Yuki Tsunoda (Scuderia AlphaTauri) has overcome the crisis of self-confidence that has upset the rookie season and now says he is “in much more control over himself.”
Yuki Tsunoda started his F1 career with a point finish in his debut match in Bahrain last year, but his gears began to go wrong due to a crash in the qualifying at Imola, and he was spared from moving to Italy in 2022. He admitted that he was “surprised” when it was decided that he would remain in Scuderia AlphaTauri for years.
Yuki Tsunoda, who was totally defeated by experienced teammate Pierre Guthrie, ended the season with the best weekend to finish in 4th place, which was his best result in the final round F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
This year, the second year, Yuki Tsunoda started the season with a performance that charged from 16th to 8th place in Bahrain, and enjoyed a fruitful weekend in Imola, which was a derailment place for the rookie season.
Scuderia AlphaTauri lost Q1 with two cars at the wrong timing in qualifying Q1 on Friday, but Yuki Tsunoda did 0.3 seconds more than Pierre Guthrie.
Yuki Tsunoda, who moved up to 12th place in the sprint, moved up to 9th place at the start in the final and brilliantly overtakes Kevin Magnussen and Sebastian Vettel with slick tires. Although he was overtaken by Charles Leclerc just before the end, he finished the race in 7th place, the best of the season.
Meanwhile, teammate Pierre Guthrie was forced to struggle and finished the race in 12th place without being able to overtake former Red Bull driver Alex Albon.
After the race, Yuki Tsunoda recalled, “I think I have much more control than last year.”
“I was out of control at the same time last year and I didn’t know what I was doing, so I was over the limit for each lap, but in reality it was a good learning as a driver. “
“After that, I went into a bad loop, but in fact it was a good learning as a driver.”
“I was able to take the next step and I was able to earn points today.”
“I think there is a big difference in race pace, especially compared to last year.”
Yuki Tsunoda, who was able to spend Imola’s weekend at home, pointed out that this year is relatively calm compared to the rookie season, when radio rants were badly talked about.
“Maybe I’m still screaming on the radio, but I haven’t pressed the radio (button) too much,” added Yuki Tsunoda.
“This is a big change compared to last year.”
“I’m still trying to be more calm. I realized that it doesn’t make sense to scream on the radio. It’s better to use a calm voice to tell the limits and find the next step.”
Scuderia AlphaTauri debuted a new floor at the Emilia Romagna GP as part of a fairly substantive update. This is an upgrade that Pierre Guthrie has expressed excitement as “Bug Time”.
Yuki Tsunoda finished in 7th place, allowing him to move up to the same position just behind his 2021 rival Alpine F1 Team in the Constructors’ Championship.
This season, Scuderia AlphaTauri has scored points in all races so far, but has not yet achieved a double-point finish.
In Bahrain, Yuki Tsunoda overcame FP3’s absence due to a hydraulic leak, but Pierre Guthrie retired due to a power unit failure. In Saudi Arabia, Yuki Tsunoda missed the qualifying due to a water leak and was unable to participate in the race due to engine trouble. In Melbourne, both Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Guthrie missed the Q3 in qualifying and struggled throughout the weekend.
Team representative Franz Tost, who joked that Yuki Tsunoda “is better at fitness than I am” before the season, praises Yuki Tsunoda’s fitness transformation for addressing key weaknesses in the rookie season. ..
“First of all, Yuuki wasn’t as bad as he thought he was,” Franz Tost said.
“Physical training for F1 drivers is difficult. The best training is always driving a car.”
“All drivers think they aren’t healthy enough and, of course, he needs more physical training.”
“Whenever a young driver enters F1, he is forced by all the power in the car and every driver thinks he is not healthy enough.
“Of course, he needs more physical training, but it’s hard to do physical training for F1 drivers. The best training is always driving a car.”
“Maybe he underestimated some training sessions he should have done, but he did it and then he improved a lot.”
“He took it seriously and trained twice a day. He also took a lot of lessons with engineers to learn the technical side, and Yuuki made a big improvement.”
“He’s perfectly on schedule and I hope he’ll have a very good season, especially if he provides him with a fast and reliable car in the second half. Yuuki is doing a really good job and we I’m happy with him. “
Category: Category: F1 / Yuki Tsunoda