McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has paid tribute to Red Bull for the design of its floor on the RB19 that has dominated the current F1 season.
Last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix proved eye-opening for a number of reasons, not least were the incidents involving Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez during final practice and qualifying respectively.
Seven-time F1 champion Hamilton slid into a barrier at Mirabeau in his Mercedes, whilst Red Bull driver Perez wrecked his weekend by crashing at Ste Devote in the first part of qualifying.
On both occasions, the W14 and RB19 were lifted off the track, albeit high enough into the air for trackside photographers to take images of the underneath of both cars.
For Mercedes, the situation was unfortunate given the team had introduced a new floor onto its car for that race, whilst for Red Bull, one of the crucial areas of its aerodynamic philosophy in the ground-effect era had been exposed.
Understandably, aerodynamicists up and down the pit lane have since pored over the images to understand how Red Bull, in particular, has been able to crush the opposition over the past 18 months.
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Asked whether he had analysed the Red Bull floor and whether there was anything to learn, Stella said: “Myself, personally, I spent some time, but the 100 aerodynamicists at McLaren will be spending a little bit more time.
“It’s very interesting indeed and shows the complexity and the quality of their development.
“To be honest, when I saw it, I said ‘Hats off to Red Bull’. I can understand why they have this kind of performance.”
Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur, however, pointed out that despite the fact the floor will have been extensively studied, any team attempting to replicate it will be wasting their time.
Vasseur said: “We all have a lot of pictures of the other cars.
“But then it’s quite difficult, or even impossible to try to copy something because it’s more a global concept than something else, and you can’t copy just one part of the car.”
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