Yuki Tsunoda became the first F1 driver to receive a grid penalty for racking up five reprimands in a single season when he was penalized for driving with loose seat belts at the Dutch Grand Prix.
The result was a loss of 10 positions to the starting grid at Monza, where Tsunoda also received another three-place penalty for ignoring yellow flags during Friday free practice.
Although this sanction did not have any repercussion, since AlphaTauri mounted a new power unit in the Japanese car that relegated him to the back of the grid, it made Tsunoda accumulate eight penalty points in less than 12 months, placing himself four of the ban on running.
Referring to the young Japanese driver’s progress and any concerns due to this series of penalties, Franz Tost praised his pupil, but acknowledged that he needed to make an effort in some areas.
“His performance is increasing, look at qualifying at Zandvoort or FP1 at Monza. In the car, he’s doing a very good job,” he said. “He just has to control his emotions and he has to be more disciplined, because ignoring yellow flags in FP2 is not smart at all.”
“I understand that it’s hard to do in qualifying, and maybe in the race, but in a free session, you have to accept the yellow flags and you have to react in the right way, which means you have to slow down.” AlphaTauri’s explained.
Three of Tsunoda’s five reprimands came for incidents during free practice, when he blocked Charles Leclerc in Bahrain, Sebastian Vettel in Australia and Kevin Magnussen in Monaco. With another reprimand in Melbourne qualifying for driving unnecessarily slow.
The Japanese driver said he couldn’t control some situations and noted that F1’s new race directors were still “drawing the line” around the rules for hindering other cars, but was happy to restart the tally of his reprimands.
The Japanese has not managed to finish inside the points zone since the Spanish Grand Prix in mid-May, but in Zandvoort, where he reached Q3 and was in the fight for points, he was unlucky to suffer a problem in the differential that forced him to retire.
AlphaTauri has yet to confirm its driver line-up for next year, but Tsunoda has recently said that its future depends on “internal things”.
However, Tost said in Zandvoort that he hoped the Japanese would still be part of the team in 2023, as the changes could finally come in the second seat due to the recognized interest of Alpine by Pierre Gasly for the next course and Helmut Marko’s recent talks with Nyck de Vries to replace the Frenchman in the Faenza structure.
