Reflecting on his progress in 2022 in an interview given before the French Grand Prix, before the F1 summer break, Tsunoda gave himself a higher grade than the five or six he had given himself during the same period of his season since rookie, linking this improvement to the confidence that comes from experience.
“I think I was able to take advantage of last year’s experience,” he said. “I think knowing what I have to do, how I have to face every race weekend, is definitely an advantage over last year.”
“At the same time, last year I experienced pretty much everything, the worst things, but I was able to get back in the saddle. So yes. In most situations I managed to stay calm, not like last year. . This is the main difference “.
“Every race weekend I know what I have to do. This is the main goal, the most important thing. Last year I didn’t really know what to do, I just thought I had to do a good performance. But how? To do good performances in FP1, in every single session, it’s a different kind of work. These are things I didn’t think about. “
AlphaTauri’s technical director, Jody Egginton, agreed with Tsunoda’s assessment, pointing out the difference that has been made in one year in terms of Tsunoda’s work with the coaching staff.
“He is maturing and has a good relationship with his engineers,” Egginton said. “I sit down and talk to him and he’s forming an opinion on what he wants about the car. Which is good, because it means he’s starting to understand and he has an opinion on it.”
Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri AT03
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
In terms of points scored, Tsunoda is far from the 18 he had at this point last season. This time he is only 11, but he is philosophical about it, given the various reliability problems accused.
His teammate, the expert Pierre Gasly, suffered a much more sudden drop, for example: the Frenchman had 16 points on the farm, while last year he was even at 50 before the summer break.
“I am quite satisfied with what I have done in relation to the performance of the car,” said Tsunoda.
“I had a lot of reliability problems, we had them as a team I would say. In Saudi Arabia, for example, I didn’t drive in FP3, in qualifying and in the race.”
“In Bahrain I lost FP3. Pierre also lost FP3 in Barcelona. Besides, I was in P7 or P6 in Azerbaijan.”
The latter looked set to be his best performance of the season. After qualifying eighth, he was traveling in sixth position when he was forced to pit due to damage to the DRS.
“A lot has happened, but overall I’m still happy with what I’ve done,” Tsunoda said.
“I think that between Pierre and me there is not much difference in terms of points. Considering what I lost in Arabia and Azerbaijan, I should be aligned. Yes, I’m happy.”
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