Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner has renewed his call for a ban on T-wings after Max Verstappen’s car sustained a suspected £50,000 worth of damage during practice in Bahrain.
The T-wing on Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes fell off during the second practice session at Sakhir, the second time it has done so in as many races, and Verstappen struck the loose debris through Turns 12/13.
Verstappen spent a chunk of the session stranded in the pit lane as Red Bull undertook repairs to his RB13 and Horner says the aero devices should be outlawed from the regulations.
“Today it probably did about £50,000 worth of damage,” Horner said.
“It should be banned under the grounds of safety and cost and not just because we don’t have one.
“It’s unfortunate, a bit of debris on the circuit [having] fallen off of Bottas’ car, Max was the unlucky victim who was the first car at speed to come across it.
“It did quite a lot of damage to the underside of the car, one of those things unfortunately.”
Verstappen, who finished the session down in eighth place, expressed surprise at how much damage his RB13 sustained after he struck the debris.
“It was unfortunate and to be honest I’m surprised how much damage it actually did to the floor,” he commented.
“The team did a great job to change it so quickly and check the car over before I went back out on track.”
