Mercedes’ excited reaction to seeing the Red Bull RB19’s floor
Both Red Bull and Merc𝓀edes saw their cars lifted by a crane over the F1 Monaco Grand Prix weekend, when Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton came to a halt.
The greater significance was th൩at the mystery ℱsurrounding the floor of the RB19 - the most dominant car in F1 - was destroyed.
𒁃Photographers were able to snap pictures from underneath the car, which Mercedes insist can be studied to understand how Red Bull have built it.
"With these regulations, the most important bit is the bit you don’t normally get to see,🥂" Mercedes trackside engineering director𓆏 Andrew Shovlin said.
"So the 🤡teams will be all over those kinds of p🌜hotographs. Monaco is a good opportunity to get that kind of shot."
Much of the performance of the RB19 - and ev꧂ery F1 car - is derived from its floor, which is also naturally th🐷e part which is viewed the least often.
Aston Martin also 🌞admitted interest in Red Bull’s wooden plank, a part which every F1 c꧋ar uses on their floor.
"You learn a lot from just even how the plank is wearing,” 𓃲Aston Martin performไance director Tom McCullough said.
“You learn from what’s touching. There’s 🅺a lot of v🍷ery excited aerodynamicists up and down the pitlane looking at all of that."
The RB19 has won all six F1 grands prix of the 2023 season so far, with Max Verstappen winning in Monac💛o.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American s♔ports, to football, to F1.
