Little unassuming details can make a big difference in F1 and that was certainly the case for Haas' Kevin Magnussen in Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix.
After launching his race from P14 on the grid, Magnussen battled his way into the top ten and looked set on securing some precious points when a plastic sandwich bag swirling in the Marina Bay draft found its way onto the Haas' left front wing.
That small piece of trash had big consequences for the Dane as it upset the VF19's aerodynamics to the point where Magnussen was running four seconds off the pace after the final Safety Car period.
"It was after the [final] restart, when he all of a sudden got slower," explained Haas team boss Guenther Steiner.
"He drove by a few times and we checked [the wing] because one of the engineers said we can see a loss of front downforce, and we thought the wing was broken.
"But Kevin said he didn't hit anything, and you could not see it when he was driving by as the wing was up."
Unfortunately, the only viable recourse was to pit Magnussen to rid the front wing of its unwanted junk, which the team finally did three laps from the checkered flag.
"That is why we made a pitstop, as he lost so much downforce, so he came in and we put new tyres on and took the bag out," added Steiner.
"The tyres were going, so there was no point to stay out there. At least with a new set of tyres we can put a nice lap in and we see what it is. We got the bag."
Indeed, the team snatched the bag, but the damage was done, with Magnussen concluding his disappointing race down in 17th position, albeit after achieving the fastest race lap of the evening thanks to his set of fresh tyres.
It was but a minor consolation however.
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