12/02/2023
NEWS STORY
Ahead of his third season in F1, Franz Tost has warned Yuki Tsunoda that he must raise his game if he is to retain his seat at AlphaTauri.
The Faenza team, like its 'big sister' has a notorious reputation for its lack of patience, as the likes of Scott Speed, Brendon Hartley and many more will readily attest.
Therefore, Tsunoda would do well to heed Tost's warning ahead of his third season in the sport.
Scoring points (9th) in his maiden race set an impossibly high benchmark for the youngster, who came into F1 with a reputation as a skilled, fast driver.
Though he scored some good results in his maiden season, the team was concerned at his lack of commitment and failure to train and as a result had him move to Italy to be closer to the factory and thereby under the watchful eye of his team boss.
The shortcomings of the AT03 were always going to make things difficult for the youngster in his second season, but his lack of consistency, the accidents and his 'excitable' nature didn't help.
Now, Tost has set out a clear warning.
"He is a very highly-skilled driver," says the Austrian, "and now has a lot of experience with two seasons in F1. For this reason of course he has to score many more points.
"Last year Yuki struggled with the car," he admits. "This year, as I expect we will have quite a competitive car, Yuki must always aim to be in Q3 and finish the races in the points."
Scoring 12 points to teammate Pierre Gasly's 23, Tsunoda only made it to Q3 on 5 occasions while his teammate made it 6 times.
Determined not to fail, Tsunoda is to team up with Daniel Ricciardo's former coach, Michael Italiano and to this end has already spent a couple of weeks training with him in Dubai.
"I was there for two weeks, working on my general fitness and the time was also important to get to know my new coach, who used to work with Ricciardo," said Tsunoda. "One of the main targets of the camp was to build our relationship so that we understand one another before testing and racing begins. That went well and so did the actual training, where we focused mainly on the endurance side."
The move to Italy also allowed Tsunoda to spend more time at the team's factory, where he was able to get more involved with his engineers.
"I have kept the good aspects of my first year, but now I am definitely more in control, more involved with the team when it comes to the development of the car," says the youngster.
"I also act differently," he continues, "having learned lots of things, not just when it comes to racing but also in my life away from the track. Even that has a positive effect in how I race.
"I had underestimated what was involved," he admits. "But now I've figured out the things that are really important.
"My main goal is to perform more consistently in every race, independently from the car's performance, and to score points more consistently. I want to be more in control of myself at all times, work well with the team, understand the car as quickly as possible, right from the first race in Bahrain.
"I want this year to be my best performance of the three years in terms of getting to Q3 and scoring points."
Of course, adding to the pressure is the fact that following the departure of Gasly, Tsunoda is the de facto team leader as he is joined by rookie Nyck de Vries.
"Nyck was also training in Dubai so we got the opportunity to spend a little bit of time together," he says. "We knew each other before then from past years. We already have a good relationship, and we will build more on that now as teammates this season.
"I think together we make a strong pairing, with the aim of helping the team progress this year. I also believe I can learn things from Nyck."
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