F1 star hits out at 'not nice' FIA stewards after being slapped with penalty

Yuki Tsunoda aired his grievances with the FIA stewards after the Red Bull driver was handed a big penalty during the British Grand Prix. Tsunoda had a weekend to forget at Silverstone, being knocked out of qualifying before the final session and finishing a lapped last in the race. He was also involved in a collision with Haas rival Oliver Bearman, for which he was heavily punished.

The two drivers came together on lap 22, with Tsunoda tipping Bearman into a spin after being passed by the British teenager. The stewards determined that he was entirely at fault and handed down a 10-second penalty. Tsunoda also received a single penalty point on his super licence, bringing his total up to five for the 12-month period.

Although he felt a penalty was justified, Tsunoda was left frustrated by the severity of his punishment and made his feelings known after the race.

"I deserve the penalty, but 10 seconds, obviously last year, it was probably five seconds," he said. "So they did not make any exceptions, but it is what it is.

"I was already pretty annoyed with the pace, but it is just very harsh to be honest. 10 seconds felt like two days, but they gave it, and they have not been nice to me recently with these penalty points and overtaking a damaged car [of Oscar Piastri in Montreal]."

Tsunoda has struggled to get to grips in the second Red Bull since he was promoted to replace Liam Lawson earlier this season. Over the last 10 race weekends, he has not finished higher than ninth and has failed to score a point in nearly two months.

"When it comes to the long run, it's something that always is very outstandingly slow," added Tsunoda. "Just degging [degrading the tyres] like crazy. I never had this kind of feeling.

"I know we were running quite low downforce, but to be honest I had still good confidence in the rain. The rain pace was absolutely nowhere, so I'm a bit lost.

"Yeah, a couple of positives from the dry conditions. On one lap it was pretty good, but yeah, the long run is something to look at more."

Tsunoda is far from the only driver to struggle alongside Verstappen, with the second Red Bull proving hugely difficult to drive. The likes of Sergio Perez, Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon are just some of the names to have faced similar problems in the past.

Team principal Christian Horner likened the situation to Eddie Irvine's plight against Michael Schumacher while the pair were team-mates at Ferrari.

He told F1TV: "I just spoke to Eddie Irvine and it was very reminiscent of what he experienced with Michael Schumacher at Ferrari in the 1990s.

"Such exceptional drivers can drive a car that is extremely designed for a super-strong front axle. There are very few who can do that. That's why we're trying to take a different approach with Yuki to calm things down a bit for him."

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