Devastating Glitch Derails Yuki Tsunoda’s Dutch GP: A Nightmare on the Track!
In a stunning turn of events, Yuki Tsunoda’s hopes for a strong finish at the Dutch Grand Prix were shattered by a bizarre technical glitch that left his Red Bull racing car in a state of chaos. As the race unfolded, it became painfully clear that a monumental error during his final pit stop would rewrite his fate.
Team principal Laurent Mekies revealed that Tsunoda was “locked into the wrong map after the final stop,” forcing him to navigate the closing laps with a throttle map that was anything but forgiving. “He basically drove the final part with a really, really not friendly throttle map,” Mekies explained, laying bare the frustrations that plagued the driver.
Until 2020, Formula 1 teams enjoyed the freedom to switch engine and throttle mappings at will, unleashing power when it mattered most. However, the FIA’s crackdown on these so-called ‘party modes’ transformed the game, restricting teams to a single engine mode throughout the race. Drivers could only alter this mode under specific circumstances, leaving them vulnerable to catastrophic errors like the one that befell Tsunoda.
As Tsunoda entered the pitlane on lap 54, running in 13th place behind Lance Stroll, the team attempted to execute a seamless switch to ‘launch mode’ — a critical maneuver for pit stops. “It’ll be strat 12 in the pitlane, strat 12,” race engineer Richard Wood reminded him. But the transition went awry. After his pit stop, Tsunoda was instructed to revert to “strat 11,” but something went terribly wrong. “Okay, so we are stuck in the pedal map,” he was informed, leaving him grappling with a throttle response that was utterly unresponsive between 15% and 40% pedal travel — a recipe for disaster in the heat of competition.
Visibly frustrated, Tsunoda struggled to regain control after leaving the pits, only to find himself without power. “I don’t have power,” he radioed back, to which the team responded, “You do not have power until 40% throttle. It’s a very flat pedal map. We cannot fix it on track. Try and get used to it under the safety car just now.”
This catastrophic glitch left Tsunoda at a severe disadvantage, as he was unable to adjust his throttle settings outside the pitlane. Mekies elaborated, “Basically, when you are in the pitlane, you are changing maps. And if you don’t change back, you are locked into it for the rest of the time. So that’s what happened.”
Despite the odds stacked against him, Tsunoda managed to finish the race in 9th place, just 4.1 seconds behind Stroll. His engineer commended him for navigating the challenging final stint without proper throttle response. “That wasn’t easy. You did a really good job learning in the safety car,” he acknowledged.
Yet, Tsunoda’s frustration was palpable. “At some point, the safety car was faster than my car,” he lamented. “Our team did a fantastic job to minimize damage, but still, I lost a lot of performance. I was in P11. It was a good execution for me, but it could have been better.”
He reflected on his struggle, feeling that luck was not on his side. “I felt like everything was there, it was against me,” he said. “The first safety car didn’t help at all. The people I was fighting with ended up in P5, P6. It was not easy to even score points there.”
Despite the turmoil, Tsunoda’s 9th place finish marked his first points since May’s Imola race, a glimmer of hope amidst the chaos. Mekies suggested that under normal circumstances, Tsunoda might have finished as high as 7th. “He was unfortunate with the first safety car timing,” Mekies noted, highlighting that Tsunoda lost several positions due to the pit stop fiasco.
While Tsunoda’s performance may have been overshadowed by the glitch, it serves as a stark reminder of how quickly fortunes can change in the high-stakes world of Formula 1 racing. As the dust settles from this unpredictable race, one thing is certain: the Dutch GP will be remembered for Tsunoda’s battle against an unseen enemy — a glitch that turned a promising race into a frustrating ordeal.
