Yuki Tsunoda says he must “definitely reduce” mistakes like his accident in Singapore and the previous series of penalties to lead AlphaTauri in Formula 1 next year.
Tsunoda will join AlphaTauri in 2023 as the more experienced driver after long-time team-mate Pierre Gasly announced his departure from the Italian team with his move to Alpine over the weekend of the Japanese Grand Prix.
Gasly will be replaced by Nyck de Vries, who has won both Formula 2 and Formula E titles and made his Formula 1 debut at Monza in September as a late replacement for Alex Albon at Williams. Tsunoda has shown highlights during his time at AlphaTauri and made good progress in his second season in 2022, but he has also struggled with consistency.
Tsunoda: Mistakes and penalties ‘are unnecessary’
The Japanese has been open about having to learn from Gasly, saying in Suzuka that he believes there are still “some things” he wants to learn from his outgoing team-mate in their last races together at AlphaTauri.
“Surely I definitely need to reduce the kind of mistakes I made in Singapore and other things like the penalties,” said the Japanese. “These things are unnecessary. These are things I definitely need to improve on, but at the same time I’m quite happy with the pace, especially on one lap, and I’ve made good progress so far. So I’ll keep that momentum going into next year. “
AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost has already spoken about Tsunoda having to get his emotions under control after his driver received a grid penalty at Monza for too many warnings. Since the introduction of this rule, no one before Tsunoda has managed to do it.
No points since Barcelona: Tsunoda wants to get back into rhythm
The Japanese has also not scored a single point since the Spanish Grand Prix in May, but AlphaTauri had trouble keeping up with the other midfield teams during this time and slipped to ninth place in the constructors’ championship.
Tsunoda says he’s keen to get back to “a good rhythm like I had in the first half of the season” in the final few races to head into winter on a high.
“It will probably be a good opportunity to get back into the rhythm,” he adds. “But I think I’m still learning, and [es gibt] a lot of things to learn, but I seem to have quite a bit of confidence to do it.”