‘Max won’t forget’ - Horner’s warning to Russell as damage revealed

Verstappen and Russell made contact twice on the opening lap of Saturday’s sprint race in Baku as they fought over third place, with Russell emerging ahead coming out of Turn 3. 

Reigning world champion Verstappen was left fuming at Russell and branded the Briton a “dickhead” following their collision. 

Red Bull team principal Horner said he could understand Verstappen’s reaction. 

“I think he was understandably annoyed with that,” Horner told Sky. 

“He voiced his opinion to George. It was probably a good idea he left his crash helmet on. You can understand that, he’s a competitive driver. 

“He’s like an elephant, he’ll remember that for a while.”

The coming together left Verstappen with a large hole in the sidepod of his Red Bull, which Horner described as a “big handicap”.

Despite the damage, Verstappen was able to repass Russell to claim third place behind teammate Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. 

“Unfortunately, the result of it was we ended with quite a lot of bodywork damage, a big hole in the sidepod,” Horner said. “And that cost him quite a bit of performance.”

Asked if he could put a number on the performance loss, Horner replied: “It’s 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. 

“There’s other complications, the temperatures start going out of control because the air is not going through the sidepods as its designed to.”