Valtteri Bottas has revealed that far from being a last minute addition to the 2020 car, Mercedes' controversial new 'Dual Axis Steering' has been in development for almost a year, meaning it will be difficult for any of its rivals to come up with their own versions.
“I have been aware of it for a long time," he told the press at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on the third and final day of the first pre-season test.
"First time I heard something about it was nearly one year ago," he added. "It’s not a quick project.
"It’s not an easy thing to start making it, designing it and actually make it work,": he said. “For us, it was a pretty big project, so it would be a pretty difficult thing [for other teams] to just copy.
“It’s very nice to be on the team running these kind of systems, and it says something about the great minds our team has.
"I hope we can have an edge with that, but how big the edge can be is a compete question mark. We are in a good place with that, obviously."
With such a lot of time and money invested in the project, Bottas is confident that it won't fall foul of the FIA reviewing the legality of the DAS concept.
"I don’t think our team will start making and designing something that they will think it will get banned," he said, while accepting that it was nonetheless likely to be challenged by other teams on the grid.
“When a team brings anything new, there's always going to be talks about whether it is legal or not," the Finn shrugged.
Ferrari has already said it will discuss DAS in detail with the governing body. "Are we discussing with the FIA? Not yet," said team principal Mattia Binotto.
“We will do for clarification. Kt's important for us to understand. But we will not challenge the FIA on their decision, because we trust them fully on what will be or has been the decision on that.”
The FIA has already indicated that the new system complies with this year's regulation, and moreover that there are no concerns about the system's safety.
"I think from the FIA perspective, at the end of the day, safety is our number one element," commented F1 race director Michael Masi. "There's no questions regarding the safety side of it. Rest assured that that is the highest priority from our side."
However DAS will not be legal under next year's revised rules, which already mandate a fixed steering wheel position.
As revealed by in-car footage on F1TV, DAS works by the driver pushing and pulling on the steering wheel to change the toe angle of the front wheels as the car goes down long straights.
Regardless of the legality of the system, other drivers have questioned whether the system will provide the Silver Arrows with any real advantage at all, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel likening the use of DAS to running in flip flops.
"To be honest it doesn’t feel that strange," Bottas countered. "There is no issue so far with it. It is pretty easy to use, no issues with that.
"The system just works in very good way. It’s pretty solid, it never does anything funny. You only move the wheel if you want to.
"As it is now, we are still learning about the system and the potential," he added. “On the first day we didn’t run it, on the second day yes.
"I think in some circumstances it can be pretty good, but how it can help us and if it can will be shown later on the year in different conditions, different tracks.
"But its quite impressive," he summarised.
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