Mercedes technical director James Allison has revealed that the Silver Arrows did gather a “nice clutch of Red Bull imagery” following Sergio Perez’s crash last weekend at the Monaco Grand Prix, with the Germans set to investigate the photos.
For the second time this season, Perez started from last after crashing in the opening stages of Q1 after entering Sainte Devote with too much speed.
The left-side of his car made heavy contact with the barrier, resulting in his RB19 becoming stricken in the middle of the circuit.
In a bid to get it to safety quickly and so that the session could be resumed, Perez’s car was lifted into the air by a crane, allowing the world to see every detail of the RB19’s floor.
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With Red Bull having won every race so far this season, the entire paddock presumably jumped at the chance to get a closer look at the team’s floor, with Allison having admitted that Mercedes’ aerodynamicists will “pore over” the images they got a hold of.
“Well, certainly it always attracts a lot of interest,” Allison said in Mercedes’ post-Monaco debrief.
“There’s a lot of scurrying around with team cameramen, not just to rely on the TV pictures which are low resolution and not good enough grade.
“Photographers are positioned at strategic parts of the track where there’s a likelihood that the cranes will be brought into play, and they’re there clicking away furiously and then our inbox is subsequently filled with the high-res images of other cars.
“Sadly, our own car had its trip into the heavens this weekend. There’ll be plenty of photos in our competitors’ inboxes from that, but yes, we got a nice clutch of Red Bull imagery, and that’s always a good thing for our aerodynamicists to pore over and see if we can pick out details that will be of interest to us in our ongoing test programme.”
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Allison’s comments were supported by Mercedes’ head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin, who admitted that the Circuit de Monaco is a “good opportunity” to see the bits you “don’t normally get to see”.
“With these regulations, the most important bit is the bit you don’t normally get to see,” said Shovlin, as reported by The Mirror.
“So the teams will be all over those kinds of photographs. Monaco is a good opportunity to get that kind of shot.”