“I was told firing Masi will make everything good again”- F1 fans sympathize with Yuki Tsunoda, whose race was allegedly ruined by FIA’s incompetent Safety Car restart

Yuki Tsunoda was forced to give up on his race after FIA's lackluster restart

Formula 1 has had a controversial time with safety car restarts recently. The elephant in the room was the last lap restart at the season finale in Abu Dhabi which decided the championship. This got a huge backlash from the fans and critics alike, forcing FIA to make changes in F1 race control and the departure of Michael Masi. Months later, however, it seems that the FIA is still not up to the mark of having a hassle-free race start.

The Brazilian Grand Prix had a couple of safety cars, and while the last SC at the end of the race was coming into the pits, race control instructed the lapped cars to overtake the safety car in a bid to unlap themselves. However, the FIA missed out on Yuki Tsunoda’s Alpha Tauri in the instruction, forcing the Japanese driver to stay with the leaders at the restart. Yuki was mindful and left the racing line, in order to allow the lead cars to go past him.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=O6qsxaJ8s5g

Pierre Gasly narrowly missed a tractor due to FIA’s poor communication at the Japanese Grand Prix

This allegedly ruined the race for the 22-year-old who finished the race a lap down at P17. Tsunoda’s lap times post the safety car were faster than the two Williams in P16 and P15. If the Alpha Tauri was permitted to unlap itself, Yuki could have gained a couple of places at the restart, which would have provided the youngster with better morale heading into the season finale at Abu Dhabi.

FS Video

On a more concerning note, this instance is another case of FIA’s sheer incompetency, we saw at Suzuka how Pierre Gasly almost hit a tractor because of the lack of information provided by race control. This incident too is unacceptable, Tsunoda was forced to give up on his race simply because of a mistake by the race control. It doesn’t matter that he was in P17, what matters here is the FIA’s ability to do one thing right, which it doesn’t seem to do.

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F1 fans praise Yuki Tsunoda’s handling of the botched restart situation

The whole Safety Car incident has surprised the fans over FIA’s decision making

On Reddit, fans expressed their sympathy towards Yuki’s misfortune, while praising the 22-year-old’s graceful response, how he didn’t hamper the race for the cars alongside him. One fan said, “Yuki should get a huge fucking apology, he was faster than Albon after the SC, could’ve made up some places,” while another user commented, “he didn’t deserve this.”

Fans also called out the FIA’s incompetency and lack of accountability. One user replied, “But I was told firing Masi will make everything good again” and another fan called it the “biggest scandal of the race.” Many mocked how if Yuki had not left the racing line, he would have been penalized but the FIA gets a clean chit every time irrespective of how dangerous their mistakes might be.

Comment
byu/Velrond from discussion
informula1

It is clear that race direction in Formula 1 is still far from perfect, almost every other race we witness some errors by the FIA or even irregularity when it comes to track limits or penalties. Yet no one can question the sporting body as it decides its own repercussions, this is something that is problematic, and until proper accountability is imposed on FIA and race control, F1 will still be bugged by these issues.