Yuki Tsunoda isn’t a fan of the grueling life of an F1 driver. After all, when he was asked about his lifelong dream, the Japanese driver stated how he wanted to open a restaurant of his own. Nevertheless, Tsunoda has to grind in the F1 world and make himself capable of becoming a champion driver someday.
When he joined the Red Bull stable and got the step up to AlphaTauri (now Racing Bulls) in 2021, Tsunoda wasn’t the finished product he is now. The experienced leaders and engineers at the Faenza-based team polished him like a rough diamond with some strict schedules and grooming programs.
His former team principal, Franz Tost, is well aware of the Japanese driver’s disciplinary issues as they encountered them back then, which is why they felt the need to design an organized plan for getting Tsunoda F1-ready.
Given the kind of emotional outbursts Tsunoda was prone to have, Tost felt it was important to groom his rough edges and get his “fragile” discipline in line. And the former AlphaTauri boss had quite the experience dealing with young drivers like Tsunoda, so he could draw from his past experience.
“You must be flexible, you must find out how to work together with these drivers, where are their strengths, where are their deficiencies?” he said on the Inside Line F1 podcast before revealing the “tight plan” they designed for Tsunoda.
Tsunoda had to have his breakfast at 7:30 in the morning at Faenza before his first gym session of the day for an hour and a half. Post that, the #22 driver had a meeting with his engineers before his lunchtime in the afternoon.
Following that, he also had to attend English lessons, as Tost stated that his English wasn’t good back then. Then came the second gym session in the evening before the Japanese driver went to bed early to cap off the day. Tost stated that this schedule had its effect on Tsunoda as he understood that, as an F1 driver, he needed to adopt such discipline in his life.
RB CashApp civil war for empty Sergio Perez’s seat in Red Bull 2025 already started.
– Tsunoda beaten Ricciardo in Quali & Race
– RB ordered Tsunoda on HARDS to let Ricciardo trough by team orders
– Ricciardo on SOFTS gained nothing, KMAG increased the gap
– Tsunoda was angry… pic.twitter.com/XHN4qnDeUx— Maxx | F1newsletter.com (@F1_Newsletter) March 2, 2024
Over the past two years, the 24-year-old has also gained control over his anger in the cockpit. While he was prone to losing his cool during a battle or a tense situation during races, Tsunoda feels that being teammates with Daniel Ricciardo helped him develop some composure, and his emotional outbursts have reduced since then.
Despite this improvement, along with the performance step-up he took over the past season or so, Tsunoda lost out on the Red Bull seat for the 2025 season initially. It was only due to Liam Lawson’s severe underperformance that the Japanese driver got the chance to race for the Milton Keynes outfit.
Now, Tsunoda needs to implement all the learnings he has gathered and the discipline he has developed to ensure that he retains his Red Bull seat for the long term.
