AlphaTauri have spoken of their intentions to investigate what went wrong for Yuki Tsunoda after the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Japanese driver had lined up in P16 for the race, ahead of teammate Pierre Gasly, who started from the pit lane after taking on an array of new power unit elements and exceeding his allocation for the season. While Gasly was able to work his way forward to finish the race in 12th, Tsunoda had a tough day and ended the event in 19th, last of the classified runners. Tsunoda himself admitted he was baffled as to why the upgrades that the team had initially brought for the French Grand Prix one week earlier had not paid off. "It's been a really difficult day, it didn't feel like I had much of a race," Tsunoda said. "I struggled with the car throughout, as I had absolutely no grip at all out there. I was finding it so difficult to keep it on the track and made a small mistake which meant I spun. "This weekend has not been an easy one, we need to go away and look at all the data to understand why the upgrades we have are not paying off in the way we thought they would. "We'll have a reset now over the summer break and then look to come back stronger for the second half of the season."
AlphaTauri reflect on "mixed fortunes"
While Gasly had a decent day at the Hungaroring, AlphaTauri's Technical Director, Jody Egginton, was left questioning what had happened for Tsunoda. "We had mixed fortunes as a team," Egginton explained. "Pierre drove a very strong race, from a pit lane start, making good use of the Soft and Medium compounds to come home 12th. "Unfortunately, Yuki had a far more difficult race, struggling with grip and balance in every stint and generally not being happy with his car. "Although no issue was evident from the telemetry, we need to conduct an investigation to get to the bottom of this."
Positives for AlphaTauri to take from Hungary
Despite the problems for Tsunoda, Egginton feels that there are positives for the team to take from the Hungarian Grand Prix. "Looking at the bigger picture, although we have not achieved the target of getting back to scoring points again here in Hungary, the race pace shown is positive and with a better starting position we could have potentially delivered points with Pierre, which is a good sign," he commented. "Equally as important though is the amount we have learned about the upgrade here which, when combined with the next updates, will hopefully move us forward another step." Following the race, the team were set to embark on a week of "analysis from this event and preparations for the next Grand Prix" at their base before enjoying F1's summer break.
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