“I would like to fight Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso”- Yuki Tsunoda on his F1 debut aspirations

“I would like to fight Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso”- Yuki Tsunoda on his wishlist ahead of his F1 debut.

Yuki Tsunoda is set to make his debut in Formula 1 in 2021 with Alpha Taur, rising through the ranks of Red Bull’s academy, the Japanese impressed his bosses by performing incredibly in F2 last season.

Now, with his debut race going to be in Australia, Tsunoda is excited to compete against the drivers, who he a few years ago admired from the stands, as confessed by the 20-year-old.

“I only thought about F1 when I started racing in Formula 3. Until then I was only thinking about taking the next step, and F1 was too far away,” said the 20-year-old newcomer to Autosport Web.

Regardless of his development stages, Tsunoda said that he always admired drivers like Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, against whom he will compete in less than three months. “I would like to fight Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso,” he said

When asked which driver he uses as an example. “But especially Hamilton and Alonso. I saw them racing on the Fuji Speedway when I was seven or eight years old. I am very happy to be able to race against those drivers now.”

Red Bull future is still far

With Tsunoda being the latest entry in Red Bull candidates in F1, his contention to claim a Red Bull seat will be last as of now, with Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon already standing in the queue behind Sergio Perez now.

But at the same time, Tsunoda has at least two years in his name before he needs to make any claim to that seat, so for now, he can only focus at developing himself at the secondary team of the Austrian side.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

Read More