Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
The AlphaTauri driver was placed under investigation by the stewards after appearing to not slow down when passing yellow flags for Mick Schumacher’s stationary Haas on the approach to the first Lesmo midway through the second Friday practice session.
After reviewing Tsunoda’s telemetry from the incident, the stewards determined that he had failed to sufficiently reduce his speed when passing the yellow flag zone on the exit of the Roggia chicane and have handed him a three place grid drop for Sunday’s race.
With the penalty, Tsunoda has also been handed two penalty points on his superlicence, bringing him to a total of eight penalty points in the last 12 months. That leaves the second-year driver just four away from a one-race ban, however he does have two points set to expire before the end of the championship, with two points being erased from his tally on 11th November, during Friday practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix.Tsunoda’s grid penalty is academic as he is already set to start at the back of the grid after taking a sixth power unit ahead of this weekend’s running. He was already due to start 10 places back from where he qualified before his engine penalty, after receiving yet another penalty for receiving a fifth reprimand from the Dutch Grand Prix stewards last weekend after driving with loosened seat belts.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2022 Italian Grand Prix
- Helmet rows, hot mics and more forgotten motorsport stories from 2022
- McLaren ‘surprised two teams found more performance than everyone else’ in 2022
- Alpine confident for Singapore and Suzuka races after “massive” floor upgrade
- Red Bull’s RB18 suits Verstappen more than Perez now – but that’s not by design
- “We’ll have four racing laps’: How F1’s Safety Car confusion unfolded at Monza
theRealMax (@millionus)
9th September 2022, 18:46
He couldn’t do anything about it though….. ;)
Edvaldo
9th September 2022, 19:08
Yep, this should be reviewed. One can actually go berserk and do all kinds of stunts on the race track and the team can easily go around it scheduling an engine change to undo the damage.
The team should choose whick penalty they’re taking and carry the other to the next event.
And since he’s the one who showed how faulty the current system is, Tsunoda should name this new rule!
MichaelN
10th September 2022, 11:05
One can sort of understand that they put a cap on the engine penalties, although personally I liked the idea of having to carry over penalties if they exceeded the amount a driver could serve at any one event.
But to brush away sporting penalties, some of which given for a driver ignoring safety procedures, is cynical even for Red Bull. Unfortunately, the FIA always seems to be one or two steps behind the teams on these issues.
MB (@muralibhats)
9th September 2022, 20:38
Tactical masterclass by RB and AT. How will Merc and Ferrari recover from this ?
Tristan (@skipgamer)
10th September 2022, 0:00
I dunno about these drivers not able to read a yellow flag, maybe they need to check their head. How about an MRI?
S
10th September 2022, 4:16
Maybe the FIA need the MRI for not having punished this stuff consistently or strongly for so long?
What the rules say and how they are applied seem to be completely unrelated.
MichaelN
10th September 2022, 11:14
Indeed, the FIA itself is mostly to blame for the near complete disregard drivers have for yellow flags. Yellow flags are a great tool, as they potentially ensure the safety of everyone at a particular part of the track without hindering the racing elsewhere, and vastly reducing the need for the race-disrupting (virtual) safety car.
Back in 2014, the FIA’s F1 race director actually codified (completely unrelated to the written rules!) the amount of time a driver should slow down. Double yellows – which are used when there are marshals or debris on the race track! – merely required drivers to slow down by ‘five tenths of a second’. That’s basically Pérez at full speed if the reference was Verstappen. With marshals potentially on track! It was ridiculous.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
10th September 2022, 9:11
Monza is the kind of track with a long enough pit straight, where grid penalties should be truly respected. He should have to start in the 23rd grid slot!