“I’m having a really special pedal kit”- Alpha Tauri doing best to make Yuki Tsunoda comfortable

“I’m having a really special pedal kit”- Alpha Tauri is doing its best to customize Yuki Tsunoda’s car as per his physical traits.

Suiting a Formula 1 car according to your size is an essential aspect; ask George Russell, who stands six feet and an inch tall and was tightly packed in Lewis Hamilton’s car for a one-off race; he also had to wear shoes which were not of his size.

But in Alpha Tauri‘s situation, it is the opposite case, Yuki Tsunoda, at 5.2 feet, is probably the shortest driver on the grid this year, and he revealed that how his team is customizing the car to keep him at ease while competing.

“For the pedals, I’m having a really special pedal kit,” he is quoted by GPFans. “Compared to Pierre [Gasly], there is a lot of difference for height, so that is why they are trying to make a really different way for the pedals.”

Rough couple of days

Apart from the pedal problem, Tsunoda had other issues with the car, which troubled him till Saturday, like running into a fuel system issue that restricted him to 37 laps on Friday, and then a gearbox issue on Saturday.

“The first day, it was quite a big issue which was the fuel tank system, and I had to stop the session; we decided after 37 laps it was a day,” he recalled.

“[Day two] was also, not from the engine, but gearbox, pedals and also a little bit engine when I was doing push laps. So there was a couple of issues.”

But on the final day of the pre-season testing, Tsunoda came out from his garage with a blistering pace, dumbfounding everyone over his calibre. Both Alpha Tauris looked extremely good over the weekends, and they seem to have contention for a higher finish in 2021.

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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