Helmut Marko has claimed Red Bull are in a "really critical" situation following . The Japanese racer was condemned to start the from the pit lane as a result of the dramatic accident.
On his first flying lap of Q1, lost control of the car and smashed into a tyre barrier at high speed. The impact flipped his car but, fortunately, it came back down facing the right way up and the driver was able to walk away unharmed.
That was the most important thing, but the massive repair job it left for the mechanics was far from ideal. And with races in and to follow over the next two weekends of this triple-header, the team can now ill afford any more damage being done to their cars.
"Thank God nothing happened to him personally," said . "It's a huge setback for us, because it's now three races in a row. Monte Carlo in particular is not exactly forgivable if you have a slip-up there. And the spare parts situation has become really critical as a result."
Marko went on to say there is no additional pressure on Tsunoda's place as a result of his mistake, despite already having dropped this season for poor performance. "You have to give him security and support and we will do that," said the Austrian.
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Tsunoda also denied any suggestion that pressure to perform led to the crash, saying: "I think the team is supporting me enough to take off pressure as much as possible. I just tried to be a hero in Q1, which is unnecessary. Aiming too much, aiming myself to pass Q1 with just one set [of tyres].
"I made a lot of changes to the car, [therefore], you don't know much about the car, how the car is going to react to everything: high speed, medium speed, slow speed - and that kind of corner. I had confidence that I could handle it.
"But at the same time... to be honest, this kind of really excuse, but it's just experience in the car, car changes, and how the car reacted is bit unexpected. But, I know the reason that caused that kind of balance into the corner."
And Tsunoda pointed the finger only at himself for the crash, adding: "It's been five years in , so crashing in Q1 after such a long time, and how I did it, is obviously not acceptable. I was just very ashamed, disappointed. It was really stupid of myself, pushing like that, unnecessarily hard.
"The only thing I can do is apologise to [his Red Bull mechanics] and just pray. The car obviously had big damage, so the mechanics have to do a lot of work until tomorrow – hopefully the car will be ready. Very unnecessary for them, and for myself putting them in the wrong situation."
Tsunoda had yet to put a time on the board at the time of his crash, meaning he was condemned to start the race from last place. And Red Bull decided to change his chassis and give him a new engine which meant he would begin in the pit lane instead.