“It’s a Bit Unfortunate”: Adrian Newey Shows Frustration As Red Bull’s Monaco Floor Memory Comes To Haunt Him

Red Bull’s technical mastermind Adrian Newey was recently left frustrated over the Monaco GP shambles as not-so-good memories came to haunt him. Despite passing weeks after the Monaco race, the pain is still there as Newey opened up about it recently in Canada.

After Sergio Perez crashed in Monaco during qualification, his RB-19 was lifted by the crane to remove it from the track. While doing so, Red Bull was in the air and was in a position where rivals could note the floor to their advantage.

The floor is a very important and intricate part of making a Formula 1 challenger. While the sport depends heavily on aerodynamics, a well-planned floor helps the team to get the best out of aerodynamics and stay ahead of its rivals, as can be seen with the Austrian team.

Since the Milton Keynes team has absolutely been dominant after the new regulations, there are obvious reasons why the rivals would want a good look at the RB-19 floor. And this isn’t something Newey, the chief technical officer of Red Bull, will take comfortably.

Red Bull floor and upset Newey

Notably, to make a well-planned floor and to get the best out of it aerodynamically, teams with enormous strength of personnel have to work week after week in CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics).

Hence, to get that much hard work exposed in front of rivals is sure to make anyone unhappy as happened with Newey. Talking about this, the British engineer said in Ted Kravitz’s Notebook, “It’s a bit unfortunate, really.”

Monaco might not give us a lot sometimes.. but at least it’s giving us the RB19 floor 😂😂😂

#f1#monacoGP pic.twitter.com/n3izAIapq3

— Chella⚡️🏁 (@chellamn11) May 27, 2023

“The guys have been working hard at it. We have an amazing team and dedicated people, and they have come up with interesting solutions. It takes time. A lot of CFD, head scratching and iterating away,” concluded the 64-year-old.

With much of the performance depending on the floor, teams are usually very delicate about it. And to get that exposed in broad daylight is surely a cause of grave concern. However, Red Bull doesn’t seem to be much worried about that at the moment.

Will Red Bull’s exposed floor be a significant disadvantage for them?

Having the secret recipe exposed is definitely a drawback for any team and there’s no exception in the case of Red Bull. However, with things already out of hand, there’s hardly anything else the Austrian team could do.

With the huge gap they already have, even if the rivals try to copy them, Red Bull is likelier to speed away with the titles this season. Furthermore, Newey and Co. are also not expected to sit idle and not develop their RB-19 further.

Moreover, the way RB-19’s chassis is designed, they have a significant edge over Ferrari, Mercedes, and Aston Martin. All in all, the defending champions are believed to be safe even after a grave exposure, at least for the time being.