Yuki Tsunoda finished the Brazilian Grand Prix in seventh place, but during the race, he had the opportunity to take the lead. Let’s reconstruct what happened.
The brilliant VCARB strategy undone by the FIA
By lap 28, as the rain intensified, several drivers opted for a pit stop to switch to fresh intermediate tires for better grip.
At VCARB, however, strategists decided to fit Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson with full wet tires. In hindsight, this move was brilliant. On lap 30, the Japanese driver was the fastest on track, gaining over three seconds on Esteban Ocon and more than four seconds on Max Verstappen, who were first and second at the time.
If he had just a few more laps, Yuki Tsunoda would undoubtedly have taken the lead. Unfortunately, that’s not how it unfolded. The FIA decided to deploy a Safety Car due to worsening weather conditions, even though the truth is that the full wet tires were working perfectly at that moment.
Of course, safety comes first, but if the regulations included a clause requiring teams to fit the blue Pirelli tires upon the stewards’ direction, things might have played out differently. In short, the risk that Yuki Tsunoda and the Italian team took could have led to a historic result. The fact that events didn’t turn in their favor doesn’t detract from the great intuition they showed.
Who knows how long they’ll have to wait to find another opportunity of this magnitude in their hands…
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