There's not any problem with this. Since you can't bring any outside designs into F1, it's all about the knowledge and ekspertise of your staff - which F1 (or any sport for that matter) is supposed to be about.wesley123 wrote:I'll raise you a different one; It circumvents limits on windtunnel/CFD time as well as a variety of other limits set on aerodynamic testing.napoleon1981 wrote: ↑06 Aug 2023, 19:45Also, the whole cost cap discussion and agreement between teams didnt happen until 2020. So the argument that the Valkyrie was to circumvent the cost cap is crazy.
There are a variety of issues with defending the Valkyrie(or the RB17 for that matter). A first that people like to jump to is that the cars are vastly different, and therefore won't share any relevance. This is only partially true; physics do not change. However, what does change are aerodynamic requirements. So for example the kicks that is shared with the RB18/19 and the Valkyrie will have a very similar effect.
And since I mentioned requirements; There is literally no reason at all for a road car to have a step plane, yet, the Valkyrie -which has absolutely no relation to the Red Bull F1 car and will serve in no way as a way to gather knowledge- has one, just like the F1 car has from the same designer.
Another thing here is that Red Bull was an absolute landslide ahead of the rest of the field, featuring a floor that is significantly more detailed than even the second car on the grid, while having the second least wind tunnel time of the grid. You might defend this by arguing it sacrificed detailing on the upper side of the car; not the case either. However, what they did have and the rest of the field did not have was a car on which they could apply literally every single detail of their floor to test.
The cost cap was never supposed to combat that in the first place. And beyond that, the cost cap is a long term plan - it's not meant to solve everything in 2-3 years. And neither is it meant to make everyone a winner. F1 isn't gonna be everyone taking turns being champions. It's just meant to level the playing field reasonably and make the sport more easily profitable.
The rest is just speculation about what Red Bull have or haven't done in regards to how they came up with their floor. Personally I believe people overstate how advanced it is. The reason for this is that at the time the photographs appeared it was compared to the Williams floor, which is very basic. But looking at photographs from 2022, where several teams had their floors revealed, I don't see it being anything special in regards to how it looks. It's a great floor of course, but people make it out like every other team is sailing with a flat bottom.
