Yuki Tsunoda had old parts to run in F1 Imola GP as and Christian Horner reflects on recovery from pitlane, while Isack Hadjar is bittersweet to finish P9.
It was not the Saturday that Red Bull’s Tsunoda wanted in F1 Imola GP after the heavy crash in Q1. It forced him to start from the pitlane on Sunday using some old parts and left him to do it all on a circuit difficult to pass. The Virtual Safety Car and Safety Car helped his case by bit.
He was stuck behind Oliver Bearman for long in the grand prix. The Brit’s bad pit stop allowed the Japanese to get through him which was crucial in scoring a point as he was able to resist late pressure from Fernando Alonso, who stopped under the safety car unlike the Red Bull driver.
While it was another day of recovery rather than attack from get go, but Tsunoda was pleased to come away with that after late night work put in by the mechanics. “The team made a good step,” he said to media. “Myself, just very frustrated that I made a massive mistake in qualifying. At least I gave something to the team, which is good. Especially the amount of work, the paddock stay overnight was massive, so it’s better than nothing. Yeah, especially for myself, it’s been unacceptable.
“I moved on already, but there’s still something in my head, there’s a frustration. I shake it off, obviously. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to score points there. This crash didn’t help at all with that [finding more confidence in the car]. I’m still learning. I think the crash recognised myself that I’m not understanding the car at as yet. With the crash, I still remember every single moment.
“From turning, everything, it was very unexpected. That movement is the first time I experienced those things. Sometimes you have to step back and build the confidence gradually. In this kind of environment, it’s easy to over push and put myself under a lot of pressure. I have to rethink myself. I’m happy that I was able to build up confidence in the race.
“For sure, my progress is continuing, but there’s still a lot of room to improve, for sure. I had already old parts from FP1, which I thought it was going to be the same [package as Verstappen]. I can’t say about all the parts. To be honest, I don’t know [if P6 was possible]. If I put it all together and made it possible, I’d say FP2 was pretty good. I was pretty close with Max and I’m pretty happy with the pace.
“FP3 was a bit messy, so it’s hard to say. But yeah, I’d say FP2 was good. So I think that was not impossible for sure. We made a good step from FP2. FP2 was pretty bad with the rear deg and I was struggling quite a lot. So compared to that, we made a good step. To be honest, qualifying was kind of the set-up that I did the first time. It was quite a massive change.
“So actually, we didn’t really change the set-up, to be honest. It was pretty good for the race. I think we learned something as a team, also myself, for the future,” summed up Tsunoda, as team boss Christian Horner had good praise for the Japanese after his push from pitlane to points, especially in a tight grid and difficult circuit to pass in.
“It was a big accident, and the most important thing with that was that he jumped out of it OK, and then I thought actually his race, he was very committed, he raced hard and well,” said Horner to media. “To come from the pit lane into the points when the grid is so tight, the strategy worked out well for him as well, and he drove a good race.
“I don’t know, I think that was a nasty-looking accident, and it’s always important to bounce back. And I thought he did that very well today, he raced hard but fairly, he was under a lot of pressure from Fernando on better tyres at the end of the race, he didn’t make any mistakes, he passed well.”
Another Red Bull backed driver to have a good day was Visa Cash App RB’s Hadjar. He qualified well in ninth and ran as high as fifth and seventh at one point. The Frenchman thought seventh was optimum but for the safety car which dropped him behind a Ferrari and a Williams.
Ideally, he wanted more than ninth but he was pleased to score good points again. “Yeah, there was a point where we were at P7, and I thought we were bringing it home,” said Hadjar to media. “It’s a shame about that last safety car, because I think our strategy was perfect. Of course, I didn’t want to come in, but also because I didn’t have the global picture of the race.
“So I had to trust the guys. But now we’ll see if it was the right choice. I don’t think it was. We took points, started P9. I wish we were moving forward. It is good. Conditions were quite tricky. The car was definitely… It’s never been that good, but at the same time, it was maybe a bit more tricky to drive.
“At the start, I think the launch was good. It was the second phase of the start, I lacked a bit of traction. And yeah, that was it. I was fighting hard with Pierre. I was still holding on to P9 and fighting with him. I lost a place to Charles, so, yeah, it was not ideal,” summed up Hadjar.
Here’s Yuki Tsunoda on online abuse
Here’s Max Verstapen, Christian Horner on Imola GP win