Yuki Tsunoda, RB, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2024

Tsunoda’s qualifying crash ‘derailed’ RB on ‘one of our best weekends in a while’

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In the round-up: Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies rues the effect Yuki Tsunoda’s crash in qualifying had on their race weekend.

In brief

Tsunoda crash “derailed” RB’s Mexican GP

Mekies said it was “very frustrating to leave Mexico with no points” after Tsunoda crashed again on the first lap of the race and Liam Lawson fell to 16th following his late tangle with Franco Colapinto.

RB had “one of our most competitive weekends in quite a while in terms of pure pace,” said Mekies. However Tsunoda’s crash in Q2 meant both he and Lawson missed the chance to start in the top 10, which left them at a disadvantage for the race.

“Yuki’s crash was costly as the domino effect was that it also prevented Liam from getting to Q3, but that’s motor racing,” said Mekies. “The weekend was derailed from that point onwards and on the opening lap of the race, Yuki was the unfortunate victim of some squeezing, which is the sort of incident that can happen in the midfield.”

FIA toughens up rule on criticising BoP

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The FIA has toughened up its regulation forbidding competitors in the World Endurance Championship from criticising the series’ Balance of Performance regulations. The rules allow the series to specify different minimum weight and power levels for each car in an attempt to create close racing.

Updated sporting regulations for the 2025 season extend the existing ban on discussion of the BoP to the process by which it is adjusted. The revised rule, with the new portion in italics, states: “Manufacturers, competitors, drivers and any persons or entities associated with their entries must not seek to influence the establishment of the BoP or comment on the process and/or the results, in particular through public statements, the media and social networks.”

The change comes after Toyota’s team director Rob Leupen was given a suspended fine for his comments about BoP after the Six Hours of Sao Paulo earlier this year.

First F1 Academy champion suspects career is over

Marta Garcia, who won the first edition of Formula 1’s all-female series F1 Academy last year, believes her single-seater career is likely at an end. She formed part of Iron Dames’ entry into the Formula Regional European Championship this year but despite finishing all bar one of the 20 races ended the year without a point.

In a social media post Garcia said her appearance in Sunday’s finale at Monza “is probably my last race in a single seater, at least for the near future.”

“I’m sad, I’m happy, I’m nostalgic. I actually have some tears writing this. I knew the long way it was to come where I am today and I’m so glad for every single time on track. My dream was always get to F1 and this dream will stay forever in me.”

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Comment of the day

@Matthijs speaks from experience of the difficulty of writing good racing rules:

I organised a karting competition and I used the following rule: when a kart is more than half a width alongside you, both drivers leave each other enough room to both stay on the track. The rule was simple: it did not matter if you were attacking or defending and it did not matter whether you were slightly ahead at the apex or slightly behind, as long as there was someone more than a half kart width alongside, you leave room for both to stay on the track.

However, in reality it was not bullet proof. The rule did not prevent dive bombs on the inside, nor did it prevent people staying at the outside line when they should back off. It only works when people use common sense and are afraid of damage/injury. When I organised this competition I looked to F1 to find answers to solve the issue, but this year I feel that in F1 the problems with overtaking are much worse than in my kart competition.
@Matthijs

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Gavin Brown and Striay!

On this day in motorsport

Author information

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...

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34 comments on “Tsunoda’s qualifying crash ‘derailed’ RB on ‘one of our best weekends in a while’”

  1. grat
    29th October 2024, 0:20

    If the results of the Balance of Performance adjustments cannot be criticized… than the BoP itself must be criticized. If you’re not allowed to have critical discussions, than there’s a problem.

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      Tristan (@skipgamer)
      29th October 2024, 0:45

      Well, the point of the rule is publicly, for sure there are opportunities for participants to discuss rule changes. It’s a pretty controversial system, easily attacked with regards to sporting integrity, and the organisers don’t want those arguments be given weight by participants. They all signed up to participate with the BoP so to turn around and complain about it publicly is pretty poor form, from their perspective as I understand as they’re trying to grow the viewership.

      1. notagrumpyfan
        29th October 2024, 7:02

        They all signed up to participate with the BoP so to turn around and complain about it publicly is pretty poor form

        Nobody is arguing that ‘complaining’ about (or influencing) it should be allowed. But the FIA even forbids all involved to even comment on it. And not just commenting on the results, but on the process, and, as it seems, even the mere existence of it.
        Talking about ‘poor form’, or in the wor(l)ds of the FIA President: ‘censorship’.

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          Tristan (@skipgamer)
          29th October 2024, 7:34

          Is that a serious opinion? The FIA isn’t going to care if a team says the BoP is working well. There’s only one kind of comment in question here, it’s not comments full of praise.

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        Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
        29th October 2024, 19:49

        notagrumpyfan, quite a few people are in fact arguing in favour of complaining about BoP being allowed, since the way the rule is written, commenting on it in private technically wasn’t allowed even under the old interpretation (it was interpretable as “seeking to influence”). Since talking about it in private was effectively banned, talking about it in public was the only remaining option.

