Max Verstappen’s British GP admission with floor damage cost revealed

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.

Max Verstappen suffered hefty floor damage on his Red Bull in a rare mistake during Q1, which left him feeling lucky to salvage a fourth place grid slot.

Verstappen flew off at Copse in the tricky damp conditions early in Q1, resulting in some damage to the underside of his car that sapped his Red Bull of critical downforce for the rest of the session.

Max Verstappen explains Q1 off during Silverstone qualifying

Verstappen had a snap of oversteer as he negotiated his way through Copse, having been on a critical soft tyre lap to ensure he made it through into Q2.

His failure to set a good lap time at that point resulted in Verstappen coming dangerously close to being eliminated, but he managed to get a lap together before the chequered flag to make it through.

While close to the front during Q2 and Q3, Verstappen ended up unable to challenge for outright pole position and he wound up in fourth place at the end of Q3 – three-tenths off the pace set by pole-sitter George Russell.

Confirming his car had suffered floor damage in the incident at Copse, Verstappen explained his off as “super unlucky”.

“I came out of [Turn] 7, heading towards Copse, and it started to rain,” he told media, including PlanetF1.com, after qualifying.

“So I knew that the people in front of me didn’t have that rain patch and they were on slicks, and I knew Q1, you know, we needed that slick lap in because you never know if it’s going to rain more and the session is over.

“So, naturally, I tried to keep the speed up, I did slow down knowing it was raining on my visor, but it still snapped on me. And then I had to try and keep it out of the wall, going off line.

“But then I had to take the gravel, which ripped the floor apart and was missing quite a few bits on the car, even though I do think the team did a great job of trying to recover some of the bits and optimise the balance from the rear.

“But, basically, it ruined our qualifying. I was happy to be in Q3 already, with the damage that we had. In the end, to be P4 is probably a bit of a positive surprise.”

Red Bull introduced a tweaked floor for this weekend, and Verstappen  confirmed that he does have a new floor of the upgraded specification available to use for the rest of the weekend.

As for how much downforce had been lost in the incident, Verstappen revealed it was about a second a lap based on the estimated downforce points shed as his floor was torn apart.

“Initially, it was 100 – which is a lot, a lot!” he said.

“We got it down a little bit but, yeah, it was still a lot.

“The floor had a lot of holes in it. So we tried to patch that up. Bits were missing and hanging, like flapping. So you want to get rid of that, or at least try to, like put a few pieces together and try and make it work.

“That’s basically what they did. I mean, they cut a few bits off that were hanging loose. So you try to just optimise the losses, let’s say.”

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Having made it through into Q3, Verstappen logged a competitive lap to keep himself close to being in contention for pole position, with the championship leader revealing his final lap in Q3 had the benefit of constant repairs through the session.

“It was still not bad, I had a little moment at Turn 4 but, honestly, they kept on repairing the floor. So my balance was shifting every lap,” he said.

“So then I was changing things on my wheel every lap to try and find a better compromise. So, probably, in some bits, we tipped it over the edge to try and compensate.

“But it was still a good lap, I tried to really push it to the limit, try to really use the track wherever I could, because, naturally, at very high speed, the load wasn’t there.

“I was going slower in some corners compared to practice. But yeah, it was the best we could do with the damage.”

As for whether Verstappen believes he can fight for the victory on Sunday, the Dutchman admitted it could be difficult due to how close in performance all Red Bull’s immediate rivals are.

“I would like to be in the mix. First of all, I need a new floor – that would help!” he said.

“I hope that it can be an exciting race where now we are probably a bit more on the attack instead of starting first or second. But that’s fine.

“Even the people around me, we are all very close on pace, I guess. I do think that McLaren is always very quick in the race looking after their tyres, but I hope that we can be in that mix and make it difficult.”

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