DAS: Boon or Bane to Formula One

To start with this blog we would like to salute Mercedes amg petronas formula 1 team for their workmanship , dedication and will to improve attitude. Introduction of the Dual Axis Steering (DAS) System in official testing at Catalunya this year just made the 2020 season more interesting already , as anxiety of any formula one fan reached to the top.

DAS is a system which enables the driver to change the toe of tyres during driving. The stuff which makes it more interesting is the effort taken by the driver to activate this system just by pulling or pushing the steering wheel (generally we see this type of mechanism in aeroplanes).

The way engineers of Mercedes have worked their way out to simplify this mechanism for the use justifies the passion as well as pay at the factory.

Changing of toe gives many advantages to car as heat in tyres can be generated comparatively easily , it will also increase the straight line speed of the car , races at tracks having long straights will be surely one to watch this year with DAS on silver arrows as earlier lacking straight line speed was the weak point of mercedes compared with their rivals Ferrari.

Now since they have found a solution through DAS it will be interesting to watch the rivalry this year. DAS also displayed how loopholes can be exploited from FIA rulebook. This also displayed the scope of improvement through such exploitations.

Moving on from the technology to its surrounding stuff. First things that comes to mind after hearing any innovation being implemented in racing is safety of drivers, it has been a topic of concern over the years , as sport has improved with technical aspects improving drivers safety have been the biggest priority. Introduction of new technology also has cons , as the time given for its testing is not sufficient enough(that is what i feel). Failure of technology had fatal outcomes in the history of motorsports. Losing the great Ayrton Senna to the active suspension system of Williams can be an example to know how serious it could get when technology fails.

But looking at brighter side of history ,we know that innovation is what improves the sport., The groundbreaking technologies are the reason why some cars won the championship, as soon the technology is adapted by other competitive teams and it becomes mainstream.But nobody forgets the one who dares to introduce it.

Therefore the 2020 season will be the one to see whether DAS proves to be a success or a failure on track. How will rivals react ? How well will they cope up with the team? Is there any other technology which can beat the advantages of this one?.............. Lot of questions in mind, but they will be answered only after season starts ,

Thank you for your time , do give us the feedback on the above content so we can be better next time in blogs.

Omkar

Team Engineering Bazar

Source: Formula1.com