        The FIA very much might care if someone compliments it on the BoP because that could also be seen as seeking to influence under the wrong circumstances.

    2. MichaelN
      29th October 2024, 8:45

      Discussions are held around a conference table, not sulking to the media.

      The former is constructive, the latter a distraction.

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        Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
        29th October 2024, 19:50

        And even under the old regulations, neither is permitted.

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    Tristan (@skipgamer)
    29th October 2024, 0:40

    However, in reality it was not bullet proof. The rule did not prevent dive bombs on the inside, nor did it prevent people staying at the outside line when they should back off

    Your rule to leave space I think is far better than the confusing mess of rules in F1 /FIA driving standards on the matter. The idea that you’re ahead or not at some theoretical undefined apex so you’ve won the corner and can callously ignore the car alongside is ridiculous.

  3. Doh
    29th October 2024, 2:13

    Called it back then. Wonder if lando believed him. And nice memory Keith to pull that up.
    It did not seem genuine at all back then, and now we know for sure. You should post this to Reddit

  4. Jay
    29th October 2024, 3:06

    I always hear about F1 Academy and previously the W series. How come we never hear about getting girls into karts? It’s much more relevant and people that criticize the quality of F1A and the like, might actually care. The eye always seems to be on the wrong target and maybe that’s on purpose!

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      Tristan (@skipgamer)
      29th October 2024, 3:23

      Uhhh FIA Girls on Track? Just because you’re not looking for it doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Took two seconds to google btw.

      1. Nick T.
        29th October 2024, 6:12

        Uhh, the fact you had to Google it to know it exists proves Jay’s point. The money they’re spending on F1 Academy would cover the costs of a few hundred female karters at least. They’d be up against true competition. So, fans and sponsors would know any who succeeded in getting through to top level karting were the real deal. As it stands, F1 Academy is just a big PR exercise rather than making a genuine effort to try and get a competitive female into F1.

      2. Jay
        29th October 2024, 7:35

        This is the only site I use for racing news. So, yeah. Maybe Chadwick will do NXT again next year, can’t wait.

      3. Jay
        29th October 2024, 7:51

        Winning F1 Academy and then getting ZERO points in FREC is an absolute embarrassment. Really shows the competition level of F1A. Maybe get more girls into racing at a young age, so there is a larger pool of girls to pick from! Or just keep promoting these sub par drivers and people will continue to wonder why. It’s a real inspiration to girls everywhere.

        1. Cookie
          29th October 2024, 17:58

          Why is it an emberassment? If women in any other sports were to compete against men and not do too well, nobody would call that an emberassment.

          Sure, some women have competed successfully against men in racing/rally, but perhaps in most cases there’s a disadvantage which cannot be overcome. So maybe there should be more women-only categories.

          I for one think Marta should be proud of her achievements, and certainly not embarrassed.

          1. Jay
            29th October 2024, 19:03

            Are you proud of the men who got zero points in FREC? (while racing a full season)

          2. MichaelN
            30th October 2024, 1:43

            Women have won races in many different series. The issue is not with them being women, but the very small number who participate, making it much harder to find the absolute best. Let’s not forget that while we might joke about some F1 drivers, they’re still the best to come out of series with dozens and dozens of men whose careers never went further. That’s a huge pool to draw talent from, and still there are big gaps between the likes of Hamilton and Verstappen and guys like Gasly and Magnussen.

            The FREC results for García were quite bad, Pins were as well. But it was also Iron Dames first season. It wouldn’t be fair to put the results on the drivers alone. Even in spec series, the teams matter a lot.

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      Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
      29th October 2024, 19:52

      Jay, quite a lot of girls already go into karting (a lot more than single-seaters). Unfortunately most of them don’t get to go very far for a variety of reasons.

      Marta Garcia’s performance unfortunately highlights that F1 Academy, like W Series before it, is a trap series that young women would be wise to avoid if they have any ambitions towards F3, let alone F1.

      1. rpla
        30th October 2024, 5:33

        For me this indicates more that the level in F1 Academy is low. Without schemes like F1A or W Series, these girls wouldn’t have a future in high-level racing for lack of performance. F1A at least gives them some (subsidized) experience, but isn’t going to be transformative if raw talent isn’t there. Of course everything compared to male counterparts, and assuming true equality of performance can exist in racing.

  5. Inspector Eisenhorn
    29th October 2024, 6:32

    We won’t have to worry about Perez for much longer. Need proof? 1. Slim/TelMex just announced they’re splitting ways with Red Bull and 2. Mexico City GP promoters just released a statement saying the GP would just be fine without Checo.

    That means Tel-Mex has already been told he’s done or no longer care.

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    Jere (@jerejj)
    29th October 2024, 7:08

    Tsunoda isn’t making himself a case for a promotion, & he ultimately even caused his retirement by being unnecessarily hasty with his passing attempt on Albon even though the latter didn’t have any space left to his right because of Gasly’s presence.

