Yuki Tsunoda has apologised after admitting doubts as to if he has “the same car” as AlphaTauri teammate Pierre Gasly.
The Japanese rookie has struggled since the momentum of a strong debut in Bahrain was dented by a difficult weekend at Imola, including a crash in qualifying.
And that frustration boiled over on Saturday, with the youngster declaring “I can’t ******* believe this car!” after he was knocked out in Q1 in Spain
“It’s always different feedback compared to my teammate, even when we try the opposite,” Tsunoda, who’ll start 16th, explained.
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“I have a little bit question mark if it is the same car – of course it’s the same car, but just the character of the car is just too different.
“Maybe, of course, it’s a different driving style. But yeah, I don’t know, I don’t understand what happened, why I’m struggling this much.”
The 20-year-old then hinted the main issue is inconsistent tyre performance.
“I wasn’t pushing too hard on the out-lap, [I was] just like do normal,” Yuki continued.
“The tyre temperature is quite spot-on before the lap. I think the team, we set up, we set up the tyre, but I don’t know. It’s not the place I want to fight.
“The performance in this car, it’s easy to go to Q2. I really struggled to even go to Q2.”
Tsunoda has acknowledged a fiery and sweary temper is his main weakness with Jenson Button urging him to rein it in, particularly after questioning if he had equal machinery.
And the Red Bull junior certainly got the message, later posting an apologetic tweet.
“I wanted to apologize for my comments today,” he wrote. “I didn’t mean to criticize the team who have done a great job all weekend. I was just frustrated with my performance. Full send tomorrow.”