F1 News
Special Mercedes floor design also spotted at Aston Martin, not Red Bull
- GPblog.com
When presenting the cars for 2021 most teams were very secretive about the floor. Because of new guidelines the teams didn't want to reveal too much about this. On the circuit in Bahrain they can't hide it anymore and so we see especially between Mercedes and Red Bull Racing quite big differences.
Mercedes has a rather complex system of wings and curves at the front of the floor. Auto Motor und Sport also spotted a very similar undulation in the floor at Aston Martin. The purpose of these waves is to increase the floor area. In this way they hope to compensate for the part of the floor that has been cut away (due to the new regulations).
Next to this curve, the floor in front of the rear wheel bends upwards at the outside. This also slightly increases the surface of the floor, although the effect will be marginal.
Also at Red Bull the floor isn't completely flat, but we don't see the curvature of Mercedes and Aston Martin here. The number of flaps on top of the floor is also limited in the RB16. It could be that a simplistic approach has been chosen here, but perhaps the team doesn't want to give away all their secrets just yet.