Tsunoda says his Imola mistakes were “really not acceptable”

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In the round-up: AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda pans his performance in last weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, saying his mistake-filled weekend was unnaceptable.

In brief

Tsunoda pans own performance

AlphaTauri had the pace in the dry to get a strong result at Imola, and in the wet the team also looked competitive on the intermediate tyre. But their driver Yuki Tsunoda qualified last and finished a distant 12th, outside of the points and with a five-second penalty too for track limits violations.

Tsunoda ripped the rear of his car in Q1 before he had set a recorded lap time, then on a wet track in the grand prix he made strong progress early on to climb from 20th to 13th place but then went off track a few times, often not enough to seriously slow him down and as a result draw the attention of the stewards.

“Doing mistakes two days in a row. For me? Not acceptable. Really not acceptable,” said Tsunoda. “I just learn from it this time, but just improve next time.”

His team mate Pierre Gasly qualified fifth and finished seventh despite starting the race on the wrong tyre compound and plummeting down the order during his first stint, and both his and Tsunoda’s pace made the latter’s mistakes even more frustrating.

“For me, Q1, completely my mistakes,” Tsunoda said. “Even in Q1, like when I see car performance overall this week, I don’t have to push like that much. I don’t know why, I just pushed too much even though I don’t have to.”

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

Formula E reveals new track layouts

The configuration of the Monaco and Valencia Ricardo Tormo circuits that will be used for Formula E’s next three rounds have been revealed by the championship, with the full-length version of Monaco being used for the first time.

Valencia will be the second permanent racing venue to feature in an FE calendar after Mexico City, and the Spanish circuit will use a 3.37 kilometre layout that after the turn eight left-hander (where Attack Mode will be located) cuts right rather than follow the circuit’s grand prix loop. That detour joins into the long continuous radius turn 13 left-hander that goes to the final corner named after the late Adrian Campos. The main straight is then interrupted by a chicane that incorporates the pit lane entry. It’s a different layout to the one used for pre-season testing, and will be raced on for the first time this Saturday.

Monaco has held an EPrix three times before on a shortened track that at Sainte Devote turns sharply right downhill to the Nouvelle chicane, which as a hairpin for FE led back onto the usual circuit. Now it gets to incorporate famous corners such as Mirabeau and the Grand Hotel hairpin as well as of course the tunnel into its races. To avoid comparisons with F1’s lap times at the circuit it will run with small changes though, such as a faster version of Sainte Devote, similar to the corner’s original incarnation. FE visits the city on May 8th, two weeks before F1’s race.

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Comment of the day

The crash between Valtteri Bottas and George Russell was one of the big talking points of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, and it only escalated as a point of discussion once the two drivers were grilled by the media on their respective interpretations of the incident that put both out of the race. It got a lot of RaceFans members talking, and ppzzus thought the crash dinted Russell’s growing status in F1.

I feel like Russell hurt his reputation a bit today. He went for it and it didn’t work out but keeps blaming others for his mistake.
Ppzzus

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On this day in F1

  • 50 years ago today five-time F1 race starter Luigi Piotto died. His best result was sixth place in the 1956 Italian Grand Prix.

Author information

Ida Wood
Often found in junior single-seater paddocks around Europe doing journalism and television commentary, or dabbling in teaching photography back in the UK. Currently based...

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8 comments on “Tsunoda says his Imola mistakes were “really not acceptable””

  1. I’m quite looking forward to FE @ Monaco now.

    1. Seems like the best match.

    2. I was somewhat disappointed when they first raced at Monaco on the reduced circuit, but found it understandable due to the realities of battery technology at the time . Now that FE cars can contend with a track like Monaco, and I am excited to see how it goes. I hope that the cars can make that blast from Sainte Devote to Massanet without melting in the process.
      What I would really like to see from Formula E are races on proper tracks, perhaps ones that once shone on large stages until they were outgrown, like Brand’s Hatch or Laguna Seca, for example. But I am not really FE’s demographic target, unfortunately.

  2. COTD: I have been extremely supportive for Russell to get into Mercedes with Hamilton, and I have been believing him to be the one who is the next world champion to Hamilton. However, if he keeps getting into incidents like these, that is going to go away. I can understand his attitude due to the heat of the moment, but hopefully he will learn from these and improve.

    1. I guess today’s “russel not so sure Bottas is to blame anymore” article shows that he cooled down and learns @krichelle. But I do think the CotD is correct that Russel did not do his career any favours by yesterdays move, no.

      For Russel a point might be quite irrelevant (since his target is getting wins with Mercedes), but Williams could have very much done with that point, instead of having to replace both chassis’ for next race (if even Wolff at Mercedes mentions the cost/resources in replacing a chassis has an effect on their further development, how much will it hurt a team like Williams)

  3. I don’t think Russell hurt his reputation nor chances of getting a top drive. A single race rarely has longer-term implications.

    I found the mention of Nurburgring in the first place somewhat surprising as Istanbul Park had been the (clear) only one reported until that point and still is, after all.

  4. Yuki will bounce back at Portugal.

  5. I like Tsunoda’s aggressive approach and positive attitude. He just needs to settle into things a bit. I can see him pushing Gasly soon. By far, he’s the most interesting rookie talent this year.

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