Red Bull believe the aerodynamic loss from the damage sustained by Max Verstappen during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix Sprint race was "massive." The Dutchman was involved in a first-lap crash with George Russell, who overtook him into Turn 3 for third but punctured a sizeable hole in Verstappen's left sidepod when pulling off the move. Post-race the pair were seen having a heated argument over the incident in Parc Ferme, which culminated in Verstappen branding Russell a "d***head" for the manoeuvre. Chief engineer Paul Monaghan believes the aerodynamic loss from the damage was "massive" and prevented Verstappen from progressing further up the order. "In terms of the aerodynamic loss, massive," confirmed Monaghan to media, including RacingNews365.com . "It's difficult to know precisely because we don't put the car in the wind tunnel like that, but lap time was notable." Team boss Christian Horner believes the damage amounted to a loss of seven tenths per lap.
Monaghan: Verstappen lucky to not have terminal problem
Monaghan explained that Verstappen was lucky that he did not sustain any terminal car balance problem from the damage, which could have prevented him from finishing the race. "Fortunately he [Russell] missed the radiator just underneath the ancillaries, so we didn't get punted out [of the race]," he continued. "We estimate the balance shift from it, but it's also a load loss near the middle of the car. "We didn't have a terminal oversteer or understeer [problem]. But the load loss was was notable, very obvious. So we'll fix it for today and go again."
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