Andreas said that Daniel incurred damage in lap 1 of the race which severely hindered his pace:
"The level of damage cost a considerable amount of downforce. Despite the performance loss, Daniel used his experience to cope with the issues and score important points for the team."
But how extensive was the damage and what does floor damage look like anyway? Well.
This is what the floor is supposed to look like:
THERE. WAS. A MASSIVE. CHUNK. OF. FLOOR. MISSING.
No wonder he had trouble managing the rear tyres. That's a massive cut to downforce too, but we didn't even see him sliding around or being unstable. He just managed the problem for the whole race.
So... I'm just struggling... to really push the tyre. I can get 1 or 2 good laps out of it but I can't hold it. It hurts the tyre too much.
Only lost 1 position throughout the entirety of the race and managed the gap to Sainz who was lapping at an almost identical pace to Charles.
He didn't even know the car had lost a significant chunk of performance, he just braved the media and kept saying he needs to learn and improve.
The talent. The accountability. The grace.