A massive secret was revealed regarding Red Bull's Formula One car, but it appears the team has gotten away without issue.
On Saturday, a massive Red Bull Racing secret was made available for each of the other nine Formula One teams to see, clear as day. Sergio Perez's car was craned plenty high above the streets of Monaco, making it easy for photographers to snag stills of the underside/floor of the car, which obviously normally goes unseen entirely.
The floor is one of the only parts of the body of the car that other teams can't see in normal circumstances. Given that the floor location was crucial to Red Bull avoiding things like porpoising last season, and the fact that they have the fastest car on the grid, it's important info that fans want to get a hold of.
Red Bull, though, got away with it once again.
Red Bull appears to have only added to the mystery with floor exposed
Those who aren't Red Bull fans typically wonder how the team keeps getting away with it. The last several years they have dominated the sport and left other teams in the dust, especially with the emergence of Max Verstappen's career.
Heck, Verstappen needed a perfect final sector on Saturday just to get pole position. It shouldn't be surprising that he made it look easy. Backs against the walls, they have gotten away with all of it this season.
That's true even of their exposed floor. When it first happened it was thought to be a massive exposed secret for Red Bull, a car designer told Race Fans that the photos weren't good enough to tell anything.
In fact, it only adds to the mystery:
"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," said Williams' head of vehicle performance Dave Robson.
So, more questions than answers. That seems to be the case for any situation teams look to emulate RBR. After Monaco, they lead the No. 2 team Aston Martin by 129 points in the constructor standings. Verstappen has 144 points, Perez 105, and the current third-place driver is Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin with 93.
