F1 News: AlphaTauri Under Fire For Insensitive Graphic Ahead Of Japanese GP

The Rising Sun Flag has caused a bit of an issue.

Scuderia AlphaTauri uploaded a Manga-style artwork of driver Yuki Tsunoda yesterday, celebrating the Japanese driver's home run this weekend in Suzuka. However, many fans haven't received the artwork well due to an insensitive and rather controversial symbol of the Rising Sun Flag on it.

As the teams gear up for the Japanese Grand Prix weekend at Suzuka, it must be an exciting race for Tsunoda who just finished P5 in Free Practice 1. His team, however, posted an artwork without doing enough background research thus, causing it to come under fire from fans on social media platform X. 

Though the Rising Sun Flag has been a part of Japanese history, it has been associated by many countries as a symbol of atrocities that Japan committed on the people during the second world war and hence, it is often related to the Nazi symbol of the Swastika. 

Here are a few reactions from fans who clearly didn't like the idea. 

the use of rising sun in your design is appalling.

— liya 🐧 (@snowtsunoda) September 21, 2023

it’s been 4 hours & you haven’t deleted..

— ray (@ln4norris) September 21, 2023

I’m sure you tried your best…. But this seems a little bit controversial to me.

— molang_shawol (@Deify_Sveta) September 21, 2023

Realising the mistake after receiving several comments from fans who pointed out the grave error, AlphaTauri has released a formal apology on the same platform but, the artwork hasn't been taken down yet. It reads:

"We have seen some comments over the last few hours, about our Japanese GP poster.

"We created this poster just for an aesthetic purpose without any intention of referencing any political movement or historic fact.

"We apologize with everyone who could be offended by such an involuntary reference. This poster was purely intended to celebrate the race week of one of the most iconic and popular races on the F1 calendar."

Though the artwork could have been an innocent mistake, being done purely in the interest of the sport and an iconic circuit like Suzuka. Fans have questioned the apology, asking why the post hasn't been taken down yet. 

This post and the poster should be deleted. Intent does not negate impact. It is an offensive symbol and even more offensive, and insensitive, to justify it because of the “aesthetics”—this is a chance to do better, so do better.

— Tasha ✨ تاشا (@t4sh4___) September 22, 2023

Then delete it, tell the artist remove the sun, and let's go again.

— denithy 🇹🇹 (@denithy) September 22, 2023

Yuki Tsunoda's contract with AlphaTauri expires toward the end of this year. However, the 23-year-old racing driver recently hinted rather confidently that a contract extension for the next season is coming soon. 

Red Bull Press Image