RB’s Yuki Tsunoda hilarious misheard radio communication during the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix that led him to believe there was a beaver on track.
The Qatar GP changed dramatically when Alex Albon’s Williams saw a wing mirror shake loose on Lap 30.
When that was struck by Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas, triggering debris and a Safety Car, chaos ensued behind eventual winner Max Verstappen.
However, amidst all of that, Tsunoda revealed that he thought an altogether different prospect was causing issues on track.
“Was it mirror? I heard beaver,” the Japanese driver told select media post-race.
“My engineers said: ‘There’s a beaver.’ But why is there a beaver in the Middle East? Like how is it possible a beaver is in the Middle East?
“But okay, maybe there’s a surprise with global warming – kicking a lot of interesting things in the Earth.”
Drivers didn’t respect yellow flags during Qatar GP, says Yuki Tsunoda
With the beaver confusion cleared up, another facet of the Qatar GP puzzled Tsunoda.
As was the case with his comical miscommunication over team radio, the Japanese driver’s query was related to the stricken wing mirror on track.
Race control initially managed the situation with double waved yellows, which caught McLaren’s Lando Norris out, landing him a 10-second stop-and-go penalty.
However, Tsunoda observed several drivers ignoring the yellow flags and wants that to be reviewed in the eyes of fair competition.
“There was the double yellow and some cars behind didn’t really follow it,” he said.
“So we have to revise that in the next drivers’ briefing that some driver does respect it, and some driver doesn’t respect it. That’s very unfair.”
When it comes to the race itself, Tsunoda had trouble fighting as his RB lacked ultimate pace.
Despite crucially featuring in the top-10 early on amid his team’s fight in the Constructors’ Championship over sixth place with Haas and Alpine, the Japanese driver succumbed to 13th by the time the chequered flag fell.
“Yeah, I had a good start as well and I was P9, able to overtake [Fernando] Alonso as well after the safety car,” he said.
“But I never had like that much of a bad pace.
“I just gave it everything, you know, I was not even managing the tyres.
“In Qatar, normally it’s hard to overtake with the car behind, and it seems like a lot of cars [found it] quite easy to overtake me.
“Just generally lack of pace, and it’s not even small.”
With Liam Lawson finishing 14th, a zero score leaves RB eighth in the standings with 46 points, eight behind Haas and 13 behind Alpine.
READ MORE – RB insists Yuki Tsunoda ready to make Red Bull F1 step
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