Max Verstappen says his struggles in the Turkish GP were mainly due to an erroneous front wing adjustment that impacted the aero imbalance of his Red Bull RB16.
A pre-race favourite, Verstappen suffered a poor start at Istanbul Park but quickly recovered to put himself in contention for a race win.
However, a spin while battling Racing Point's Sergio Perez for second place forced the Dutchman down the order and into the pits for a fresh set of intermediate tyres.
But Verstappen struggled to regain his footing, suffering another spin later in the race and eventually concluding his day a disappointing sixth.
Speaking after the race to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, Verstappen revealed that a skewed front wing setting had significantly weighed on his performance.
"Everything went wrong basically," he said. "It turned out that the adjustment of my front wing was completely wrong.
"On one side we were seven degrees short of what should have been our front wing set-up. That is quite a lot really.
"Normally you adjust one degree here or there, or something like that. But seven degrees, that is a lot. So what can you do as a driver? Almost nothing works as a result of that."
The Red Bull charger also explained why he had spun while battling Perez, insisting circumstances rather than his impatience had caused the mishap.
"I didn't even want to overtake him there," he said. "It's not that I was too impatient or anything like that. There was nothing I could do at that spot.
"I just wanted to hook up behind him, but suddenly I understeered off the track. Then it was more or less finished. After that I was stuck in a little train for most of the time.
"The state of the asphalt was ridiculous as well. And with this front wing set-up, there is not much you can do as a driver."
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
The checkered flag may have dropped on Sergio Perez’s Red Bull career, but the verbal…
On this day in 1978, Mario Andretti kicked off his banner championship winning year with…
Damon Hill knows a thing or two about what it takes to climb Formula 1’s…
Formula 1’s most polished powerbroker has seen this movie before – and Stefano Domenicali is…
Max Verstappen’s racing curiosity has never been confined to Formula 1 – and now, one…
When F1’s radically redesigned 2026 cars finally roll out in Barcelona at the end of…