“I’m not afraid to make mistakes”- Yuki Tsunoda on his rookie F1 season

“I’m not afraid to make mistakes”- Yuki Tsunoda on his rookie F1 season with Alpha Tauri in 2021, with Red Bull confident of his capabilities.

Yuki Tsunoda only spent a season in Formula 2 before making his big move to the top-flight competition. Red Bull, impressed by his P3 result on the final standings, convinced them to give him a chance in Formula 1.

Replacing Daniil Kvyat, the Japanese race driver would be pairing Pierre Gasly. Speaking ahead of his debut with Alpha Tauri, he says he is not afraid of making mistakes.

“This will be my rookie season, and I will be pushing hard right from the beginning to adapt to the car as much as possible,” he said in an interview published by his Faenza team.

“However, I’m not afraid to make mistakes – I will, of course, try and limit them – but they are inevitable at the beginning. I am confident I can learn from my mistakes, though, as I proved last year in Formula 2.”

“I am thrilled to have the support of Japanese fans, and I’m proud to be the one to bring another Japanese driver on the grid, after Kamui Kobayashi in 2014.”

“As for the pressure, I put it on myself, so nothing changes in that regard for me – I want to push myself to succeed…”

Maybe don’t distract yourself.

While doing a swift climb from various tiers of competitions before reaching F1, Tsunoda had an incredible journey, when asked what advice he would give his younger self, who is yet to start his motorsport career.

“I would say, to start putting all your energy into racing earlier than I did, without being distracted by other things. Until I was 16, I was not that excited about racing. I don’t mean I didn’t like it, but I didn’t put as much effort in as I should have done,” he said.

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.

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