Yuki Tsunoda is now into his third year at AlphaTauri and has already had the pleasure of being a team leader. This is because after Pierre Gasly left the team at the end of last season to join Alpine, the Japanese driver was the senior most in the side. Tsunoda led the team once rookie Nyck de Vries joined him at the start of this season. With the Dutchman barely having any experience in F1 as compared to Tsunoda, the 23-year-old believes he became a better driver as a result.
Tsunoda believes that having De Vries as a teammate helped him to focus on himself as he did not need to follow any other driver. At least, this was the case until Daniel Ricciardo joined the team by replacing the sacked De Vries.
HONDA創立75周年の日に日本のファン皆さんの前でレースが出来た事をとても嬉しく思います。
また、本当に沢山の声援を頂き、とても力になりました。ポイントを獲得する事は出来ませんでしたが、忘れられない特別なGPとなりました。 pic.twitter.com/8bRRm9ijBx— 角田裕毅/Yuki Tsunoda (@yukitsunoda07) September 25, 2023
However, Tsunoda lost the position of team leader for just two races as the Australian suffered a nasty injury during the Dutch GP weekend. AlphaTauri then replaced the 34-year-old with rookie Liam Lawson. With Tsunoda having had three teammates this year alone, he believes all this has helped him to become a better driver.
Yuki Tsunoda claims he is now more confident
While speaking in a recent interview with racefans.net, Yuki Tsunoda explained how he now feels more confident after attaining the position of team leader at the start of this season. The Japanese driver found himself in this position for most of this season as he was so far partnered with two rookies.
Speaking of how he enjoyed this challenge, Tsunoda said, “I’m not really looking at data from my teammates. Sometimes, obviously, I’m looking for it. But I’m mainly trying to discover what I can do without any data, just a comparison with other teams and how the other drivers are driving. I think, in the end, that’s the kind of things I need as a driver in the future anyway, so for me, it’s good training“.
Tsunoda then added that until last year when he was teammates with Pierre Gasly, he used the data from the Frenchman as a reference point to improve himself. However, now he has to think for himself where he can gain pace and where he is losing out. As a result of the same, the 23-year-old believes he is a far more responsible driver.
The Japanese driver now hopes to carry on his consistency and support his teammates wherever he can because of his experience with the AT04. As Tsunoda continues to gain more and more experience, he is also a candidate for Red Bull in the future.
Tsunoda is one of the candidates for Red Bull
Similarly to AlphaTauri teammate Daniel Ricciardo, Yuki Tsunoda has also made his intentions clear of wanting that second Red Bull seat sometime in the future. The Japanese driver revealed in an interview earlier this year about how he is aware that he needs to outperform Ricciardo if he is to make a case for himself to get that second Red Bull seat.
As quoted by soymotor.com, Tsunoda said, “The slower one will not make it to Red Bull“. The 23-year-old then added that he is well aware that the Australian is not the easiest driver to beat and that he will need to be at his absolute best to impress his bosses. However, his recent remarks in the interview he gave to racefan.net seem to suggest that he has been gaining more and more confidence as the season has progressed so far.
With Tsunoda having the responsibility of being a team leader, he has been able to get a better idea of his strengths and weaknesses to get the best out of himself this year. He has so far scored three of the five points for AlphaTauri, with rookie Liam Lawson scoring the other two.
