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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has said that the damage to Max Verstappen's RB 19 during the 2023 Azerbaijan GP Sprint race cost him around 0.75 seconds per lap.
The reigning double world champion had an opening lap incident with Mercedes driver George Russell, who tapped into the side of Verstappen while battling for P3. The collision caused a significant hole in the sidepods of the Red Bull, which didn't enthuse Verstappen.
Horner told Sky Sports:
“Turn 2 was hard racing between two hard racers; the bit that for me felt a bit over the top was Turn 3. There’s contact there (at Turn 2). George is trying to leave him enough space, but it’s a very tight corner, that’s where I think the damage to the sidepod was done. For me, it was what happened at the next corner that I think George just runs him too far into the wall there."
He continued:
"Unfortunately, the result of it was we ended up with quite a lot of bodywork damage, a big hole in the sidepod, and that cost him quite a bit of performance.
"Difficult to quantify, but when you see a hole like that in the bodywork, it’s got to be three-quarters of a second a lap at least, maybe more, and then there are other complications, temperatures start going out of control because the air is not running through the sidepods as it’s designed to do.”
“I think Max Verstappen races Lewis Hamilton differently" - Toto Wolff
The Mercedes team boss added that Max Verstappen races differently against Lewis Hamilton compared to George Russell.
Horner said, as quoted by Crash.net:
“You know, I think Max races Lewis differently. But between the same generation drivers? They are all fierce. But it’s always been; they know each other. They had that situation, probably the first time when they were 10."
He continued:
“So, it’s racing. I don’t know if it’s 70/30, 60/40, or 50/50, but it’s going to be in that ballpark. … Friendly exchanges between drivers are a good entertainment factor. So irrelevant. And yes, that’s a race situation. You are trying the outside. That’s never going to be an easy position.
It will be interesting to see if Max Verstappen is more aggressive against the Mercedes duo, especially Russell, the next time he goes wheel-to-wheel against them.
