Playing video games and scoffing UberEats, Yuki Tsunoda admits why he had to turn his lazy, lifestyle around.

Hailed as F1's - certainly Japan's - next big thing, much was expected of Yuki Tsunoda when signed by AlphaTauri to partner Pierre Gasly.

Pre-season testing form suggested he was going to enter the sport with a bang, unfortunately, despite an impressive debut in Bahrain, all too often it was the wrong kind of bang.

A run of poor performances and needless incidents forced the Faenz-based outfit to take action. However, somewhat surprisingly for team not known for its patience, rather than the Japanese youngster, they moved him to Italy in order that they could oversee his development and training at close hand.

The youngster admits that this was just what was needed, for left to his own devices in the UK, he spent his time doing what other young men of his age tend to do.

"Last year, especially the first half of the season, I was taking pretty much every day Uber Eats for breakfast, lunch, and dinner," he admits. "One hand on the game controller, one hand just food. It was literally really bad."

Other than those numerous incidents, his Damascene moment came when he looked at team boss, Franz Tost, who, though 66, enjoys a strict fitness regime.

"He's running like, I don't know, 10km from 05:30, which I've never done in my life," admits Tsunoda. "That's how he's training every day, how much he's spending on training, I got really impressed. I don't know how old he is, like 60-years-old,, so I think I should do... especially as I'm an athlete.

"Especially after I moved to Faenza, tried to change my mind," he continues. "Last year, I felt fitness was kind of a limitation.

"Now we focus about fitness. Completely different schedule compared to previous, how I spend the off-season and feel much better.

"I already felt improvement in Barcelona. I think hopefully I'm in good shape now."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Defiant, 15/03/2022 21:00

"I think that there is a great deal of young guys that would slip into this behaviour, and quite a few supposedly wiser and older gentlemen too, so I wouldn't bash him for it.
Hopefully he's learned a lesson and improves this season to deliver what I had been duped and hyped up to believe he would last year.
I'm pretty surprised that AT and RB actually gave him the time to do this. Although I'd be pretty sure keeping Honda sweet was the motivation in doing so, it'd be nice to see the team be a little less ruthless."

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2. Posted by BillH, 15/03/2022 18:02

"Just watched the DTS episode about this.
Hilarious part is Liam Lawson trying to help Tusunoda find some clean clothes to wear and asking when the laundry was last done.
As Tost said in the same episode, there is two phases in an F1 driver's career: Getting to F1, then staying in F1.
Hopefully this young fellow has got his act together and has a much improved season.
Otherwise, there is the likes of Lawson waiting in the wings."

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3. Posted by ian_w, 15/03/2022 5:39

"It's almost as if he had a billionaire daddy that essentially bought into an F1 team so his spoiled brat kid had something to other than play video games and UberEat all day. No, wait ..."

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4. Posted by Burton, 15/03/2022 5:09

"Single, adult man in 'does wtf he wants to' shocker :p"

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5. Posted by Superbird70, 14/03/2022 15:59

"Follow the Honda $$$."

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6. Posted by Max Noble, 14/03/2022 13:32

"Words fail…"

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Tsunoda admits "it was really bad"

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