https://twitter.com/dr_obbs/status/1787458978512880059 This Tweet only shows a piece from the text below, so:
Dr Obbs @dr_obbs
I can confirm feedback from the RBR engineers that Max did indeed suffer floor damage when he struck the bollard. Sounds like the rear corner was damaged. I went back and watched the video and you can see clearly that when Max hits the bollard, the car comes down hard on the mounting base of the bollard right at the rear corner (left image). After the car drives off you see bits of carbon fiber fly off from the contact in the right image.
The rear corner is important for a few reasons. It helps to shape the inflow at the rear floor edge which feeds into the diffuser helping diffuser performance. It is also responsible for some rear edge floor load as well. So Max was probably feeling a bit of inconsistency in performance when he turned right or left. This could also have contributed to some sliding at the rear with loss of rear load in high roll. So this aligns with some of what Max was complaining about on the hard tyre with lack of grip at the rear.
I went back into the telemetry and unfortunately there was a tyre change on lap 23 after the bollard strike on lap 22. So I can't compare on the same tyre on the same stint to see any performance delta. But what I did see in the hard stint was that Max had quite some inconsistency in his driving style from one lap to the next. He's normally metronomic in his driving so this indicates he was struggling. So it's possible this damage could have certainly contributed to that inconsistency.
I wonder if @FDataAnalysis can maybe pull up some data on what Max's average race pace delta to the competition was on the medium tyre before damage compared to the hard after damage. I assume we would see some drop in delta pace to the competition.
----------------------------------
Dr Obbs @dr_obbs
This by no means diminishes anything that Lando accomplished, nor the McLaren team who is completely deserving of this win. Max got sloppy on lap 22 and it cost him damage. I do think the McLaren found a lot of pace with their upgrade. So I am looking forward to some more competitive racing from here on!