Since the Dual Axis Steering system's first appearance in Barcelona testing, there have been hints that a protest could be lodged in Melbourne. If that happens before the race, Mercedes might be obliged not to run it for the rest of the weekend.

“I’m sure we’ll be DAS-ing some of the straights,” Bottas said. “It depends which kind of laps, and which sessions, and so on.

“But we’re still happy to have it in the car. We hope it can give an advantage, but again, we will see.”

Regarding the threat of a protest, he said: “Well, I'm sure we will have to wait for what happens, but like I said earlier we would we would be happy to run it, but it is up to the team to calculate the possible risk of it being taken away.

“In short answer, yes, we would like to keep it, but if there’s a big risk we

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