Mercedes’ excited reaction to seeing the Red Bull RB19’s floor
Both Red Bull and Mercedes 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 that the mystery surrounding the floor of the RB19 - the most dominant car in F1 - was destroyed.
Photographers 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 director Andrew Shovlin said.
"So the teams will be all over those kinds of photographs. Monaco is a good opportunity to get that kind of shot."
Much of the performance of the RB19 - and every F1 car - is derived from its floor, which is also naturally the part which is viewed the least often.
Aston Martin also admitted interest in Red Bull’s wooden plank, a part which every F1 car uses on their floor.
"You learn a lot from just even how the plank is wearing,” Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough said.
“You learn from what’s touching. There’s a lot of very 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 Monaco.
