Yuki Tsunoda’s F1 rookie season began with his debut point at the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix and ended in fourth place in his career at the F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
However, during that time, Yuki Tsunoda endured a year of trials that Franz Tost, the team representative of AlphaTauri F1, described as “grown up.”
Last year, Yuki Tsunoda scored only 32 points in just seven top 10 finishes once morest 110 points for teammate Pierre Guthrie, and there is still much to prove in 2022.
The mistake-prone season proved to the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix that Ross Brawn had mistakenly said “the best rookie of the last few years”, but much later in the season in 2022. There were signs of sufficient progress to show that many results might be expected.
“The Yuuki season is a great example of how the rookie season progresses,” said Franz Tost, who has worked with many inexperienced drivers since the Toro Rosso era.
“It was always the same before, but this was the first time I had a very experienced driver with a rookie. I usually started with two rookies or a driver with a year of experience, but the difference is It wasn’t so obvious. “
“It’s easy to explain what happened to Yuuki. We did some winter tests with him. The first was a young driver test in Abu Dhabi. He learned the car and was pretty good. Everything was fine, then we did some private winter tests at Misano and Imola and gave him mileage to get used to the car, speed, brakes and everything. “
“Then we challenged Bahrain’s test. He raced fast and finished in 9th place. Everything was great. And Yuuki was already driving beyond the limits, so soon It was clear that a crash would occur in Bahrain. “
“It’s always the same for young drivers. I tell them,’You’re at the limit.’ But I know exactly what Yuuki was thinking in his head. After Bahrain, he Thought “not too difficult”, and he came to Imola to show what was happening. He had a great car and in the first run of qualifying he was much more than before. Fast and crashed. It was completely logical to me. “
“On Sunday of the race, he tried to overtake Hamilton on the dry line on the wet line. This is the behavior of a very inexperienced young driver. The experienced driver said,’Hamilton is in front of me. , “I don’t know which driver is Mercedes,” “I’m a top driver, so let’s take a look. How is he running?” I want to overtake him wet with. ”Of course, he spun.”
“Then we went to Portimao. He didn’t know the course and the team didn’t do a good job. Portimao didn’t do anything and he got worse. Then he went to Barcelona and the power unit There was an electrical failure and he mightn’t finish, and he faced Monaco, which he had never been to. “
“I remember exactly telling him,’Yuki, you did a great FP1. Be careful with FP2.’ He said,’I can run much faster.’ But he said, “No, if you run faster, you’re on the wall.” Of course, he was on the wall, so they start thinking, “This isn’t as easy as it sounds.”
Yuki Tsunoda himself accepts this interpretation and admits that he was overconfident in his readiness for F1.
Yuki Tsunoda was on the weekend in Bahrain hoping to reach Q2 with a medium compound, but was surprised to fail. In short, there was a hint that it might be harder than expected to turn raw abilities into results.
“I was too confident,” says Yuki Tsunoda.
“So far, there haven’t been any major crashes or major weird things, and I’ve always been in control, so I felt F1 was too easy.”
“But right following I crashed in Imola … I actually felt unlucky in qualifying, so I had no problem with my confidence following Imola, but when I got to crash consistently, I questioned my confidence. I started to feel it was much harder than I expected, especially more than I was thinking regarding how to build up through Race Week. The approach was completely wrong. “
“Self-confidence was completely zero. So far, I’ve rarely lost confidence, so it was very difficult to gain or rebuild self-confidence as in Bahrain.”
Franz Tost points out that even with good education in the Kurt and Junior categories, F1 is a whole new level and the pressure is much stronger.
So what Yuki Tsunoda experienced in the first six races of the season, according to Franz Tost, is the usual shock that any rookie will experience on the way to success in F1.
It was during this time that Yuki Tsunoda decided to move from Milton Keynes, England to Faenza, Italy, so that he might spend more time at the AlphaTauri factory.
Tsunoda himself admits that he used to spend a lot of time on the PlayStation 5 with “laziness.” Changes in the land in which he lived contributed to changing his approach, and as many of his ages did, he learned better how to take care of himself and manage his life.
“Yuki was shocked, lost confidence, and wondered,’Can I do this?’.’Is F1 too fast for me? Is it too complicated?'” All drivers. Same, but Yuuki was a great example. Max (Verstappen) also crashed in Monaco (2015), which is normal. “
“First of all, they have to understand what went wrong. That means a lot of analysis and discussions with engineers. Then I told Yuuki,’Look at the next race. Too much risk. Don’t make mistakes and don’t make mistakes. You can only get more experience with more laps, so drive anyway. “
“‘Drive anyway and regain your self-confidence. Then there’s no risk. Just aim for it.’ Then you’ll gradually regain your self-confidence. That’s exactly what happened to Yuuki. , He finished in 6th place in Budapest, largely due to his self-confidence. “
However, the turnaround did not come immediately, as he crashed on the first flying lap of qualifying at the F1 French GP and received two penalties across the white line of the pit entry at the F1 Austrian GP.
Franz Tost’s 6th place in F1 Hungary also showed how much Yuki Tsunoda had to grow, given that he was still far from Pierre Guthrie’s pace.
Nevertheless, Yuki Tsunoda made progress little by little, and although he had no points for five consecutive races following the summer vacation in August, he showed signs of progress. And, at the end of the season, he consistently advanced to qualifying Q3. Given the pace of AlphaTauri Honda, it may not be worth mentioning, but it showed that he was able to regain speed as a more consistent driver.
In the last two Grand Prix of the season at the F1 Saudi Arabian GP and the F1 Abu Dhabi GP, he reached Q3 with medium tires. It was something that mightn’t be achieved before.
Yuki Tsunoda cites the weekend of the F1 Turkish Grand Prix as a turning point for the season. That weekend, Kakuda reached Q3 and finished in 14th place by spinning on turn 9 on lap 21 when he was running 9th in the final and dropped to 14th place, but Lewis from the 2nd lap to the 5th lap in the early stages.・ He showed a run that suppressed Hamilton and contributed to the double podium of Honda F1.
“I think Turkey was a turning point for me,” says Yuki Tsunoda.
“The approach I took was different. After Turkey, I tried not to make big mistakes or hit the wall. That’s why the pace wasn’t good.”
“Immediately following consistently slowing down in a couple of races, I began to think that I had to push harder because results and pace are paramount in F1.”
“Also, one of the things that made it easier was to change the chassis. I replaced the chassis from Turkey, but it also felt much better in terms of control than the previous machine. In Saudi Arabia, the machine I was able to control the amount of snaps in the turkey. I don’t think the previous chassis might catch it. “
“The feel was quite different in terms of performance, so these two were turning points for me.”
Despite improvements late in the season, Yuki Tsunoda still has more work to do, which is just the foundation for further construction next year.
Franz Tost hopes that Yuki Tsunoda will apply the lessons of 2021 to the next season. It will also be needed to stay in F1 and Alpha Tauri for a long time.
“He knows more, but not all, so this year is a completely different story,” says Franz Tost.
“That’s why I say young drivers need at least three years to understand F1.”
“F1 is a lot more complicated than people think, and the level of drivers wasn’t as high as it used to be, which means it’s hard to get into it with a rookie. It’s really hard.”
There is no guarantee that AlphaTauri will be as competitive as last year in 2022 when a brand new F1 car will be introduced due to regulation changes. However, the team has a good standard for measuring themselves, Pierre Guthrie.
If Yuki Tsunoda can really maximize learning and fight as a much more complete driver from next year, it may be said that the day spoken of as a future Red Bull driver potential is not ridiculous.
Category: Category: F1 / Alpha Tauri
