Dave Robson, who is the head of vehicle performance at Williams, believes copying the Red Bull RB-19 will be a hard nut to crack. As reported by Race Fans, Robson believes the sheer sophistication of the floor makes it harder to copy.
The crane operator in Monaco who was responsible for removing damaged cars from the track, was a source of headache for both Red Bull and Mercedes. When Sergio Perez crashed in Q1, the operator picked the car up on a crane, and lifted it high up in the air.
The RB-19 which is the most dominant car this season, was left exposed with cameras all over. With Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes suffering the same fate, it certainly wasn’t a good day for Adrian Newey or James Allison.
The underbody of the RB-19 was very clearly visible. Potentially, it could have led to rival teams taking note of the design. However, copying the design will not be that easy, reveals Robson.
Copying the RB-19 will not be easy, claims Robson
The floor of an F1 car plays a big part in making it aerodynamically perfect. With perfectly shaped floor layouts, such as the RB-19’s, the aerodynamic advantage could be massive over its competitors.
The sophistication of the floor could extract upto a few tenths during a flying lap. In the end, that creates all the difference in the qualification, and potentially in the race, as seen in the recently concluded Monaco Grand Prix.
However, even with the floor of Red Bull exposed, Robson believes it will still be a tough job to copy the layout as they are very sophistically modified. It will not be easy to imitate even after they have seen it, he believes.
Speaking about this, the Williams F1 engineer said, “It’s so complex that on a 2D photo. Because of the way the light is, it’s so curved, you can’t figure any of it out. I guess it’s just coincidental they do it all like that. Because that’s how they get the downforce. But it doesn’t half make it difficult to copy!”
Even if the design is copied, can it hurt Red Bull?
With Dave Robson already revealing that the curvy underfloor of RB-19 will not be an easy task to copy, Mercedes engineer Andrew Shovlin believes it will not harm the defending champions much.
Red Bull will remain unharmed as the new regulations don’t reveal much of the challenger from outside. It comes with minimal information, stated the Mercedes trackside engineering director.
“To be honest with these regulations, the most important bit is the bit that you don’t normally get to see,” said Shovlin. “Years ago, when your weight distribution could be anywhere between 48% and 43% you paid a bit more attention to where people are,” concluded the Mercedes engineer.
