Tsunoda admits forgetting Straight Mode cost him lap time in Monza FP1

Yuki Tsunoda admitted he kept forgetting to activate Straight Mode on the approach to Turn 11 during first practice at the Italian Grand Prix, only realising the error when he noticed unexpected lap-time losses at Monza’s Parabolica.

The Racing Bulls stand-in, who impressed at Zandvoort two weeks earlier, had anticipated a harder weekend in Italy. Monza’s high-speed, low-downforce layout makes it particularly ‘energy-starved’ under the 2026 regulations, placing a heavier premium on energy management than the Dutch circuit did.

“I just keep forgetting using this SM towards Turn 11,” Tsunoda said. “I was like, oh, why am I losing so much lap time? Oh, well, actually, I’m not using SM. So those things are just really hitting me quite hard and, you know, there are some challenges that I had with the transition from last year to this year.”

Monza carries four Straight Mode zones in 2026 — considerably more than the DRS zones drivers were accustomed to at the circuit in the ground-effect era. The zones are essential at a track where the new cars’ drag penalty is especially pronounced, and the additional activation points represent a meaningful cognitive adjustment for drivers returning after time away from the seat.

Tsunode recovered well in FP2, using SM at every permitted point and finishing 10th overall — just a tenth of a second behind team-mate Arvid Lindblad and immediately behind Max Verstappen. The improvement gave him cautious optimism heading into the rest of the weekend.

“Overall, in FP2, it all came a bit more together. It ended up pretty nicely, also knowing what kind of things we can still improve,” he said. “I think Arvid is looking more comfortable in the car, so there’s still some things for me to improve. The confidence in the car is not massive, not 100 per cent.”

The episode underlines how much the 2026 technical overhaul has changed the mental workload for drivers, even experienced ones. Where DRS was a relatively simple binary activation, the active aerodynamics system introduces multiple zone types and a greater number of trigger points per lap — a learning curve that Tsunoda is navigating in real time across just his second weekend back in the car.