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Red Bull chief: "It's not ideal, I'm not going to deny that"
It continues to simmer a bit, the fact that all teams in Formula 1 own photographs of the floor of the RB19 from the Monaco Grand Prix onwards. There is plenty of discussion within the paddock about how important this photographic material is, but Red Bull Racing is now coming forward to speak for itself. Paul Monaghan calls it ''not great'' and ''not ideal''.
Speaking to Motorsport.com and others, the Chief Engineer of the Austrian racing stable says that it would have preferred not to have pictures of the RB19 after Sergio Perez's crash in Monaco. Monaghan: "It's not ideal, I'm certainly not going to deny that either." However, the British top executive does add that not all teams in Formula 1 will now suddenly become faster. After all, simply copying a component does not work; it has to fit the current concept.
Monaghan continues by saying that it will certainly be quite some time before we could see a similar floor at other race tracks. The pictures of the floor of the RB19 will also throw other teams' development plans into turmoil, which in turn could be detrimental. "Then of course that will also affect when they can bring something on the car. As a result, we actually need to talk again around the Japanese Grand Prix. Only then can we see what the actual effect is and where everyone stands."
Verstappen is not worried
However, as Max Verstappen revealed to GPblog in Spain, Red Bull will also be driving with a completely different floor in a few months' time and so the competition will remain behind the times if they start copying the floor exactly. On the other hand, these pictures do mean that the other teams have a much better understanding of how the airflow under the RB19 works so well. Those ideas, and not necessarily the exact design immediately, could also already play a big role.