“I was just a lazy b*stard” – Yuki Tsunoda reveals that his mid-season move to Italy helped him improve his performance

Yuki Tsunoda revealed that his AlphaTauri team’s idea to move him to Italy helped him improve his degrading performance.

The AlphaTauri team ordered the Japanese rookie to set up home close to their Faenza base instead of England. This switch was designed to enable Yuki Tsunoda to work closely with the team principal Franz Tost and the engineers.

The decision was made after the 21-year-old failed to deliver on his initial promise. He scored points in his debut in Bahrain but later on failed to evolve into consistent performance.

18-inch tires pic.twitter.com/kex49jRlNc

— 角田裕毅/Yuki Tsunoda (@yukitsunoda07) December 15, 2021

Later on, the team said that they were happy with how Tsunoda’s shift to Italy was working out. The Japanese racing driver did not have as much productivity as many had expected. He suffered more than his share of crashes but still managed to finish the 2021 season with fourth place in Abu Dhabi.

He himself admitted that the shift to Italy got him into better, more professional habits than before.

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Yuki Tsunoda needs improvement in physical conditioning

On his move to the Faenza base, Tsunoda said that it helped in terms of preparations. Earlier, as he approached the race weekend, he was unprepared and was just starting to get ready for the race but it was too late.

He said, “before coming to Italy I was just a lazy b*stard. After training I would go straight home, turn on my PlayStation 5 and play all day, just trying to have fun.”

“Comparing myself to other drivers as well, I thought about it and prepared a lot more. I am a rookie and I needed more preparation than the more experienced drivers, and I think I’ve done some useful things since then,” he further added.

Furthermore, an area where Tsunoda feels he needs improvement is his physical conditioning. For that reason, he will not indulge himself too much during the off-season.

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