“Without That, I Won’t Be Here”: Yuki Tsunoda on His Excessive Swearing on Radio

Yuki Tsunoda is one of the most animated individuals in the paddock and sometimes his emotions have gotten the better of him. Whenever he felt overwhelmed, he would often swear on the radio, something his team also called him out for on multiple occasions.

With Tsunoda having worked on the same, he was able to manage his frustrations far better this season. Although he understands the importance of swearing less on the radio, the 24-year-old believes he would not have made it this far in motorsport if he had controlled his emotions early on in his career.

The Japanese driver basically believes that swearing was a way for him to express his emotions and reduce the weight of his chest. “My mindset was that I want to say loudly to kind of decrease my stress,” replied Tsunoda to ESPN’s Nate Saunders when asked how he deals with frustrations on the race track.

This approach worked for him as “without that, I won’t be here”, he added. However, with his team having told him to reduce his swearing on the radio, Tsunoda simply does not push the radio button any longer and just removes his frustrations in his helmet if he feels like it.

Tsunoda explains his change in approach

“It’s not all about yourself”, Tsunoda added in the interview to explain that since he now represents a team, he has far more responsibilities than just driving. Since every team has several sponsors, he needs to ensure that he maintains a good image.

The Japanese driver perhaps also decided to change his approach while expressing frustrations as several reports have claimed that the key reason why Red Bull have snubbed him so far is that they do not see him as a mature driver who can race with a calm mind.

One notable incident that highlighted the 24-year-old’s hot-headed behavior was the 2024 Bahrain GP. Driving alongside the experienced Daniel Ricciardo, Tsunoda was striving to score points for RB. In the closing stages of the race, the pit wall asked him to let Ricciardo through, who was in 13th behind him.

The #22 driver felt very angry about his team prioritizing his teammate, who was on faster tires. But, as even Ricciardo failed to score points, Tsunoda expressed his anger by almost crashing into the Aussie on the cooldown lap, a gesture that irked many and painted a bad picture of the Japanese prodigy.

Tsunoda credits Ricciardo for helping him become calmer

Despite that incident in Bahrain, Tsunoda and Ricciardo sorted things out to team up to do a good job for the Faenza outfit. The 24-year-old understood his mistake and the bigger picture of what the top brass at Milton Keynes expected from his demeanor.

Driving for a top team like Red Bull does not require racers to just have the raw speed but what is equally important is their temperament and ability to work with the rest of the people on the side. That is what Tsunoda learned during his time as a teammate with Ricciardo.

“When I look from an outside perspective, previously, even [though] my one lap or performance or my driving was okay, I think the radio communications, emotional control was lacking quite a lot – a big step when I compare to Daniel, for example,” Tsunoda explained in an interview with Autosport how his temperament was in comparison to the Australian former F1 driver.

Realizing “top teams are expecting a more complete driver,” Tsunoda worked hard on the same and improved his temperament massively this season. However, sadly for him, it was not enough for him to convince Red Bull’s top brass to give him that promotion to the main team. The Milton Keynes-based outfit instead decided to sign Liam Lawson, much to Tsunoda’s frustrations.