Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda did his best to stay off social media after qualifying during the Mexican GP. The Japanese driver was expecting to be lambasted on the internet; however, what happened was quite the opposite.
On Saturday’s qualifying session, Q3 saw Yuki Tsunoda playing the team game and giving teammate Pierre Gasly a tow despite having to himself start from the back of the grid due to an engine penalty.
While Tsunoda could fulfil this role for his team well, an unfortunate run-in with the main Red Bull team caused him to be hung out to dry by the upper management of the Milton-Keynes-based team.
In the final minutes of Q3, Tsunoda claimed he got out of the way when he was told that Perez was approaching. When he got off the track to make way, his car kicked up a ton of dust.
Perez claimed that the dust distracted him, and he also went off at the same point where Yuki was.
Verstappen, who was in the two of Perez, saw two cars in the run-off area and put his foot off the gas, thinking there had been an incident, essentially losing time and thus not being able to beat the newfound pace of Mercedes who eventually secured a front-row lockout.
This incident prompted Red Bull boss Christian Horner to say that they got ‘Tsunoda’d’, essentially blaming Yuki for the undesirable result in Q3. Tsunoda got to know about the blame being passed on him through the media. The Japanese driver felt he had done nothing wrong.
Alpha Tauri boss Franz Tost came out openly in support of his driver and maintained he had done nothing wrong as well. There was also widespread annoyance at Red Bull for throwing the rookie driver under the bus at the drop of a hat.
Tsunoda on Sunday morning said that he’d spoken to Helmut Marko, and everything was “all fine”.
The support came as a surprise to Yuki Tsunoda
When asked about the support he’d received from fans worldwide, Tsunoda expressed some surprise at the situation he was in. “Yeah, I mean, I was expecting a bit of the opposite, so I was not watching too much social media…
“But I’m happy to hear that, even though I ruined the lap for the national driver. Like I said [on Saturday], it was the only place to go. I did my best to not stop him. It is what it is. But I’m happy to hear that [many fans were on his side].”
Christian Horner defends himself
Christian Horner backtracked slightly from his remarks on Sunday after the backlash. He shifted the blame onto social media for blowing his comments out of proportion and deriving more meaning than he intended.
Also read: Mercedes boss is surprised by Christian Horner’s ‘pantomime dame’ comment
“Having had a chance to consider it I think in fairness to Yuki, perhaps he could have been helped a bit more with more information,” said the Red Bull team boss.
“But the outcome was unfortunate, particularly as he was only there to give a tow for his teammate. Unfortunately, social media has a habit of picking on certain lines and then exploiting them.”
“It would be a pretty boring world if you weren’t able to comment on the performance of a driver.”
