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Yuki Tsunoda was quite surprised to learn about his 60-place grid penalty for the 2024 F1 Belgian GP. He got to know about the massive penalty during one of the interviews in the media pen.
Coming into the Belgian GP, the Japanese driver's car received a new power unit with several new parts like a combustion engine, a turbocharger, MGU-H, MGU-K, an energy store, control electronics, and exhaust.
Once a driver's car goes beyond the allocated power unit part changes, the FIA levies a 10-place grid penalty for each component that is being changed. Hence, Yuki Tsunoda received the penalty six times for six new parts.
While Tsunoda knew that a penalty was coming his way, he seemed completely unaware of its extent. After Friday's second practice session, the RB driver was interviewed by F1 pundit Will Buxton for F1.com, during which Buxton talked about the 60-place grid penalty.
Upon hearing the about of places he would lose, Yuki Tsunoda's eyes widened as he exclaimed:
"Oh Jesus!"
Following this, Buxton continued his question while chuckling in between. Tsunoda gave another surprised expression before continuing the interview.
When asked about the Belgian GP practice and how he would approach the rest of the weekend, the Japanese driver said that he would now try to help his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who does not have any penalties and will be using an old power unit.
"Those penalties are waiting anyway. So I will maximize as much as possible and focus to help Daniel," he added.
Yuki Tsunoda focused on fixing car issues found during Friday's practice sessions at the Belgian GP
Yuki Tsunoda talked about how he and RB found an issue during Friday's practice sessions at Belgian GP.
Speaking to F1.com, he explained that it was the reason behind him being slower than his rivals as well as his teammate Daniel Ricciardo. The Japanese driver said he hoped his team could fix the issue before Saturday. He further added that the floor area has a major issue, along with other parts as well.
"I think it was a pretty difficult day for especially our side of the garage. Well, we found an issue, especially why we are lacking compared to other cars and the other side of the garage. So definitely there is some issue, hopefully we can repair that and fix that for tomorrow," Tsunoda said.
In FP1, Tsunoda drove 23 laps and only managed to secure P16, while Ricciardo secured P13. In FP2, the 24-year-old performed even more poorly and ended up in P20, while his Australian teammate went down to P14.
After the Hungarian GP, Tsunoda is in 12th place in the drivers' championship table with 22 points. His teammate Ricciardo is in 13th place with 11 points.
