Gasly wants talks over “unnecessary” collision with team mate Tsunoda

2022 British Grand Prix

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Pierre Gasly says talks are needed at AlphaTauri over the collision between the team’s cars during Sunday’s British Grand Prix.

He was running seventh ahead of team mate Yuki Tsunoda when they tangled at Village. Gasly was frustrated at the missed opportunity to score points at a track which they expected would not suit their car.

“I’m extremely disappointed because we were in such a good position after the restart, both in the points on a track where we’ve struggled massively,” he said in response to a question from RaceFans.

“So it’s something which needs to be discussed internally. I’m not going to start talking here, but obviously it’s extremely disappointing to lose an opportunity like this.”

“Definitely we’ll have to do it and I’m sure we’ll do it because I know as a team in a difficult season like we’re having it, we can’t miss this sort of opportunity,” he added.

The pair hadn’t previously collided since Tsunoda joined Gasly at AlphaTauri last year. “It’s the first time we are having such a scenario and such a situation,” Gasly acknowledged. “But as I said it shouldn’t have even happened so it was just unnecessary.”

Tsunoda was trying to overtake Gasly on the inside of the corner when the pair made contact. He denied entering the corner at too high a speed to avoid contact.

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“From my side, my speed was easy to make the corner,” he said. “But at the same time, I didn’t expect [him to] close the door. He didn’t close the door fully but it was not enough space, I would say, to turn.

Guanyu Zhou, Alfa Romeo, Silverstone, 2022
Gallery: 2022 British Grand Prix in pictures
“Of course, obviously if we drive battling each other, we want to give the minimum room as much as possible because you don’t want to let the car pass so easily. So I can understand Pierre. Of course, definitely I can wait [for] a different opportunity. But I would say the main thing [is] I’m sorry for the team.”

The two cars could have exchanged positions at the corner without contact, Tsunoda insisted. “There was not any dirty air because there was no car in front of me,” he explained. “And it was not over-speed.

“I would say I was still possible to keep in the white line in the exit because obviously I tried to overtake in the corner, before the corner, not in the middle of the corner.”

Gasly defended his position more vigorously than Tsunoda thought he would. “I didn’t expect he’d try to still fight against me in the corner,” said Tsunoda. “But that was my mistake, my expectation management was not good enough. So this is things I can learn, this is the things I have to avoid next time.”

He is also prepared to discuss the collision with the team. “Definitely we’ve got to have a conversation,” he said. “From my situation I was faster, clearly, but anyway that’s my fault I would say, nothing I can say other than this.”

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2022 British Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...
Claire Cottingham
Claire has worked in motorsport for much of her career, covering a broad mix of championships including Formula One, Formula E, the BTCC, British...

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16 comments on “Gasly wants talks over “unnecessary” collision with team mate Tsunoda”

  1. I don’t think Tsunoda did anything wrong here, so I’m not sure what Gasly is hinting at. It was an unfortunate spin, but ultimately nothing majorly dramatic. Things happen, Tsunoda was perfectly entitled and right to make the move there.

    1. Should have gone to SpecSavers …

      1. Actually Stroll did the same move on Latifi, yet Latifi of all drivers, gave enough space https://youtu.be/3OCQJ5TxeQQ

  2. Tsunoda’s impatience & clumsiness caused their collision.

    1. Just like Gasly on Lando in Miami

  3. Tsunoda was substantially faster at the time. He was right to make the move.
    Gasly needn’t defend it, given that he would’ve got it back on the following straight anyway.

  4. My understanding is that there are three rules for these situations.
    1. Never, ever, take out your team-mate.
    2. Rule No. 2 has been repealed.
    3. When in doubt, see Rule No. 1.
    Gasly shouldn’t need to motivate the “Talks”, I would suspect the team manager will have a few words with both of them.
    Would love to be a fly on the wall for that.

  5. I don’t think there was malicious intent on both of them. Tsunoda expected Gasly to give him room and Gasly didn’t expect Tsunoda to make a move in that corner. Still they need to be more aware- they left good points out there on Sunday.

  6. Tsunoda is out of his depth in F1.
    He’s had a year and a half and is still making mistakes that should have stopped at F3 level.

    1. That’s odd because zhou has sky high DNF ratio and his torpedo on Sunday but is astroturfed as a great ‘rookie’ but Tsunoda who so far this season outscored him in a clearly slower car than the Alfa Sauber is ‘out of his depth’ and f3 level… Ridiculous double standard hypocrisy there.

      Problem Yuki faces is that AT don’t want him in the team and forced to race him due to his Honda Backing with thier cash preventing the team from going bankrupt, the fact that they are the only team to not bring upgrades to silverstone proves they are not a well funded. So it isn’t his fault that he races for an incompetent team and he has to overdrive an inferior car.

      1. @ccpbioweapon We get it you hate Chinese people.

      2. What do you mean Torpedo on sunday it was George who moved to the left boxing Gasly in so George hits Gasly tyre and smack full in to Zhou so hard he is over turned…….

    2. I wouldn’t say out of his depth.
      Max crashed like crazy in his first 3 years. Max literally crashed into Vettel, a championship contender trying a very similar maneuver as Yuki.

      The kid just needs a little more time,
      You can teach a fast racer to be more careful, but you can’t teach a careful racer to be faster. Yuki has the speed, just need to mature his race craft

  7. In my opinion it’s not looking good for either Alpha Tauri driver. Tsunoda has looked the faster of the two the last two race weekends, which is bad news for Gasly if he ever hopes to make it into a top team. Tsunoda, on the other hand, instead of exploiting his recently-found turn of speed, has made two silly and very costly mistakes over the past two race weekends.

    1. Besides the spin, Yuki pulled a sick overtake on Latifi https://youtu.be/3OCQJ5TxeQQ

  8. Jolyon Direnko-Smith
    6th July 2022, 21:27

    The biggest concern over YT as a racer is not what happened between himself and PG but his comments after. The notion that PG “closed the door” was what caused the contact rather than YT’s loss of control and spinning into his team-mate is pure fantasy.

    YT could be a good F1 driver if he learns from his mistakes. Step #1 is acknowledging those mistakes, not pretending they didn’t happen. Without Step #1, there are no further steps possible.

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