Does Mercedes have an even bigger trump card than the DAS system?

Although the revolutionary DAS (double axis steering) system attracted a lot of attention when the Mercedes W11 first appeared on the track during the winter test, the most important "upgrade" of the car compared to its predecessor model, according to Mark Hughes and Giorgio Piola on formula1.com, was probably to be found on the other side of the car.

Indeed, at the launch of the car, the rear suspension was described by Mercedes Technical Director James Allison as "extremely adventurous", adding: "We have deployed a new geometry that gives us more aerodynamic possibilities, and allows us to get more downforce on the car".

Explaining exactly how the Mercedes rear suspension works requires a lot of technical knowledge. Essentially, what Mercedes has done is to retract the lower wishbone of the suspension as far as possible to create much more space for the air flow to improve performance. The more powerful that flow, the greater the air pressure difference between the upper and lower parts of the car - and the harder the air is pulled through that grille through the floor. The improvement in the downward force should thus be considerable.

So the W11's DAS system may well have filled all the front pages in winter, but this much less obvious innovation could actually be worth more in lap time for Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.