Throttle Glitch Wrecks Tsunoda’s Dutch GP – But He Still Brings It Home
Yuki Tsunoda left the Dutch Grand Prix with points on the board, but a strange technical issue meant he was left wondering what could have been. The RB driver was running strongly at Zandvoort and on course for a solid top-ten finish—until a bizarre glitch compromised his final stint.
After his last pit stop, Tsunoda found himself stuck in the wrong throttle map. Team principal Laurent Mekies explained that the team couldn’t switch back to the correct settings due to current F1 regulations: “He basically drove the final part with a really, really not friendly throttle map,” Mekies said.
Throttle mapping controls how the car delivers power in response to the driver’s inputs—critical for both performance and drivability. Before 2020, teams had free rein to change these settings during a race weekend, often deploying special “party modes” for qualifying or crucial overtakes. But the FIA outlawed this flexibility to level the playing field. Since then, teams can only switch modes in three situations: when the engine is off, during a wet race, or in the pitlane.
Unfortunately for Tsunoda, none of those conditions applied at the time of the glitch.
Despite the setback, Tsunoda managed to salvage points—his first since the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in May. According to Mekies, he likely would have finished as high as seventh without the issue. He was ahead of Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli before the final stops and had also been unlucky with the first safety car, which gave many rivals a cheaper pit stop while he had already pitted.
“Honestly, it’s hard to judge the full pace because he was in traffic most of the race,” Mekies added. Still, Tsunoda showed resilience in bringing home valuable points under tough conditions.
