The Dutchman had overshadowed eventual race winner Lewis Hamilton for much of the Red Bull Ring race, but fell in the final stages after he picked up the damage as he ran down a sidewalk.
Red Bull instantly learned about the impact front wing damage had on its performance, but it was only after it emerged that the part had also fouled the critical dash area.
Damage to the front wing, coupled with dash interference, plus loose elements on the rear wing, meant that Verstappen finally fell back into the clutches of Valtteri Bottas and finished third.
Speaking after the race, Red Bull Chief Engineer Paul Monaghan explained the extent of the problems Verstappen had to deal with.
“We have hit one of the yellow things and the bottom of the final plate has just been removed,” he said. “Then he was stuck on the bargeboard. That hasn’t done him any favors, either.”
“So not only do we have bits of stuff hanging from the bottom of the front wing end plate on the track, we now have a barge board with a dirty piece of support plate from the front wing.”
“And we’ve had a bit of damage to the rear wing. I suspect some parts have vibrated and come off. Therefore, the condition in which we launched the car on the run did not match the condition in which we received the car. ” come back post race “.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said the team instantly saw in his data that Verstappen lost performance when he ran down the sidewalk, but could not be sure of the exact loss of time. However, he suspects that the balance change did have an impact on the life of the tires.
“I was in the curves here, off of turn nine,” he said. “The guys in the operating room immediately saw the loss of downforce.
“We couldn’t see how much damage it had done until the car entered the park at the end of the race there. So it was a significant change, but what effect did it have on tire life, we need to look closely at data to understand.” .
