Front wing failure “shouldn’t happen” says Tsunoda after “frustrating” race · RaceFans

Yuki Tsunoda was the last driver circulating at the end of the Chinese Grand Prix after a poor strategy was exacerbated by an unusual front wing failure on his car.

Both Racing Bulls drivers started in the top 10 but neither scored points as the team opted for a two-stop strategy. On a day when most drivers pitted once, that proved their undoing.

Tsunoda was already languishing outside the points places when a flap failed on the right-hand side of his front wing. That forced him into the pits for a third time for repairs.

“The front wing is definitely, to be honest, frustrating,” he told the official F1 channel. “It shouldn’t happen like that.

“I never touched, obviously, a car in front. Just some parts fall apart just naturally. At least it’s a good learning for the future to try to avoid this situation, but I was expecting much more.”

He said he was “very disappointed” with his result. “The strategy is the thing that probably we have to improve. But at the same time I understand what their thoughts behind [it were].”

Tsunoda said the team’s car was less competitive on Sunday than it had been earlier in the week, which was why their decision to pit twice did not pay off.

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“The pace was okay,” he said. “We probably we didn’t have pace as much as in the sprint qualifying race, so we have to analyse that.

“But also I’m sure we didn’t also maximise the strategy as well. So it’s mixed, things were going on but I guess the main learning is what we can prevent those situations and how we can make a more accurate strategy for the future.”

Despite showing strong pace, the team has just three points, thanks to Tsunoda’s sixth-place finish in the sprint race. They fell to ninth in the championship behind Haas this weekend.

“I think we just have to refocus,” said Tsunoda. “We know that we have good pace from the car, but I think just probably we were a little bit too reliant on that and maybe we missed something that’s really important before this race. We have to review that.

“Haas did a really good job, to be honest. They were struggling a lot until these races and suddenly they improved the pace from this race on. So big credit to them.

“But at the same time, I think also I know it’s a bit frustrating, we know that we can do better and we have the tools and we have much better people than them and a much better car than them. So missing two races in a row, with big points, it’s something we definitely have to think about.”

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