Helmut Marko believes that Yuki Tsunoda was “cocky” at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at the weekend, with the Japanese rookie failing to set a time in qualifying and spinning during the race.
After starting at the back of the field, Tsunoda had made up plenty of positions during the race but saw his top-10 hopes squandered after spinning out as the lights went green following the Safety Car restart – with the 20-year-old running P8 at the time.
Red Bull advisor Marko already made headlines at the weekend after blaming his own driver, Sergio Perez for a collision with Esteban Ocon in the first practice session on Friday – and he was similarly critical of the AlphaTauri youngster after the race.
“Yuki had a fast car. It would definitely have been suitable for Q3,” Marko said on Austrian channel ServusTV.
“It was just a really stupid mistake and you can’t make it any smaller than it already is. I spoke to Yuki after the race. He was totally contrite.
“Yuki had very strong sector times on the very first lap, but slamming a great time on the very first lap doesn’t do anything at all. He was just cocky.”
"He's okay, but the car is not"
Yuki Tsunoda will have ground to make up on Sunday as he starts from the back of the field#ImolaGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/DVYbUMGqgV
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 17, 2021
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Tsunoda himself was hard on himself after the race as well, describing his own performance as “really not acceptable” after his errors on Sunday.
“I was too aggressive into Turn 2,” he told the official Formula 1 website.
“After that my pace was really good so it was a shame that I spun on the first lap and couldn’t get points.
“I feel sorry for the team, overall this weekend was really tough for me. But I’ll learn from it and do better next time.
“It was possible to get points this time but like I said this is a learning curve, just don’t it again next time and make it a better race.”
Tsunoda was hampered from the start on Sunday, with the young Japanese driver saying he will be sure to adjust his driving style in qualifying so that he doesn’t push his car over the limit in the future.
“For me, Q1, completely my mistake,” he added. “Even in Q1, like when I see car performance overall this week, I don’t have to push like that much.
“I don’t know why, I just pushed too much even though I don’t have to.”
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