Since the st♓art of F1’s regulation overhaul of 2022, tea🌊ms have been keen to keep the designs of their ground-effect floors a closely guarded secret, with engineers estimating as much as 60 percent of car performance is now generated by the largely hidden aerodynamic features. 

But over the course of the weekend in Monaco, everyone was treated to an inf𝄹requent opportunity to get a go🐷od look at an area of the cars not normally seen thanks to the circuit’s unique nature.

The first instance occurred after 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton crashed his Mercedes at Mirabeau in the clo🌸sing stages of final practice. 𓃲;

When his car wa🌞s lifted high into the Monaco sky by a crane - rather than being put onto the back of a flatbed truck - the heavily-upgraded W14’s floor was completely exposed and left to the mercy of photoဣgraphers. 

That led Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff to joke that the crane operator must have come from the famed 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Cirque du Soleil as he admitted the unintended reveal wasꦡ “suboptimal”. 

Just hours later, the underbody of Red Bull’s dominant RB19 was shown to the world following 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Sergio Perez’s qualifying shunt. 

Mercedes’ Andrew Shovlin said F1 teams will be “all over” photographs of the 2023 Red Bull to try and spot any features they 𝐆might have missed.

“I suspect they’re probably more annoyed at their car beingℱ left in the sky than we would be about ours,” Shovlin added. 

Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough said the exposure of the RB19 would provide teams with useful info𒅌rmation. 

Red Bull’s floor

— Christian Falavena (@CFalavena)

“Obviously, there are some great photos,” he said. “A lot of people were there🥂 so I’m sure the aerodynamicists will be🅠 having a good look at all the cars that were lifted up.

“Thankfully, our🀅s hasn’t been lifted up yet. Let’s try and keep 💮it that way!

“The aerodynamicists never want you to show that. You learn a lot froꦇm just even how the plank is wearing. You learn from w♌hat’s touching.

“There’s a lot of very excited aerodyna♛micists up and down the pitlane lo🌠oking at all of that.”

So are Red Bull the biggest losers frꩵom their floor being displayed to prying eyes?

Not according to team principal Christian Horner, who insisted he isꦺn’t bothered that rivals got the chance to check out a seldom-seen area of their car. 

“It’s very rude to look up people’s skirts,” Horner joked as he brushed off concerns about Red Bull✃’s secrets being revealed.&n🅘bsp;

“It’s been a bit of a show and tell for all the teams this weekend,🍒” he added. “Everybody’s been up in the air at some point. So it’s the꧅ same for everyone.

“Pictures of floors get taken in and around the paddock. They arrive in vans, they work with the car⛎s, the shutters are up. Each team wi🌠ll be employing spy photographers to get pictures of the cars when they’re in parts and pieces. So that’s common practice.

“I wouldn’t have thought it’s the first picture of the floor. It’s probably the fir𒁃st time it’s been suspended from a crane. But all teams are always striving for that intelligence.”

Williams’ head of vehicle performance Dave Robson also downplayed the uᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚsefulness of the images. 

Robson pointed out that due t💛o the sophistication of Red Bull’s floor layout, it will be hard to replicate by other teams. 

And then there is the added factor of the 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:F1 cost cap - set at $135m for 2023 - to take into consideration.&nꦡbsp;

“It’s so complex that on a 2D photo, because of the𝔉 way the light is, it’s so curved, you can’t f🐼igure any of it out,” Robson explained. 

“I guess it’s just coincidental they do it all like that because that’s how they get the downforce. But it doesn’t half make i🍷t difficult to copy!”

Sky’s pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz said Red Bull’s floor makes the designs of Mercedes and Ferrari look168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: “prehistoric” in comparison.

“It’s 𒊎a thing✤ of wonder and beauty,” Kravitz said. “Especially when you compare it to the floor of the Mercedes and the Ferrari, which we also saw up on cranes so we got a full view of it this weekend. 

“They look prehistoric. ꦅEven the little guide fences have got guide fences of their own on the Red Bull!

“It’s so complex in three dimensions – not only in elements co꧂ming down but then curlin💝g round and it’s got circles where the vortex start and then the vortices are generated midway through the floor. 

“Then what they’re doing with the area u🧸nder the crash structure and the gearb🍌ox as well.

“I tell you, when you look at these pictures and compare them to the Mercedes and Ferrari you think ‘okay, no w🌸onder this Red Bull RB19 is so good’.” 

Even if doubts have been raised over whet𝔍her teams can gain much from the photos, they certainly provided a fascinating insight into modern-day F1 tech and grabbed everyone’s attention.