Yuki Tsunoda Divulges in Plans to Match AlphaTauri Teammate Pierre Gasly in Upcoming Season

Yuki Tsunoda recently opened up on his plans for the new season. The AlphaTauri driver revealed that he needs to catch up on his teammate Pierre Gasly, who massively outperformed Yuki in terms of performance last season.

This will be Tsunoda’s second year at AlphaTauri. The Japanese will once again drive alongside Frenchman Pierre Gasly. However, Yuki is determined to check on his performance this year and catch up on Gasly.

Talking about his plans, the 21-year-old driver conveyed, “I needed to work harder, especially compared with my team-mate [Pierre Gasly], who was training really hard, and I know how strong he is and how his physical performance affected the driving as well.”

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“I realised quite late that I have to increase. I thought at certain points before the season started that it was enough. That’s why I’ve been preparing a lot compared to last year to avoid that situation. And also to prepare for the new cars and where I’m going to feel tired may be different compared to last year,” stated the former F2 driver.

How did Yuki Tsunoda fare in the 2021 season?

Yuki joined AlphaTauri in 2021 as a rookie. He replaced Russian driver Daniil Kvyat and made his debut with Pierre Gasly. As of now, the Japanese have 22 race starts under his belt with no wins or podium places to talk about.

The best finish for Yuki came in the much controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The rookie finished the race in P4, just ahead of Pierre Gasly, who finished in P5. The youngster picked up 12 points from that race and finished the season with 32 points overall.

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Despite showing decent performances last year as a rookie, Tsunoda finished in P14. This was pretty low as compared to his teammate who finished in P9 with 110 points. However, with 2021 a distant past now, the Japanese is hopeful of a better 2022 season. As AlphaTauri retained both the drivers, it’ll be exciting to see if the duo can perform better than last season.