Red Bull doubt rivals will make any progress if they copy their floor
During the Monaco Grand Prix weekend the Red Bull floor was revealed and caught the attention of teams up and down the grid.
Red Bull's secrets may have been revealed after Sergio Perez crashed in Monaco Grand Prix's qualifying session with the car having to be lifted up by a crain showing off the floor of the only team to have won a race so far in 2023. Teams up and down the grid have taken interest in pictures taken by photographers at Monaco's Sante Devote.
Mercedes were one of the teams to comment on the Red Bull floor saying they were going to have their aerodynamicists looking over the photos to see if they could take any information to add to their car. Meanwhile Red Bull have said that it would be a "ignorant copy" if teams on the grid were to try and copy the design without understanding the theory and knowledge behind the complex floor design.
After the crash Red Bull were understandably annoyed that their design had been revealed but they remained confident that it would be hard for teams to copy their design. the Mercedes floor was also revealed in Monaco on the same day after Lewis Hamilton crashed at Mirabeau High. When the floor was revealed it can be understood why Red Bull were two steps ahead of everyone else on the grid. However the team from Milton Keynes says it would take until at least the Japanese Grand Prix in October for its rivals to fully understand the floor and implement it to their cars.
Meanwhile Christian Horner has spoken on Sergio Perez's chances of winning the championship as his hopes seemed to have been just a flash in the pan during the opening rounds of the season winning two of the first four. Horner said that pressure was off Perez now that the championship battle is over as Verstappen now has a 53 point lead in the standings after the Spanish Grand Prix which the Dutchman dominantly won. Something F1 and fans are now used to seeing after seven rounds in the championship.
Red Bull's team principal did however think that Perez may be able to find the form he showed during the first four races of the season now that the pressure is off. Monaco was a painful weekend for the Mexican driver as his crash in qualifying meant he started last on the grid around the most narrow track on the calendar. Perez went onto finish 16th at the Monaco Grand Prix and with another poor perfomance at the Barcelona circuit he started 11th but managed to claw his way back to fourth while teammate Verstappen took dominanting victories with staggering gaps between him and second place.