McLaren team principal in awe of ‘complexity and quality’ of Red Bull car’s floor design

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has stated that he is impressed by the complexity of the floor design on Red Bull Racing's RB19.

The floors on Formula 1 cars play a big role in how they perform on the track and generally remain a closely guarded secret as they can't be seen under normal circumstances.

At the Monaco Grand Prix, however, Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez's crashes were followed by the Mercedes and Red Bull cars being lifted high by trackside cranes, giving everyone a good view of the cars' underfloor designs.

Ahead of the Spanish GP, team bosses were asked if they had a look at Red Bull's floor design, and Stella admitted that he did. He praised the complex nature of it and stated that McLaren's aerodynamicists will be studying it keenly.

"Personally, I spent some time but the 100 aerodynamicists at McLaren will be spending a little bit more time. It's very interesting, indeed. And it also shows the complexity and the quality of the development," he said. (via motorsport.com)

"To be honest, when I saw it I said, 'hats off to Red Bull'. I can understand why they have this kind of performance," he added.

On the other hand, Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has quashed talk of other teams copying Red Bull's floor design to gain an advantage on the track.

"I think that we all have a lot of pictures of the other cars. But then it's quite difficult or even impossible to try to copy something because it's more a global concept than something else. You can't copy just one part of the car," he opined.

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"Much more complex than just the floor" - Red Bull boss says knowledge of the floor design alone won't be useful

With Red Bull Racing's floor design revealed in Monaco, there has been speculation of other teams reproducing it through the season to gain a significant advantage on the track.

While admitting that insight about Red Bull's floor design will be of some help to the opposition, the team's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko believes others will still struggle to reproduce the RB19's performance with it.

“The floor is very important, but if you don’t have the other parts and all the underlying concepts, then it’s not so easy. It’s not only the floor. It has to work together with the front wing and the rear end. So it’s about all those things combined, and that is much more complex than just the floor," he said.