Tost: 'Tsunoda should be matured enough to give technical guidance in 2023'

Helmut Marko recently indicated that he sees in Nyck de Vries the team leader for AlphaTauri in 2023. Franz Tost tempers those expectations, stating that his team will probably have to lean on Yuki Tsunoda when it comes to the technical feedback of the AT04, especially in the first few months.

For a rookie, De Vries already did relatively many miles in various Formula 1 cars recently, but obviously he does not yet have much experience with full in Grand Prix weekends. Yuki Tsunona does. The Japanese driver will start his third season with AlphaTauri next season and at that point already has 44 GPs under his belt.

Tsunoda has more experience

The engineers at AlphaTauri are familiar with Tsunoda and vice versa, of course. Especially in the early days, the Faenza-based formation is likely to lean a bit more on Tsunoda. Tost: "The guidance of the team depends also on the performance of the car. If we have a good car, it’s easy for both drivers."

The Austrian team boss continued at Motorsportweek.com: “If we have problems in the car, then I think that it will not be so easy to sort out everything, because Nyck hasn’t so much Formula 1 experience, Yuki is still in a learning process – but I think that Yuki next year should be matured enough to give technical guidance."

Tost expects a lot from De Vries

However, according to Tost, that does not take away from the fact that he has high expectations of De Vries. What may speak in the Dutchman's favour is that over the years he has competed in several racing classes, such as Formula 2, Formula E and the WEC. In all those championships, he has won multiple races and even titles.