box.
Jere (@jerejj)
4th July 2020, 12:03
Just let it go.
Learon (@learon)
4th July 2020, 12:04
Red Bull gives you whinges…
davey (@djdaveyp87)
4th July 2020, 12:15
Watched the interview live and Christian seemed very pragmatic on the issue. I hope he sticks to his word.
They’re protest makes perfect sense on the grounds he explained and they got an answer.
Also answered the question I had in my head about why not save it til after the race because then they’d gain even more of Mercedes got thrown out. I thought that was very nice of the to look at the bigger picture and not being the sport into disripute.
So it seems they genuinely want to test the rule in preparation for introducing their own system asap.
davey (@djdaveyp87)
4th July 2020, 12:16
*their protest
🤪
F1oSaurus (@f1osaurus)
4th July 2020, 12:19
@djdaveyp87 It was already approved by the FIA and clarfied as legal after questions were asked. Going for an appeal made no sense especially if you want to look at the bigger picture and not bring the sport into disrepute.
Clearly the FIA felt this nonsense was coming because they clearly had their reply ready to nip any more negativity from RB in the butt.
Robbie (@robbie)
4th July 2020, 12:29
@f1osaurus Except that it wasn’t nonsense nor negativity.
F1oSaurus (@f1osaurus)
4th July 2020, 13:45
@robbie Except that it WAS both of those.
Robbie (@robbie)
4th July 2020, 13:57
Not
ColdFly (@)
4th July 2020, 15:26
You totally missed it @f1osaurus.
Firstly, the FIA defines the rules (legislative branch) whereas only stewards can declare if it is within the rules (judicial branch). When in doubt on technical issues you can only get that answer from the stewards, not from the FIA.
Secondly, of course FIA and almost 8 billion people saw this coming (it was anounced). If you read the stewards report you ‘ll see that it was not a pre-defined verdict, but based on the cases presented by RBR and Mercedes.
And calling it negativity from RBR is probably only a reflection of your emotional state towards them. Todt, Wolff, etc clearly don’t agree with you.
davey (@djdaveyp87)
4th July 2020, 16:03
Exactly @coldfly
I’m a Mercedes fan, but I completely approve of the way Red Bull handled this.
It was transparent and fair. And honourable.
ColdFly (@)
4th July 2020, 12:15
I think the headline should be: ‘As far as RBR is “concerned it’s all closed now”.’
That’s what Horner said on air, and it would stop some comments of people who only read the headlines.
Robbie (@robbie)
4th July 2020, 12:27
@coldfly Agreed.
Harry (@hwhite)
4th July 2020, 12:31
The problem with headlines like this is they are forming a narrative that RB were moaning. When they weren’t.
Robbie (@robbie)
4th July 2020, 13:05
True, but no surprise it would generally seem that it is non-fans of Horner or RBR that wish to read into this topic a certain narrative, and not just from this one headline, and then there are those of us who are reading and understanding the facts and not filling the time writing nonsensical rhetoric.
JohnDarraugh
4th July 2020, 13:49
Little man horner is jammed in a corner.
The gremlins just won’t go away Why don’t you give us a break and give up racing today and F1 will be happy hooray.
Ben (@x-f1-x)
4th July 2020, 18:50
It’s not RB whinging thought is it?
If the boot was on the other foot, and RB has the DAS system, can you honestly tell me the likes of Mercedes would not be protesting that? Come on, don’t be so naive.
You know how F1 works. If another team comes out with a new innovation, your first instinct is to think ok, we need to protest the legality of this device.
I guarantee you RB haven’t been sitting twiddling their thumbs the whole time, they would have been trying to find ways to implement the DAS system onto their own cars. And now they have the green light to go ahead with it.
Your first instinct is always, if I can’t have this innovation on my car, I need to get it banned. It’s not just isolated to RB. Ferrari and Merc has also been guilty of this.