Tsunoda hands RB damning verdict over F1 upgrade

Yuki Tsunoda hopes RB's sizeable Italian Grand Prix upgrade "is not a downgrade" after its unexpected poor performance.

Among the upgrades RB brought to its home race at Monza was a new floor to help create downforce and manage the airflow, but the part failed to deliver the expected on-track boost in performance.

As the sole car with the new parts, Tsunoda was dumped out in Q1. His lowly grid position saw him caught up in a Turn 1 incident with the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg.

Tsunoda was forced to retire after seven laps, and with team-mate Daniel Ricciardo finishing 13th after two penalties - five seconds for a collision with Hulkenberg later on lap one, and an additional 10 as the first was not served correctly at a pit stop - the team came away empty-handed.

Despite being unable to get a full-race read on the updates, Tsunoda branded the lack of performance as "ridiculous" given the numbers he expected to see after simulator sessions.

"I came into the weekend with high expectations with this upgrade, and it didn't seem to work, so I hope it is not a downgrade," he explained when prompted by RacingNews365.

"We just didn't have the pace and the limitations around the lap [compared to Ricciardo] are kind of similar.

"Whatever I do is just exaggerating limitations and I just keep sliding so it sucks but it is pretty hard to catch up.

"If you see the numbers [from the simulator], I should gain some lap time, but it is not even close to that and pretty far off from what we wanted for sure."

Tsunoda's RB woes

Although Tsunoda's race at Monza only lasted seven laps before retiring due to overheating after Hulkenberg hit his sidepod, damaging a radiator, he felt the car with the new parts was poor over both long and short runs.

"The team wanted to read how the new floor behaves and we wanted to gather the data, but clearly in qualifying we were struggling with the car over one lap," he said. 

"We were hoping that in the race, at least a new floor would give some benefits, and with upgrades, you have to try them on track to see how the behaviour is. 

"But it is completely different to what I felt in the simulator, and on paper, it should work. 

"But at least we had a good opportunity to compare [floors]."