Red Bull fire WARNING to F1 rivals Mercedes about 'IGNORANT COPIES'

Red Bull

Red Bull fire WARNING to Mercedes about 'IGNORANT COPIES'

Red Bull have played down the chances of the photos of their floor having a significant impact on rival performance

Jay Winter

Saturday 10 June 2023 05:57 Updated: 10:46

Red Bull's chief engineer Paul Monaghan has shrugged off attempts by Formula 1 rivals to replicate their floor design, stating that mere "ignorant copies" will not improve their performance.

Red Bull's highly sought after floor was revealed in Monte Carlo

Sergio Perez's crash during qualifying at the Monaco Grand Prix saw his RB19 get hoisted in the air on a crane, allowing rivals, Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston Martin to take valuable photos of the Austrian team's underside of the car.

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Although the grid claims they have gained important knowledge from the photos, Monaghan believes loose imitations of the floor won't necessarily improve performance and that it could take months for others to actually implement the new floor.

"It's not great. we don't put our car up [like that]," he admitted.

"But it has happened and we'll move on. However, there's a phase lag between people seeing it, incorporating it into their car, and actually going faster with it.

"An ignorant copy isn't necessarily going to achieve better results. It has to integrate, and it's not just a matter of replicating a piece of floor geometry."

Dubbed as "the man that can see air", Newey has played a crucial role in Red Bull's unbeaten run

Eyes on Suzuka

With it taking time for rivals to play catch up, Monaghan suggested that around the Japanese Grand Prix, the true picture of each team's progress would become clearer.

“Our development path is reasonably well laid out in terms of the timings we wish to try to deploy things if they're going to make us go faster,” he said.

“If we change someone else's development plan, then we probably increase the phase lag by which they can get it to the car. So around about Japan time, we'll see where everybody is.

“But we've got to maintain our discipline and our development path. And it's only our car that we can change. We can't influence what those guys do. So, we'll keep plugging away in our own manner and we'll try to be quickest.”

Monaghan acknowledged that imitating successful designs is not a crime in F1. He remains unfazed by other teams drawing inspiration from their designs, recognising it as a normal part of F1.