Rookies Yuki Tsunoda and Mick Schumacher both had an early end to their day of qualifying at the Circuit Paul Ricard and will be starting tomorrow’s race from P20 and P15 respectively.
Both drivers have since come out to talk about the incidents that saw them return to the pits with damaged contenders, and have revealed their teams will be working through the evening to prepare for the race.
Yuki Tsunoda apologised to AlphaTauri and said he tried to brake as much as he could in order to avoid hitting the barriers but described the conditions “as ice”.
The Japanese driver confirmed that there is some damage to the car so the team will be working this evening to ensure he can start the race tomorrow.
“It was my mistake today in Qualifying and I want to apologise to the team”, he said.
“I just used too much of the yellow curb at turn one and I spun out. I tried to brake as much as possible to avoid contact with the barrier, but it was like skating on ice as I was going backwards.
“It was fairly low impact, but there is some damage to the car so the team will have to work hard tonight to get me ready for tomorrow. The best way to thank the team would be to have a good race tomorrow.
“It’s difficult to overtake here but I’ll push as hard as I can every lap and use every opportunity I get.”
Meanwhile, Mick Schumacher said his VF21 is very wind affected, and that he had pushed too hard – ultimately ending up in the barriers.
The level of damage to the Haas car is still unknown, however, Schumacher says he will be fighting tomorrow to gain places over the 53 lap race and says he’s more motivated than ever.
“I pushed too hard going into the corner and that kicked out the rear”, he said.
“The car is very wind affected – I don’t know if that would have triggered some extra oversteer. Nonetheless, we’ve managed to get into our first Q2 session of the year, so things brighten up and hopefully we can get more of those days in the future.
“There is damage to the car, how great we don’t know yet. If everything is ok we’ll start from there and obviously it is on paper, and that’s what matters to me.
“If something happens, I’ve got 53 laps to catch-up. I’m optimistic that we see the light at the end of the tunnel.
“The team is getting more motivated every day, I am more motivated every day and those results prove that our hard work is growing.”
