'Tsunoda's engine at Red Bull Powertrains possibly not be reusable'
Red Bull Content Pool
Rumors
- GPblog.com
For AlphaTauri, it is not the start of the season they will have hoped for in Faenza. In the opening race Pierre Gasly crashed out with electronic problems, while a week later Yuki Tsunoda could not even start due to engine problems. It is possible that the Japanese driver's power unit has even been completely written off.
That writes Motorsport.com based on sources. This would make a grid penalty sometime in 2022 very close, as a driver is only allowed to use three different internal combustion engines per season. It is most likely too optimistic to complete the remaining 21 Grand Prix weekends with only two ICEs.
Technical director Jody Egginton stated to the aforementioned medium that it is not yet one hundred percent clear what exactly happened, the engine is still under investigation. What is certain is that Red Bull Powertrains had hoped for fewer problems at the start of the season. Sergio Perez has also had to change engine parts. After his DNF in Bahrain he got a new MGU-H and turbocharger.
AlphaTauri has bad luck
In two Grands Prix AlphaTauri managed to score eight points so far. With that the formation of team boss Franz Tost currently occupies seventh place in the world championship. With a little less, a fifth place in the constructors' standings would certainly have been possible, so the AT03 is in any case a competitive car. Now all that remains are the results.