    Those post-Austrian GP words couldn’t have aged more badly.

    Nice COTD & the unfortunate reality, especially regarding modern F1 that drivers, especially certain someone, don’t care about the clear-cut rule that requires everyone to leave space whenever someone is fully or predominantly alongside.

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      Red Pill (@redpill)
      29th October 2024, 8:17

      @jerejj
      While I agree with what you’re saying about certain drivers not caring one iota about the rules (or should say the spirit of the rules), I can’t agree with you that the rules under F1 are anything but clear cut.
      Because of this, drivers will use that to their advantage in any way possible. There is way too much in the rule book that is open to subjective interpretation, complicated while undefined and very ambiguous all at the same time.
      I think FIA and F1 have done a terrible job with the rule definitions, leaving rules loosely defined and over the last few years has created a monster that regularly effects the quality of F1 racing and the results. They need to Simplify the rules, make them more clear cut with proper definition and description.
      Maybe dumb the rules down for the stewards, drivers and fans to understand them better; because right now, everyone seems pretty confused who’s in the right and who’s not; and what’s the point of that?

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        Jere (@jerejj)
        29th October 2024, 10:26

        @redpill Well, the requirement to leave space with at least half car length alongside is clearly, though, or at least should be for everyone.

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          Red Pill (@redpill)
          29th October 2024, 20:55

          @jerejj

          Again, what you said, it’s actually not clear enough, not remotely. Especially what’s considered as established along side by half a car length. As proof, We’ve been seeing this in almost every are for the several seasons with many different rulings and opinions.

          I wish it was clear enough for everyone, so it’s not so subjective and left open to interpretation by drivers, team mangers and stewards (and Fans).

          I stand behind my earlier post above. F1 driver guidelines and their rules are a mess.

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      Tristan (@skipgamer)
      29th October 2024, 9:21

      Something weird is going on with Tsunoda if you check the post-race interview… “It’s something just ah, it’s been going around like, last few weeks so can’t say anything.” Maybe he knows he’s out of the team for next year in favour of Colapinto or something?

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        Jere (@jerejj)
        29th October 2024, 10:25

        @skipgamer He’s race pen interview was weird indeed, but he certainly won’t get sacked after the season & even if he were, it wouldn’t be for Colapinto in any case, especially after what he did to Lawson, not that he was an option even previously.
        Hadjar & Iwasa are the only options for the B-team besides the current duo.

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        Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
        29th October 2024, 19:53

        @skipgamer Or he knows that Red Bull itself hasn’t made a decision on anything yet, and doesn’t want to cause it, or himself, unnecessary trouble.

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        Red Pill (@redpill)
        29th October 2024, 20:46

        @skipgamer

        Sadly for Tsunoda, all eyes have been on him in the last four races to see if he can rise to the occasion and show himself as the lead contender for the RB seat along side Max and see how strong he can finish this season with all eyes on him to get VRB back ahead of Haas.

        Well, It’s not going well for him at all, and seems Tsunoda already knows his fate. He hasn’t scored one point in the last 7 races and has had more shunts that anyone at the team would like to see; as it’s reminiscent of Perez and why would they want that again? Which is too bad, but to be worthy of the RB seat, you need to be very good under pressure and bring the car home with points.

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    Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
    29th October 2024, 9:19

    Gary Anderson: ‘Verstappen, though, needs to look at himself in the mirror and ask whether he wants to be known as a fast driver or a fast and controversial one. If he keeps this up it will taint his reputation.

    Judging by his personality, I don’t think he gives a rat’s backside about the reputation. He’s there to do what he feels ir right, not to please his critics…

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      Ray West (@raynaud2211)
      29th October 2024, 9:52

      Well I do hope he learns from it. And it’s not so hard to be clean for him. No pushing drivers of and no late divebomb to get to the apex first. That’s basically all.

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      Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
      29th October 2024, 14:52

      @fer-no65 Exactly.

      I think any driver that really cares about their reputation & does things on track & in racing situations aimed at maintaining that reputation will never be world champion unless they end up in a situation where they have a really dominant package because to win a championship & win multiple championships, especially when you are in a close fight or when your car is a bit behind on pace, you have to be selfish and at times ruthless.

      If Max didn’t have that mentality & if he didn’t drive the way he does he likely would have fewer wins, May not have been in the position to win the championship in 2021 & maybe not be in the position he is in this years championship fight once the car performance slipped behind.

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        Red Andy (@red-andy)
        29th October 2024, 15:57

        Some champions of recent vintage have obviously been concerned about their legacy. Sebastian Vettel springs to mind, although even he was not above the odd unsporting action, such as in Korea 2010 or Malaysia 2013.

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      Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
      29th October 2024, 19:54

      @fer-no65 At this point I’m not sure Max cares about getting title number 4 either, he just wants to be happy. At that point, there’s a limit to how much hold any on-track regulation would have on him.

      1. rlpa
        30th October 2024, 8:02

        Maybe stewards should wave the black flag once or twice, see if this catches his attention.

Comments are closed.