Yuki Tsunoda will not start!
Reliability issues continue to plague AlphaTauri. A technical problem forces Yuki Tsunoda to retire even before the lights go out.
30 minutes before the start of the race, during his warm-up lap, Yuki Tsunoda complained over the radio of an engine issue. A few seconds later, the Japanese driver was forced to stop on the track before his engineer told him, “It’s the end, Yuki. You can pull over, thank you.”
This concludes a catastrophic weekend in terms of reliability for car number 22. In fact, during qualifying, Tsunoda was unable to showcase his pace due to an issue with his engine.
Distant last after Saturday, the Japanese will finally not be able to start the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
If the AlphaTauri seems to be a well-performing car, Pierre Gasly has so far always managed to qualify his car in Q3. However, reliability is the Achilles’ heel of the Faenza team.
In Bahrain, an engine problem goes up in smoke the hopes for Gasly’s points, in Jeddah a transmission issue prevents the Normand from finishing FP3 and Yuki Tsunoda was prevented from participating in qualifying. That makes it 4 incidents in just 2 races.
