Yuki Tsunoda crossed the line this weekend in Austria by using the English word “retard”, which translates to “late”. A slip-up for which he was fined 40,000 euros after being summoned by the stewards. Peter Bayer, CEO of RB F1, deplores that radio communications are generally more crude.
“I sometimes have a bit of space on the pit wall to listen to other drivers” explains Bayer. “I don’t know why, I don’t know if it’s the very consistent and consistently applied communications. We hear so many ‘F-words’ over the course of a weekend, which seems to be acceptable now.”
Tsunoda told the stewards that he was not aware of the violence of the word used, as he is not an English speaker. Bayer confirmed that he saw this version in private, when he pointed out the problem to his driver: “What Yuki said on Saturday, I told him when I saw him when he came back, I told him ‘Yuki, you don’t say that’.”
“He looked at me and said, ‘Why, what do you mean?’ I said, ‘John [Noonan, le kiné de Tsunoda]you’re an English speaker, can you explain to Yuki what he said?’ He did and Yuki was like, ‘Oh no, I’m really sorry.’ He really was.”
Bayer praises Tsunoda’s work on his maturity, and the way he is more in control of his nervous moments on the radio: “He’s improved 1,000 percent on that. The indignation he felt has gone because he understands.”
“He understood that every ‘F-word’ cost him a tenth. Daniel [Ricciardo] was 15 thousandths of a second away from Q3, it’s so tight, and those distractions are… it costs you a tenth. And that tenth decides whether you finish ninth or 13th. Yuki knows that and he manages to do it.”
