Red Bull reveal potentially costly Verstappen DNF near-miss

A Red Bull F1 engineer has revealed how close Max Verstappen came to a costly second DNF during a race earlier this season. 

Verstappen currently enjoys a 52-point lead over Lando Norris with 180 on the board heading into the United States GP sprint, where the Red Bull will start on pole and Norris in fourth.

In the usual ebb and flow of a championship battle, the lost points can be crucial in the final outcome, with Verstappen posting a DNF in Australia with brake failure, with Norris posting his only non-score of the year in Austria after the two collided late on. 

But one Red Bull engineer on Verstappen's car has revealed one race earlier in the year where a second DNF was a real threat for the Dutchman. 

"There was a sensor problem with the clutch, and we had to understand very quickly, within a lap, what the problem was and fix it," engineer Michael Manning explained to De Telegraaf, without identifying the race in question.

"If we hadn't the clutch would have broken, and Max would have retired.

"People at home might hear [race engineer] Gianpiero Lambiase say something like: 'Fail-16' or 'Fail-20' from time to time.

"That is something Max has to do on his steering wheel, and in this case, it involved turning off that sensor and it worked. 

"Today's cars are very reliable, but this is an example that you always have to keep monitoring everything."