AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda has revealed that there was a miscommunication with his race engineer during practice for the Italian Grand Prix, which caused him to speed under yellow flags.
The Japanese driver collected his eighth penalty point when he was adjudged to have failed to slow sufficiently in a caution zone.
That comes a week after Tsunoda was given his fifth reprimand of the season at the Dutch Grand Prix for the bizarre manner of his retirement from the race, having picked up four in Bahrain, Melbourne and Monaco.
Because four of them were driving-related, the 22-year-old received a 10-place grid drop for the Italian Grand Prix, and the yellow flag incident added another three to that tally.
READ: Yuki Tsunoda tears into Lewis Hamilton fans
He started the race in P20 as a result, and his reprimands have all been cleared, although he is now just four penalty points away from picking up a race ban.
For that reason, Tsunoda is keen to keep it neat and tidy from now on, so as to avoid incurring too many penalty points.
“Of course I’ll take care as much as possible to not do stupid moves,” he told RaceFans.net.
“The things a couple of times I did, unnecessary things, that yellow flag for example, I’ll try definitely to stop those things.”
The AlphaTauri driver explained that confusion over the radio is what led to the punishment from the stewards.
“Normally, of course, I reduce myself the speed and I never got a penalty for a yellow flag, there was a bit of misunderstanding over the radio, that’s why I didn’t really slow,” elaborated Tsunoda.
READ: Did Red Bull really cheat to ensure Max Verstappen won his home race?
“Still, it’s my responsibility, I should still reduce it, especially for a yellow flag when it’s for the safety. I’ll learn for next time.”
Tsunoda has scored points three times this year in an underperforming AlphaTauri car, and the Faeza-based team are currently eighth in the championship.
The Japanese racer finished the 2022 Italian Grand Prix in P14, while Gasly crossed the finish line in eighth position.