Tsunoda unable to recover from late lap at Interlagos

It is a strange situation observed on Sunday during the Brazilian Grand Prix. Since 2021, the FIA has implemented a system allowing drivers who are one lap down to unlap themselves when the safety car is on the track. This system, called automated, was implemented following the controversy of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In that race, the backmarkers were prohibited from catching up to the leading lap of Lewis Hamilton, unlike the drivers placed between Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz. Upon the green flag announcement, the race director allowed the Dutch driver to overtake Lewis Hamilton, granting him the title of 2021 world champion.

If the FIA were to ignore a rule by creating another one, it would acknowledge having made a human error. From now on, the FIA has equipped its timing software with an automated system. It detects all drivers who are one lap behind the leader in order to allow them to overtake the safety car before the green flag.

At Interlagos, the Safety Car was deployed following Lando Norris’ retirement on the 51st lap. However, three drivers were one lap behind: Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon, and Nicholas Latifi. The situation becomes complicated. While behind George Russell, Yuki Tsunoda stops to change his tires. As he crosses the pit lane exit line, he overtakes the Mercedes driver and naturally returns to the lead lap. He then comes out in 6th position, behind the two Mercedes cars, Albon, Perez, and Sainz. He remains ahead of Latifi and still one lap behind the leader. But the software, on the other hand, considered that the Japanese driver had already overtaken the leader when he momentarily overtook George Russell to change his tires. Therefore, he could not be allowed to rejoin the lead lap.

The Japanese driver didn’t miss expressing his frustration: “What’s going on, what are we doing?” he shouted on his radio.

Yuki was in 5th position in the line after giving his place to Carlos Sainz. As soon as the green flag was raised, Valterri Bottas and Charles Leclerc, followed by the rest of the pack, forced Yuki Tsunoda to fall back to the left side. The AlphaTauri driver finished the race in 17th place and did not have the same luck as the two Williams drivers.

Tsunoda claims to be a victim of injustice: « I was told to stay in line. I don’t know why. Probably because the FIA thinks I was fighting for P5 or something like that!” he said. Motorsport.com.

In a statement, the FIA justified itself. According to them, no mistakes were made, the situation was simply unpredictable.

All systems operated correctly and in accordance with the regulations. The unusual situation occurred due to the specific characteristics of the circuit and the scenario.

Between the 5 penalty points received by Gasly and this event, Sunday’s race will not have been a success for AlphaTauri. The team missed the opportunity to score points for the constructor’s championship (currently 9th).