Fourteenth in Austria is the latest in the run of disappointing results for Yuki Tsunoda who had issues on and off track last weekend.
The Japanese driver found himself in hot water on Saturday after using a slur on the team radio.
This came after an incident with Zhou Guanyu, where Tsunoda was stuck behind him in the queue to get out of pit lane and frustratedly said “these guys are f***ing r******”.
Tsunoda was penalised for the use of the slur as he was brought in front of the FIA who served him a fine of 40,000 euros, half of it suspended until the end of the year providing he does not repeat it.
The Japanese driver apologised for his words privately and publicly, claiming he was unaware to the meaning and weight of the words he had said. He has vowed to improve himself.
“Yeah, I completely misunderstood the word. I mean, I thought it was the equivalent of idiot or whatever. Obviously idiot is a bad word.
“It sounds like an excuse but each country uses a different meaning. But yeah, after I found out the exact meaning of that word, it’s not the word I was expecting.
“Obviously I should not say it in public or in general. That was obviously completely my bad and I will improve myself.”
In the race itself, Tsunoda found himself struggling yet again, continuing his string of tough results as he has not found himself in the points since Monaco.
Fourteenth is even his best result since that event, the Japanese driver has fallen a step behind in race pace compared to his teammate.
His individual struggle was especially clear in his third stint in Austria. As teammate Daniel Ricciardo pushed on and scored points with P9, Tsunoda found himself falling back to P14 as a combination of blue flags and a general lack of pace saw him finish over 25s behind his teammate when his race was over on lap 70.
Before the second run of stops, he was only a few seconds behind Ricciardo and the Alpines of Gasly and Ocon.
“Yeah, I was behind the Alpines and my teammate.
“Come the third stint I was way behind, so I don’t know what’s happened there to be honest. But yeah, first stint was pretty terrible as well, so I’ll have to find out why.”
The disparity between the two teammates could be explained by them running different parts as despite Tsunoda confirming most of his car is similar to Ricciardo’s, he added he was running with none of the updates through Grand Prix qualifying and the race.
“Most of it is similar with Daniel. A couple of things a bit different.
“But yeah, for sure he did a good job this race.
“I think we had a good conclusion in the end what direction we have to take as a team for the next race.”
