Revealed: The latest Red Bull change inspired by a Ferrari concept

On Saturday morning at the Austrian Grand Prix, there was a notable element of the Red Bull car that required further inspection. A strong resemblance could be observed between the RB21's current floor and that of the Ferrari SF-25. At its home race in Austria, Red Bull introduced a so-called 'parting grove' for the first time, located roughly 30 centimetres in front of the rear edge of the floor, in front of the rear wheels. It is something that has been present on Ferrari's car for years, with the function of creating a seal in line with the throat of the diffuser. It's a philosophy that is opposite to that of the previous version of the floor used by the Red Bull RB21, which fundamentally followed the same philosophy as McLaren.  The main feature was a longitudinal slot that created a kind of longitudinal sword edge. That feature ended exactly where the new perpendicular slot has now appeared on the lateral edge. It also demonstrates how teams consider implementing the solutions that appear on competitor cars. Perhaps it is not always the most competitive, but the specific solution does show valid intuition and originality. The use of Red Bull adopting the concept may stem surprise, given the Italian squad has struggled for performance this year. But the most relevant problems of the SF-25 are not in the aerodynamic concept but rather in the low consistency of aerodynamic performance caused by unpredictable dynamics of the car.