AlphaTauri reveals: 'Tsunoda gearbox in half after crash'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
For Yuki Tsunoda the qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was one to forget. During his first fast lap the young Japanese driver parked his car in the wall, forcing him to start from twentieth today. The damage to the rear of the car looked extensive on TV and technical director Jody Egginton acknowledges this in conversation with Motorsport.com.
"We're still investigating, but the gearbox is in half, so that's finished," explained Egginton. Further damage to Tsunoda was not entirely clear on Saturday night, as the team was still in the process of uncovering all the damage sustained. "We're taking a good look at the power unit to see how that's doing," Egginton said.
AlphaTauri takes Tsunoda into protection
Although the damage is extensive, Egginton explained that he did expect a crash like Tsunoda had on Saturday for the young rookie. "It's one of those things that can happen as a young driver. All the guys on the grid have had crashes like that at some point. It's not that he's pushing too hard or wants to perform too much."
So while there is a lot to fix, AlphaTauri doesn't expect Tsunoda to make many more of these mistakes. The Japanese will start from P20 today and Imola is known for not making overtaking easy. For the rookie, it will therefore be a big challenge to repeat the success of Bahrain on the Imola circuit.