Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, Circuit de Catalunya, 2023

Red Bull’s floor “conceptually not hugely different” to Aston Martin’s

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In the round-up: Photographs of Red Bull’s floor which appeared after Sergio Perez crashed at the Monaco Grand Prix revealed a “conceptually” similar design to Aston Martin’s.

In brief

Red Bull’s floor “interesting” – McCullough

Aston Martin’s performance director Tom McCullough said pictures revealing the little-seen underside of the RB19 were “interesting” but not about to prompt the team into a rethink of its design.

“It’s always interesting to see photos but ultimately you’ve got your own development tools, wind tunnel, CFD,” he said. “You’re forever trying parts to try to improve your flow structures, your downforce, your efficiency, et cetera.

“So interesting to look at, but I think conceptually not hugely different. So it’s just more interesting, I’d say.”

Pirelli confirm compounds for Montreal, Red Bull Ring and Silverstone

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Pirelli have confirmed the tyre compounds teams will run at the next three grands prix in Canada, Austria and Great Britain.

The softest combination of C3, C4 and C5 will be run at both next weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal and the Austrian Grand Prix around the Red Bull Ring – the second of six sprint weekends in the 2023 season. The following week at Silverstone, Pirelli will bring the C1, C2 and C3 tyres to the British Grand Prix weekend.

Pirelli will introduce a new specification of tyres at Silverstone, a revised construction originally planned to be brought into the sport for the 2024 which is being fast-tracked due to increased lap speeds seen so far this season.

Let smaller teams catch up – Alfa Romeo boss

Sauber-run Alfa Romeo team has only eight points so far
The FIA should do more to help smaller Formula 1 teams scale up to match the resource of their leading rivals, says Alfa Romeo team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi. He told Mundo Deportivo the restrictions on spending under the budget cap create an obstacle to teams who lack the facilities of the leading competitors in F1.

“If we really want to get to a point of creating opportunities for everyone to aspire to at least podiums, we have to end this structural difference between big and small,” he said. “Allow the smaller teams that have not operated at the level of the budget limit of the year previous, to be able to allow you to invest resources not to surpass the big ones, but to recover that difference.”

Ferrari lead final practice at Le Mans

Shortly after taking pole position for this weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours, Ferrari headed the final practice session before the warm-up and race on Saturday. The number 51 car shared by Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado lapped in 3’27.275.

The number 709 Glickenhaus car, which will start the race from 14th place, was second-quickest.

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Comment of the day

Have the Le Mans organisers made a mistake with their latest change to the Safety Car rules?

I hate to say it, but even with this incredible field, I fear the new Safety Car rules are going to ruin the actual race. The cars that are slower will keep automatically catching up every time there is a yellow because now they are waved through to catch up their lap every time.

This is so against the spirit of endurance racing. We don’t need a last lap finish in a 24 hour race – what we want is an endurance race when drivers race hard all night and all morning. This is the whole point of a 24 hour race.
Minardi (@Gitanes)

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Stevo and Ricardo Marques!

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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8 comments on “Red Bull’s floor “conceptually not hugely different” to Aston Martin’s”

  1. S
    9th June 2023, 4:27

    We don’t need a last lap finish in a 24 hour race – what we want is an endurance race when drivers race hard all night and all morning.

    They’ll still race just as hard (or harder) for just as long (or longer) as there are more competitors closer together to directly compete against.
    How many cars are on the lead lap has nothing to do with it being an endurance race or not – in fact, I’d suggest that this change supports the basic concept of an endurance race far more than having very few cars within competitive distance of each other.
    It certainly reduces the monotony and the increasing sense of foregone conclusion that modern motorsport has become riddled with and substantially degraded by.

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    Jere (@jerejj)
    9th June 2023, 5:58

    Bravi’s suggestion is good in theory, but how that’d work practically is another matter.

    Nothing wrong with officially residing in Monaco (or Switzerland) to maximize income.

    I correctly assumed Ricciardo would attend the Canadian GP, but didn’t expect him to do punditry alongside his Red Bull Racing role.

    COTD makes a good point.

    1. SteveP
      9th June 2023, 7:52

      Bravi’s suggestion is good in theory, but how that’d work practically is another matter.

      Quite so. The lower rank teams are, by and large, not able to spend up to the cost cap.

      That’s where the RBR fine should have been applied, deduct from the RBR budget and add to the lower ranks budget in inverse proportion to their CC rank. It would have been, in effect, two things:
      1. A real financial penalty, lowering their budget – which the “fine” on their money bucket Red Bull GmbH did not do in any way.
      2. A levelling of the scales by boosting the bottom ranks more than RBR immediate competitors (Ferrari, Mercedes, …)

      Of course that’s common sense, and we’re talking about what the FIA needed to do, so no chance.

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      MacLeod (@macleod)
      9th June 2023, 7:56

      Everyone is free to live where they want and if they pay taxes there then it’s alright. If Monaco ask so little taxes there is otherways to collect money to keep the town running..

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        drmouse (@drmouse)
        9th June 2023, 8:27

        There problem with places like Monaco is that most people are not “free to live there”. Because of their tax policy, it’s incredibly attractive to the super-rich, so everyone else is completely priced out. Heck, they have to ship in all the workers from France because none of them can afford to live anywhere within Monaco’s borders.

        So, it’s not that I’m against Monaco or other countries setting their own tax policies, but to say “Everyone is free to live where they want” is not entirely true.

  3. SadF1fan
    9th June 2023, 16:05

    Just on the tax avoidance frame of Verstappen.
    Max wasn’t born in the Netherlands, has never lived in the Netherlands, neither parental house is located in the Netherlands, so Max was never legible to pay taxes in the Netherlands in the first place, so he hasn’t and isn’t avoiding taxes.

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      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      9th June 2023, 22:44

      Found this on the f1 website: “His Belgian mother, Sophie Kumpen, was a successful kart racer and his Dutch father, Jos Verstappen, a former F1 driver. After his parents separated Max lived in Holland with his father, who masterminded the boy racer’s fast-moving career.”

      So that is not fully correct, he DID live in the netherlands for a bit.

      1. SadF1fan
        10th June 2023, 9:41

        It’s incorrect, Max lived in Maaseik with Jos. Maaseik is near the border in Belgium.
        He lived there because he went to a Dutch highschool in Sittard. He went to that highschool because it was the only one willing to allow him to go karting will studying.

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