Yuki Tsunoda feels he has made considerable progress as a driver in his second season in Formula 1, giving himself a 7 out of 10 for the first half of the 2022 season.
The interview was conducted before the F1 French GP. Yuki Tsunoda, who was scoring five or six points at the same point in his rookie season, is scoring higher in the 2022 season, indicating a boost in confidence that has come with his experience.
“I think I was able to make use of my experience from last year,” said Yuki Tsunoda.
“Knowing what I have to do and how to approach each race weekend is definitely an advantage compared to last year.”
“At the same time, I went through almost all the worst last year, but I was able to come back from it.In most situations, unlike last year, I was able to keep my cool. That’s the main difference.”
“Each race week I know what I have to do. That was my main target and that is the important part. But how? To perform well in FP1, you have to do different kinds of tests every session, those things I didn’t think about.”
Scuderia AlphaTauri F1 technical director Jody Eggington agrees with Yuki Tsunoda’s assessment. He noted a one-year difference in working with Tsunoda’s engineering staff.
“He’s growing and has a good relationship with his engineers,” said Jody Egginton.
“I sit down and talk to him and he gives his opinion on what he wants from the car, which is good because it means he starts clicking and has an opinion about it. “
In terms of points scored, Yuki Tsunoda is a bit behind the 18 points he scored at this point last season. We’ve only scored 11 points this year, but that’s philosophical given the various reliability setbacks.
Senior driver Pierre Gasly, who scored 50 points before the 2021 summer break, has suffered a much steeper drop to just 16 points this year.
“I am very happy with what I have achieved in terms of extracting performance from the car,” said Yuki Tsunoda.
“We had a lot of reliability issues as a team, for example in Saudi Arabia we didn’t run in FP3, qualifying or the race. In Bahrain we lost an FP3 session. Pierre also lost FP3 in Barcelona. I was also running P7 or P6 in Azerbaijan.”
The F1 Azerbaijan GP was set to be Yuki Tsunoda’s strongest performance of the season. Yuki Tsunoda, who had qualified eighth, was running sixth when DRS damage to his rear wing forced him to pit.
“A lot has happened, but overall I’m still happy with what I’ve done,” said Yuki Tsunoda.
“I don’t think there’s much difference between me and Pierre in terms of points. Considering what I lost in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, we should have been level, so I’m happy.”
Category: F1 / Hiroki Tsunoda / Alpha Tauri