Was the strange failure of AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda in Zandvoort controlled to help Max Verstappen win? These rumors surfaced after last weekend’s Formula 1 race in the Netherlands. The statements by Mercedes Motorsport Director Toto Wolff and some TV experts, who also went in the same direction, did not help.
But from the beginning: We are writing the 44th lap in Zandvoort. Max Verstappen leads 16 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton and 19 seconds ahead of his Mercedes team-mate George Russell, who are third and fourth. However, Verstappen has to come in again for the pit stop, where he would fall behind the Mercedes trying to drive through.
But at that moment, Yuki Tsunoda stops on the track and triggers a yellow flag. “The tires aren’t tight,” he complains. Not much is happening yet though as the Japanese is able to restart the car and head back to the pits as the team tells him the tires are fine.
In the pits, the tires are changed and Tsunoda, who had already loosened his seatbelts, is strapped back in. Tsunoda is sent out again, only to stop a few meters later. Thanks to the virtual safety car, Verstappen was able to complete his tire change without falling behind the two Mercedes.
Wolff was “speechless” after the race because he believed Mercedes could have won the race without the virtual safety car. And he hinted in the ‘ORF’: “The bitterness would be very great if we were driving for a championship. Then of course you also think: Yesterday drives [Sergio] Perez into the gravel and today Tsunoda is parked outside.”
AlphaTauri: “Unacceptable”, “untrue”, “disrespectful”
The conspiracy quickly made its rounds on social media. Red Bull chief strategist Hannah Schmitz in particular was targeted and the target of hate comments because she was shown smiling at the command post at the time.
AlphaTauri was forced to comment on Monday afternoon and condemned the comments against Schmitz and his own team. “Such hateful behavior cannot be tolerated and allegations of dishonesty are unacceptable, untrue and utterly disrespectful to both Hannah and us,” the team said.
The racing team continues: “We have always been independent, fair and competed with the highest degree of respect and sportiness. Yuki had damage that the team did not immediately discover, which caused him to remain on the track. To claim otherwise is insulting and categorically wrong.”
Tsunoda “drifts” on the straights
Tsunoda tries to explain how the strange incident could have happened: “I thought there was a problem. It was pretty obvious to me, especially in the back left,” said the Japanese. “The engineer told me to stop, but we didn’t see a problem in the data, so we pitted for new tires.”
“But after that, we saw a clear problem in the data, and that’s why we stopped,” says Tsunoda.
In its press release, the racing team only wrote about a “problem with the car” after the race that they would like to analyze. An exact reason has not yet been announced, but a letter from the FIA commissioners mentions a problem with the differential.
Tsunoda noted that “only one wheel has wheelspin”. “I drifted on the straights and had to countersteer on the straights,” he says. That’s why he had suspected that a tire was not tightened properly. But when the problem reappeared after the tire change, it was clear that something was wrong.
Tsunoda: grid penalty in Monza
For Tsunoda, however, the matter has an aftermath. Because after his comments about a tire that wasn’t tightened, the commissioners opened an investigation, because sending the car onto the track in an unsafe condition is frowned upon and will result in a penalty.
“The stewards’ investigation led to the conclusion that there was a problem with the differential, which is why the car was not in an unsafe condition when it left its pit position,” the FIA said.
However, the commissioners complained that Tsunoda had already loosened his seat belt and drove to the pits with it. However, because it was not possible to determine to what extent the easing was carried out, a warning remained. But: Because this is Tsunoda’s fifth this season, he will receive a grid penalty of ten places in Monza.
Which speaks against a conspiracy
The FIA’s confirmation that there was a problem with the car should take the breeding ground out of conspiracy theories. In addition, Tsunoda parked his car right in front of a pocket, which is the easiest place to remove the car from the track.
Which also speaks against an intentional end: AlphaTauri is in a close fight with Haas and Aston Martin for seventh place in the world championship, with the teams being separated by a maximum of five points.
Why should the racing team sacrifice a driver who was in the points before his pit stop to help Max Verstappen, who is already way ahead in the World Championship and would probably have won the race even without the virtual safety car? Wolff also had to admit that after the race.
“Without the virtual safety car, we might have had a 50 percent chance because Max would have come out almost ten seconds behind us,” says Wolff. “Would we have won it? Probably not.”